Home Made Sausage, Cured, and Smoked Meats

[kwilkinson]



Damn I'm jealous of you guys. I need to try this.

It is really, truly easy. Just takes time and following a few basic rules. I will teach you all about it in Sept.

 

[Piobaire]

Seconded. Basic sausage making is easy and the results so far above commercial it is hard to believe.

 

[kwilkinson]

Some gratuitous bacon pics from the belly I smoked today.

It was pretty fracking good.



Then I got 20# more bacon started to cure and also:
20# pork butt

 

[Bhowie]

Can you eat bacon raw?

 

[kwilkinson]

Depends on if it was hot smoked or cold smoked.
Well, technically, the smoking should make it safer to eat regardless. But if it was hot smoked, then it was smoked and cooked to 150 degrees or so, so it's entirely safe to eat, because it already is past "raw." Most commercial bacon is injected with brine and fake smoke, so I wouldn't recommend eating that raw.... or at all, really.

 

[itsstillmatt]

My father loved raw bacon. He was not a good jew.

 

[indesertum]

i wouldnt mind living in bumfuck illinois if kwilk cooked at a restaurant nearby

 

[kwilkinson]

There are actually some decent chefs in this town. A couple of them admirable. I wouldn't even put myself in the top five, which is pretty pathetic for a town this big. But it's not as much of a cultural hellhole as I expected it to be or as I make it seem at times.

 

[Edgein]

For the best bacon, look at Nueske's in Wisconsin. They usually have some sort of special. Now it's 1 lb of smoked bacon with your order. Freezes very well, so you may order larger amounts. Shipping isn't cheap, but very good service. Their other products are good, but the bacon rules! www.Nueskes.com

 

[Piobaire]



Depends on if it was hot smoked or cold smoked.
Well, technically, the smoking should make it safer to eat regardless. But if it was hot smoked, then it was smoked and cooked to 150 degrees or so, so it's entirely safe to eat, because it already is past "raw." Most commercial bacon is injected with brine and fake smoke, so I wouldn't recommend eating that raw.... or at all, really.

Yeah, I smoke my bacon to 150-155, and slice off some nice juicy slices when I pull it out of the smoker. However, the stuff I don't eat right away, gets cooked again in some other fashion.

 

[kwilkinson]

Dude, that is honestly always the best part. I mean, the middle pieces are great fried or whatever. But those end pieces, directly out of the smoker.... hot and juicy and incredibly salty and smoky.

 

[kwilkinson]

Oh yeah, my smoker is on the fritz. It is about 15 years old and the bottom is falling out so it's not holding much smoke. I took the filing cabinet out of my office and a cook and I are going to rig it up tomorrow to an old charcoal grill to make a poor man's hot and cold smoker. Pics will follow.

 

[Piobaire]

Yup. Want to really have a bacon-gasm? Make some mozzarella cheese yourself and have some good pesto ready to go. Cannot be beat.

Oh yeah...heirloom tomatoes.

 

[itsstillmatt]

Please, no.

 

[Cary Grant]



Oh yeah, my smoker is on the fritz. It is about 15 years old and the bottom is falling out so it's not holding much smoke. I took the filing cabinet out of my office and a cook and I are going to rig it up tomorrow to an old charcoal grill to make a poor man's hot and cold smoker. Pics will follow.

Wouldn't go putting food where the cabinet's paint might burn/smolder.