Bruce's Journal

Thanks Mike, maybe I won't get kicked out of the herd for not doing real smoke

No birds out front this morning. Maybe because it was seriously foggy. Our temps are way high for this time of year and the humidity is too. Only had to move 1 bird into the coop tonight.

Called the couple we refer to as "the maple people" from the Farmer's Market this evening. They will bring a cage Saturday and I'll put Trouble in it off the roost that night. Sunday he moves one town east. It is too bad he has it in for Zorra. He is a pretty bird and other than the potential problems with him waking DD1 in the morning (since she goes to bed late and doesn't get up until 10 or 11), it would be nice if he were around as a flock protector when they range outside the fenced area.

Bruce said:

Um, no smoker pit, no smoker grill. Don't tell anyone but I bought some Wright's applewood liquid smoke (smoke and water only, no other ingredients) and will "smoke" it in the oven. I know this will cause pain to those who do smoke meat. I can't see buying a smoker, cheap or otherwise, to smoke 10 pounds of home (un)cured bacon when I don't even know if DW and DD2 will like it.

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I have cooked with Liquid Smoke before, it ain't half bad. It ought to work well for you. @Devonviolet used it on bacon before and she was delighted with the results. She can't handle the nitrate/nitrites in "cured" bacon.

Our BBQ/Smoker pit was $99 at WallyWorld early this spring. It works great. So we aren't a BBQ purist either. Our other BBQ pit is an old water heater tank, I love it.

I applaud your efforts to make bacon, smoker pit or not. Good for you.

Baymule said:

She can't handle the nitrate/nitrites in "cured" bacon.

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Me either, migraine hell (*). That is why I decided to try to "uncure" it myself since I had access to quality pasture raised pork from Farmer Brown. I can sometimes buy "uncured" at the grocery store but I can't always find it and since it is a really small part of the bacon makers' business they charge a lot more for NOT using pink salt. The "uncured" has celery salt in it which apparently has a naturally occurring nitrate. But maybe like "fragrances", man made can be bad but natural doesn't seem to cause DD1 or me to get a migraine.

The "not curing" process will be done tomorrow afternoon. I do notice that without the nitrate the visible lean is brownish rather than reddish. Or maybe the maple syrup "stained" it. No matter, the lean will get brown when it is cooked anyway.

OK, I just read up on the "liquid smoke step". All the recipes I find say to roast it to an internal temp of 150° then brush the liquid smoke on all sides and let it air dry for some amount of time (like 30 minutes). Why does that not result in "smoky" on the outside and not smoky inside? Is the smoke flavor really just on the skinny edge of each piece of sliced bacon and (really strong on the 2 outside pieces)? I was ASSUMING the LS was put on BEFORE the roasting to 150° but I guess not!

* can we say "hell" here???

Are you putting liquid smoke on the whole slab or sliced pieces? I would think it would be better on sliced pieces or sprinkle it on when you cook it.

If you heat the slab to 150 degrees, it will slightly cook it. We smoked ours at 110 degrees. I don't know if 40 degrees makes that much of a difference.

I would slice it, liquid smoke it and fry some to test it. if it is to your liking, do the rest of the slab, portion and freeze it.

I wasn't planning on brushing each and every slice! I guess for that one could do it just before cooking rather than prior to refrigerating/freezing. Does real smoke get driven deep into the meat as it smokes or is it also just on the surface?

Every recipe I found said to oven roast or smoke it to 150° in the thickest part of the slab. Going to be trial and error I think. The different recipes roast anywhere from 90 to 150 minutes to get to that internal temp!

Moved Trill and Cassie into the coop last night. All the chickens were in or behind the barn this morning

Real smoke penetrates pretty deep depending on how long the smoke is generated. It doesn't penetrate as much when smoking at lower temps though.

Trouble has gone to his new home. They forgot to bring the cage to the market so they came over later in the day and picked him up.

Maybe Zorra and you can get some rest now and ya can get back to normal....

Zorra was getting plenty of rest, though I think she was still nervous about going back to the barn just in case Trouble was loose. Trouble had been confined to the "second coop" (where he and the younger girls stayed at night until recently) since the day he attacked and ripped into her neck. It seems he will be the oldest rooster in their flock by far. That is good, it means he doesn't have to fight for position with an established hierarchy of "manly men". And apparently there are LOTS of girls to chase.

Moved Cassie into the coop again tonight. Bacon is done curing, roasting and "smoking". DD1 came out of the bathroom as I finished brushing the liquid smoke on the still warm meat saying something like "is that the bacon?". Her tongue was stuck out like a cod pulled up from 300'. DD2 on the other hand said "smells like bacon".
Tomorrow morning we find out if it is any good.

I'm sure it will be good...not that there might be some tweeking on future batches, but ya never know til ya try and experiment a bit with it. It sounds like Trouble will be royalty before very long....