For bacon lovers, and cooking meat ideas

Favorite meat to do over flame


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Brian77

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Bacon comes up in conversations and discussions related to camping and spending time outdoors, quite a bit. I enjoy meat and cooking meat. And outdoor cooking. And bacon goes with a lot of other things very well.

I also put this in the Becker forum, because I know they love bacon...

The potatoes shown are loaded with bacon and cheese. They are a crowd favorite.

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I also like my bacon thick. THICK! And it's not always available in the store when we want it for cooking outdoors, or inside. So when I saw a post by someone, in which they were camping, and had a side of bacon, and could slice off a chunk as thick as they pleased, I was very intrigued. Our grandparents and great grandparents had smokehouses, and when they needed bacon, they would go to the smokehouse, and cut off a slab of meat or bacon. I wanted to be able to do that. And now that we have, it is fun. The children love it, and visitors are amazed when I say how much bacon do you want, and how thick do you want it. A bacon "steak" is fun to fry.

We butcher our own deer, waterfowl, and lamb, but I had never helped with hogs. We now are raising 2 hogs for fall butchering. In the mean time, I found a local meat market that would sell me the whole pork belly. That is the part of the hog, that bacon comes from. It does not become "bacon" until it is smoked or seasoned.

I am working on my recipe, and the first pork belly we did turned out very delicious. And the best part? Being able to slice off slabs of bacon that are 3/8" and 1/2" thick. If you desire traditional thin bacon, then this process is probably not as attractive for you, unless you have a power slicer. Getting to use great knives to carve off big slabs of awesome smelling bacon is so much fun. I will update this showing a CPK knife slicing off chunks once the curing is done.

Pork bellies can be purchased at about 12 to 14 lbs each. And the cost is about 2.00 per lb, give or take some based on availability and location. Cheaper purchased directly from a butcher shop.

The first pic is 2 pork belly's ready to immerse into the brine recipe for curing.
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The next 2 are 1/2" thick bacon frying n a large pan.
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The recipe I am using uses 3 to 4 gallons of water, Morton Quick Cure Salt, Applewood liquid smoke, light brown sugar, Garlic salt, Onion powder, and some other seasoning. The pork bellies are immersed in a tub for a week, and turned every other day.

Once cured, they are taken out, patted dry, rubbed with more seasoning, and then frozen in packages. Size is based on preference.

Does anyone else cure their own bacon? Do you smoke it? Is anyone willing to share some recipe tips for wet curing bacon? I would love to get some more tips from experienced people.

Thanks...
 
I would love to visit down under. Maybe we can bring some along some day.
 
That potatoe cheese and bacon
Wrapped up in a fresh tortilla with
Either some red or green chile the
Real stuff (look up New Mexico red
And green chile to see what I mean !)
Would hit the spot any time of day
I may end up doing breakfast for
Dinner tonight!

Frank
 
Welp, this ends my forum reading for a bit. My mouth is now watering from the 1/2" bacon pics!
 
We do some thick bacon here up North, but it's pretty readily available at nearly any deli or meat shop so we don't do any of it ourself. It's my second favourite, Applewood smoked thick sliced that is.

My first favourite is a smoked jerkey that comes out of the smoker at noon daily at a local shop here. It's to die for.
 
OMG...I am hungry now. :eek:

Great info on the pork bellies. Do you keep track of how much you add in spices? Also, what is the recipe for those potatoes, if you will share?
 
OMG...I am hungry now. :eek:

Great info on the pork bellies. Do you keep track of how much you add in spices? Also, what is the recipe for those potatoes, if you will share?


For the potatoes, we prefer Yellow Gold, or Honey Gold potatoes. New Potatoes are excellent also. Regular Idaho potatoes are okay, but take slightly longer, and lack quite the full flavor.

Got a large or jumbo large skillet. We use cast iron. The one pictured is a 14" and we love it. It's huge. We sometimes slice the potatoes, or cube them. We marinate the potatoes overnight or several hours, and use in Olive oil, Hidden Valley Ranch dip powder mix and green onions. Shake them occasionally.

We slice up the bacon into 3/4" or 1" pcs. if using regular sliced bacon. If using our own, then sometimes make bacon chunks about large marble size. I get a stable bed of coals, and put the bacon in the pan. A lid will speed up the process significantly.

I fry the bacon until it's just about crispy, and the pan builds up a good bed of grease. I then take the bacon out, and put it in something, and keep it warm. I then put the prepared potatoes in the bacon grease. Drain off the water and marinade first or it will flood the pan, and splash out hot grease.

Simmer / fry the [potatoes in the bacon grease until they are soft, or to your preference. You may need to add oil if the heat is to high. As they approach being finished, we add the bacon pcs back on, and lots of shredded cheese. Put the lid back on, and move your pan further away from the heat. We then serve from the pan. We add season salt, and also sometimes fresh onions.

