Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 (redeployed due to unforeseen green goo accident wiping the servers) Sick of not being able to get decent bacon I've decided to make my own. Bought a 1kg pork loin and a bunch of curing salts and have mixed em altogether and given that porker a good rubbing!! Hopefully by next Monday I can post pics of REAL, BONA FIDE Bacon born and made in Japan. I just made a Roast chicken with sweet potatoes, carrots garlic and red onion gravy.....probably the greatest thing I have ever cooked!! **Thanx guys! Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Where did you get the meat from? Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 Chased and caught a pig! Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted June 18, 2012 Share Posted June 18, 2012 You have to tell us how it goes Link to post Share on other sites
scouser 4 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Good luck Tubby. I like me a bit of bacon. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 19, 2012 Author Share Posted June 19, 2012 just from the Meat Guy......this time. If its a decent success, theres a farmer in Fujisawa (Miyaji Pork) that sells direct from field to plate, so I'm gonna go track him down and buy a slab of pork from him Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted June 19, 2012 Share Posted June 19, 2012 Any chance you could post a blog about it? Would be interested in making some of my own sometime... Link to post Share on other sites
BagOfCrisps 24 Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 That would be a good View from the Lodge or whatever you called it. Let's bacon! Remember the ketchup, granary bread with bits in it, butter and a touch of mustard. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 20, 2012 Author Share Posted June 20, 2012 no ketchup.....has to be brown sauce!! Thing is though, nothing much happens to blog about!! I rubbed the salt on and then you leave it for a week, turning it every day and then its done!! I'll def post pics of the finished article though. Maybe my next batch, when I actually smoke it, will be a better blog Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 Doesn't matter = post pics or the bacon doesn't exist! Link to post Share on other sites
pie-eater 207 Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 That applies to your summer beer as well, you know. 1 Link to post Share on other sites
RobBright 35 Posted June 20, 2012 Share Posted June 20, 2012 That applies to your summer beer as well, you know. We both know that exists. There has been past evidence of it as well. Link to post Share on other sites
Thunderbird2 0 Posted June 21, 2012 Share Posted June 21, 2012 I miss a good gammon steak as well. Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 the bacon has borne fruit.....so to speak...... Now I dunno about you, but to me thats a sight for sore eyes!! This is the unsmoked, basic cure version and only the taste will tell, but it sure looks the part. I'm away to have a nice sandwich now. Link to post Share on other sites
griller 9 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Get it under the grill! Link to post Share on other sites
oblivion 5 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 Ready to eat? Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 well it should be smoked, unfortunately I don't have anywhere set up to do that, so just now its a low roast, then wrap and freeze overnight before slicing. I DID cut a slice fresh off to see what it tasted like and it tasted good. Definitely bacony and not porky, which is what I got when I bought "back bacon" from the Meat Guy Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted June 26, 2012 Author Share Posted June 26, 2012 had a bacon butty for breakfast.....mmm....mmm....mmm!! Nice thick cut bacon, proper meaty taste hardly any withering away in the pan. I don't think I'll be buying shop bacon again Link to post Share on other sites
Chriselle 158 Posted June 26, 2012 Share Posted June 26, 2012 There are plenty of wild boar down here in Izu. I've heard they are pretty good when in season. Mmmm....wild bacon. Link to post Share on other sites
big-will 7 Posted June 27, 2012 Share Posted June 27, 2012 had a bacon butty for breakfast.....mmm....mmm....mmm!! Nice thick cut bacon, proper meaty taste hardly any withering away in the pan. I don't think I'll be buying shop bacon again Ii ne! Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted July 1, 2012 Author Share Posted July 1, 2012 Ok, so making bacon is VERY easy...... step 1 is buying your meat. You can buy a pork loin from the supermarket if you want or do what I did and got one from The MeatGuy, BUT if you happen to know of a local pig farm, it'd of course be much better to buy direct from him. I was wanting to make back bacon, so I used pork loin without the bone......if you want to make yank-style/streaky then you need to get hold of a pork belly. Either way the method is the same. I started with a manageable 1kg block, but thats the minimum size I'd do, you'll be surprised at how that block gets eaten away once you set eyes on the end product!! Step 2: Once you've decided on your meat then its time for the cure. There are 2 types of cure, dry and wet......I went with a dry cure. What you need for the dry cure is some regular salt, brown sugar, any fresh herbs you wanna throw in and some black peppercorns. Now some recipes use nitrites and some don't, I personally DID use nitrites.......its what makes the bacon that pink colour and also adds to the bacon taste that we all know and love. I sent away for a bag of Prague #1 Insta Cure powder......there are a lot on the market, specifically used in curing bacon and sausages. You only use a tiny amount, this helps keep any microbial action to a zero, so health wise there is nothing to fear. If you don't use nitrites then the bacon won't keep as long and will also turn a browny-grey color as the meat ages......this is natural and there is nothing wrong with that. Also the taste is more porky than bacony. So all things considered I decided to use nitrites. For my 1kg pork loin I used: 18.5g Rock salt (ground up), a teaspoon of Prague #1 powder, 10g of brown sugar, as much black peppercorns as you want and I added some thyme to the mix as well. Mix all the cure together Step 3: Rub in the cure. To do this I placed my pork in a large ziploc freezer bag and then poured in the cure. I then massaged the cure into the meat through the bag sos none of the cure would be lost. Make sure you rub all sides of the pork getting it into any nooks and crannies that may be in the meat. Seal the freezer bag (I also put it into a regular carrier bag just in case any brine leaked out.....it didn't) and place in your fridge, fat side up. Thats it almost done! All you have to do now is make sure you turn the pork over once a day, so that all the briny liquid that comes out due to the salts reverse osmotic action on the meat gets to cover all sides of the meat. Do this for 7 days. Step 4: After 7 days, take your newly formed bacon out of the bag and rinse all the cure off the meat. Use cold water to do this. Pat it dry with paper towels using a clean dishcloth cover and leave to dry. The picture I posted is when the bacon is at this stage. Slice of a bit and fry it up to see how salty it is.....if its too salty then its ok cos you can soak it in cold water for an hour or so to reduce the salt content. Now this is where you have a choice to smoke it......I didn't. So, because I wasn't smoking mines, I decided to do a low heat roast until the internal temperature reached about 65 degrees C or 150 degrees F. This took about an hour in my oven that was preheated to 100 C. After this is done, leave it to cool, then refrigerate it. Its easier to slice when its been in the fridge. Now some musings from me, after this slow roast the meat takes on a ham look.......I thought I'd messed it up as it didn't look like bacon you'd get from a butcher back home (i.e. red raw looking, it was pink-ham looking).......so I actually think that you don't need to roast it like this and some recipes I read don't mention low heat roasting. BUT actually when I sliced and cooked the bacon it was perfect, so I guess you need to decide. My bacon was pink and had that crumbly look to it when you sliced/bit into it. IF you want to smoke it, then theres another step to do..........when you've taken it from the ziploc bag and washed the cure off, you have to leave it in the fridge for 24hrs. It should start to get a shiny, waxy complexion.....this is good apparently because the slight moisture helps the smoke to adhere to the meat better. The idea is the same as low heat roast, smoke until the internal temp of the meat is about 65 C, then take it out and follow the same steps as above. I sliced my joint up into 4 rasher "sandwich packs", wrapped em in cling film and stored them in the freezer. they cooked up like this damn bloody good bacon! easy peasy lemon squeezy 1 Link to post Share on other sites
Tubby Beaver 209 Posted July 1, 2012 Author Share Posted July 1, 2012 I also made my home made tattie scones (Potato scones, a Scottish breakfast staple) to go with the bacon. I had an almost normal breakfast, the only thing missing was the black pudding. I do have a picture but its on Instagram and I'm having trouble pasting it in SJ (I'm on my Mrs' Mac and I dunno all the commands) Tomorrow I'll see if I can get it done using my PC ah...success!! Bacon covered with HP sauce, beans, fried egg and a large tattie scone washed down with a cup of coffee.....braw!! It appears fine in the edit, but on the normal page it disappears.....hmm dunno what I'm doing wrong. Link to post Share on other sites
muikabochi 208 Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Nice. I could do with some of that this morning. Link to post Share on other sites
HelperElfMissy 42 Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 they cooked up like this damn bloody good bacon! easy peasy lemon squeezy Great looking bacon Tubby!That was one thing I found frustrating when traveling was the inability to do a good bacon and egg breakfast! Link to post Share on other sites
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