Bacon of Doom part 2

So I'd last posted that the bacon was going into a cure. Well, it came out and was smoked. Then sliced. Then nommed.

The pancetta hung for nearly two weeks before I decided that the brewing closet was too warm for it. Future pancetta will hang in the small dorm fridge.

Highlights:

Here's the pancetta hanging in the basement. I think the humidity was right, but we were experiencing some hot weather (remember that we just had the hottest day ever recorded in Seattle on Day 2 of the Bar Exam, 103 degrees!) so this part of the basement got up to 72 degrees.





I took it down after a little over a week when a spot of surface mold appeared. Killed that off with some vinegar but then stuck half the pancetta in the freezer and have been cooking with the other half. You can see in the photo to the right how much it dried and shrunk.



Here in cross section you can see how much fat this pig had. Outstanding. Towards the end the percentage of meat got even smaller.

Seriously good lardons. I've been using it in pastas, soups, stews, omlettes, pretty much anywhere where I need cooking oil and crunchy porky bits wouldn't hurt.


As for the Maple Bacon, it went onto the smoker with some hickory, apple and alder chips until it was 150 inside. Then the skin was trimmed off and the bacon sliced these photos give a sense of scale. It is ridiculously thick.




How was it? Out of this world good. We even got a staunchly and longtime vegetarian friend to try it, and she announced it as one of the best things she has ever tasted.

And I would tend to agree.