For the bacon... (this is a recipe I was given from the meat market) I am not experienced, and I am having fun making some changes, and I am looking for more ideas. This is very delicious, and I am sure it will get better.

3 gallons of water will usually cover 2 pork bellies. If you pan is sized correctly.

1 cup of Mortons Tender Quik salt
Applewood Liquid smoke 4 oz.
Anywhere from 2 cups to 1 lbs light brown sugar (your preference)

1/2 bottle garlic salt (3 oz)

1/2 bottle onion powder (3 oz)

tablespoon season salt (optional)
table spoon garlic powder (optional)
 
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For the potatoes, we prefer Yellow Gold, or Honey Gold potatoes. New Potatoes are excellent also. Regular Idaho potatoes are okay, but take slightly longer, and lack quite the full flavor.

Got a large or jumbo large skillet. We use cast iron. The one pictured is a 14" and we love it. It's huge. We sometimes slice the potatoes, or cube them. We marinate the potatoes overnight or several hours, and use in Olive oil, Hidden Valley Ranch dip powder mix and green onions. Shake them occasionally.

We slice up the bacon into 3/4" or 1" pcs. if using regular sliced bacon. If using our own, then sometimes make bacon chunks about large marble size. I get a stable bed of coals, and put the bacon in the pan. A lid will speed up the process significantly.

I fry the bacon until it's just about crispy, and the pan builds up a good bed of grease. I then take the bacon out, and put it in something, and keep it warm. I then put the prepared potatoes in the bacon grease. Drain off the water and marinade first or it will flood the pan, and splash out hot grease.

Simmer / fry the [potatoes in the bacon grease until they are soft, or to your preference. You may need to add oil if the heat is to high. As they approach being finished, we add the bacon pcs back on, and lots of shredded cheese. Put the lid back on, and move your pan further away from the heat. We then serve from the pan. We add season salt, and also sometimes fresh onions.

For the bacon... (this is a recipe I was given from the meat market) I am not experienced, and I am having fun making some changes, and I am looking for more ideas. This is very delicious, and I am sure it will get better.

3 gallons of water will usually cover 2 pork bellies. If you pan is sized correctly.

1 cup of Mortons Tender Quik salt
Applewood Liquid smoke 4 oz.
Anywhere from 2 cups to 1 lbs light brown sugar (your preference)

1/2 bottle garlic salt (3 oz)

1/2 bottle onion powder (3 oz)

tablespoon season salt (optional)
table spoon garlic powder (optional)

Awesome, thank you! I am definitely going to give this a whirl! :thumbup:
 
I love cooking bacon outdoors over a nice fire...
It adds to the taste I find !
[video=youtube;0ibZWrKok-0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ibZWrKok-0[/video]
 
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Everything's better with bacon. Great video. You made it all look effortless.
 
A breaking development... check out this thread for details. I would love to have some CPK people to our place for this gathering. Nathan, you and Jo can come, but only if it does not slow down knives being made for Blade Show!

http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/s...r”-for-outdoors-and-knife-people-May-18-19-20

Let me know if any of you are close enough, and wish to come. I will have a pork belly there seasoned, and you can cut your own slab for breakfast if you have a CPK knife! :D

Brian
 
That sounds very cool Brian. You guys will have a great time I bet. Wish I was closer.
 
I actually tried my hand at a bacon cure a few weeks ago. I'm a fan of sweet things. So, brown sugar, and salt. That's it. 3:1 ratio. Slapped it right on the belly, and into a food saver bag it went. Then, I filled the bag with more brown sugar and salt mixture. I tried my best to get it covered evenly, but it didn't really matter in the end.

Over week, I turned it over in my refrigerator every night before bed. It became very liquidy, and eventually turned into a wet cure anyhow, Wich is why the consistency of the dry coating didnt matter.

Once i could wait no longer, out it came. It was patted dry and put on a cookie cooling rack over a tray to let it dry out a bit more.

It was like eating salty fatty candy meat. Not for everyone, but perfect for me.

Next time, I'd like to have a setup where I put the belly and rub in a covered bucket in a refrigerated area. This way, liquid can be poured out and new run added daily. I think this will add to the firmness of the. Final product, and overall make a more delicious treat.

Thanks for this thread. Surely subscribed!

Eta! Here's a picture of my creation cubed up and cooking nicely, waiting for eggs! Yummy!

 
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Looks good. I have 2 bellies in the fridge drying now. Ready to slice and freeze on Saturday.

Sent from my LG-H820 using Tapatalk
 
Here they are. Sliced and ready for the freezer. I wish CPK had a "meat slicer. It takes a pretty big knife to effectively slice this. I don't have a Nathan "potato" knife yet. If I had a racing LC I would have tried that.

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