We have finally gotten our small smoker working, it was built from an old wine barrel and placed up on some blocks to allow room for a fire. I had to drill a number of 1 1/2" holes in the roof of the barrel in order to keep the temp low enough and we added a small hole to put a meat thermometer into so we could keep an eye on the temp. To hang the meat a friends daughter Becca helped me forge out some meat hooks that fasten to the roof of the barrel and the bacon hangs freely from the hooks. The overall cost of the smoker was around $0, a broken wine barrel for free and everything else I just had laying around the homestead. I start the smoking process by building a small fire and letting it burn down to coals. While that is burning I crawl inside the barrel and hang the meat on the hooks. In the future I will be adding a door to the smoker. Once the fire has burned down to coals I pick up the barrel and place it over the fire on the blocks and then add hard wood (elm and oak) that has been soaked in water over night to the fire and let the smoking begin. I have to keep an eye on the temp as we are trying to cold smoke our bacon and so you don't want to let the temp go over about 200 deg. When the temp rises up near the 200 deg mark I throw a ladle of water on the fire to drop down the temp and slow the fire. It is not the end of the world if the temp gets up over 200 but then you risk going into a hot smoked bacon which will not keep as long according to some sources (others disagree) but is also very good.
Rosie cured the bacon in a mix of salt, honey and let it sit in that mixture for about 1-3 weeks. Our friend Lisa brought us a couple of infused honeys to try including basil infused clover honey and tarragon infused sage honey, both are very very good. Make sure the the meat is entirely cover with the cure for an even cure and don't be temped to reuse your cure as the salt will be pulled our of the cure as it cures as the moisture exits so the left over cure is pretty useless. When you are curing your meat that is the time to add any spices or herbs to flavor your bacon if you want a more savory or sweet flavor.
The image on the top is the bacon after curing but before smoking, the next image is the bacon after the smoking but before the noming.
Three comments: 1. I'm trying for an even lower smoke temperature; 2. The controller fan will help with this and 3. If you put the bacon in the freezer for 20 minutes the fat sets up and it's easy to slice thinner.
ReplyDeleteI've got 2 slabs about to go from salt cure to water soak (pull some salt out) then get smoked, and 3 slabs of beef going in for corning today. Pastrami!
Plus, cooked a chicken last night. OMG good. Free range is $2.50 a pound, running around in the yard organic at the farmers market is $6.50 a pound, I'd like to increase the # of chickens to 10, if that's possible.
Mmmm!
Oh, btw, did you let it sit for 8 hours out of cure to develop the pellicle?
ReplyDeleteWe did not let it sit after the cure, most sources we found just said to air dry then smoke but we would like to hear more about other methods.
ReplyDeleteYes we can increase the chicken numbers to 10 with out much trouble. $6.50 a lb is nuts! Our Jersey Giants run about 10 lbs dressed and I can not imagine a $70 chicken!