![]() ![]() Using between 1-2 teaspoons a batch, this is gonna last me quite a while. I bought a jar of Prague Powder #1 on Amazon for about $17. As I’m not a food scientist, the articles I read convinced me that fooling around at home was a bad idea. What I discovered was that both methods contain nitrates, as salt and celery (which are often substituted for curing salt) both include nitrates. There are a few good articles out there if you’re interested, a quick Google search will find them. When I first started making bacon, I read a lot about curing versus not curing. The Trader Joe’s bacon is uncured, but I always cure mine. Pulling the skin back helps you get a good clean trim with your filet knife.Īfter you’ve skinned your pork belly, rinse it under cold water and pat it really dry with a clean kitchen towel. Don’t worry if you miss a bit here or there you can always go back and trim it. I start in a corner, working my knife along the edge until I can grab the skin more easily. ![]() I’ve found that after destroying a few pork bellies during the skinning process, it’s actually easier if you chill the meat in the freezer (or don’t let it fully defrost if it’s already frozen when you buy it). There seems to be a bit of disagreement online about whether or you should skin the pork belly before or after smoking, with the general consensus being it’s easier after. ![]() Removing the skin is kind of a pain, but if you have a sharp filet knife it’s not so bad. I want the pre-curing weight, minus the trimmed skin, to be close to five pounds. I try to get a 5-6 pound piece, and usually go for the heavier cut if it still has the skin intact. Call your local markets, both butcher shops and Asian markets, to see whether they have pork belly in stock and who has the best price. I get my pork belly at one of two places in Tulsa: Perry’s Market, a great place to get good meat cheap, or one of our local Asian markets, Nam Hai. 5 pounds of pork belly fresh from the market After reading a bit more about what gives Black Forest ham its yummy flavor, I decided to see if I could come up with something using more traditional ingredients. The post I found is a great long one about the whole process for making Black Forest bacon. While there are tons of recipes for all sorts of bacon, I only found one for Black Forest bacon…the other hits were from folks posting on forums looking for recipes. We gave it a try the following morning and were amazed at the taste! As I’ve been making bacon from scratch for a couple of years, I figured I’d do a bit of research and see if I could find any recipes. I’d never been much for their meat products, but as we went over and perused the displays, I spotted the uncured Black Forest bacon, and decided to grab it. I grabbed a couple products I liked and we were enjoying wandering around the store. Wandering around the new place in Brookside I saw most of the things I’d come to expect at a Trader Joe’s. My girlfriend Kelly and I went a couple of weeks after they opened to see what they had, and it was an entirely new experience for her. ![]() I wasn’t one of the people that got hugely excited by their coming, but I was happy I could occasional get the random things I missed. While I’ve never been a weekly Trader Joe’s shopper, it had a few things I liked that you couldn’t get anywhere else.Īfter two moves over the last 5 years to places that didn’t have a Trader Joe’s, I learned that Tulsa, my new home, was finally getting one. The one thing other than public transportation it was lacking was a Trader Joe’s. Other than the weather and the pretty significant cultural shift, it wasn’t that different than Boston. My move to Miami was an adjustment in many ways, but not in others. Since moving from Boston in 2011, I’ve often mentioned to friends how spoiled I was living there for 20 years: public transportation, loads of good restaurants and bars, more museums than you can count, great music venues…the list goes on and on. ![]()
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