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That is good to know I will have to try it.What do you want to know? It is by far the easiest cured meat to make yourself. Pretty much idiot proof.You intrigue me sir tell me more of this bacon of witch you speak.Last summer I started making my own bacon. I highly recommend it. It's is so simple, that once you do it, you'll wonder why so few people do it. I've grown to really like some intense aromatics in my cures, but as long as you don't use them and stick to old standards (brown sugar, maple syrup, bourbon, etc) you can do it in your fridge without a lot of fuss. You can then finish it in the oven, grill or smoker as you choose.
The first time I made my own bacon I made multiple mistakes and it was still the second best bacon I had ever had. It's extremely forgiving.
I recommend your first one, just do a basic cure (salt, curing salt and sugar). Curing salt has nitrites in it, which is a preservative that prevents mold/fungus/bacteria/etc. Your local grocery store might carry it, might not. You can get it on Amazon though.
Also, I recommend buying some extra large ziplock bags. You can get 2 gallon bags on Amazon. Wash them out when you're done and you can reuse them many, many times.
Once you are happy with the results of a basic cure I recommend cutting the pork belly into smaller sections (like 2-3 pounds) and experimenting with different flavors to see what you like. A few I recommend:
bourbon
maple syrup
bourbon + maple syrup
garlic
chili powder
jalapeno
your favorite aromatic herbs
If you aren't a big on spicy stuff, I still recommend trying some of the spicy cures. I've found that a) the bacon doesn't get very spice and b) the heat dissipates over the course of two weeks. We covered a slab of bacon in chili powder, and when it first finished it had a mild burn to it. After another week in the fridge though, the burn was completely gone and you just had the complex flavors of the chilies. I don't know why, but the chemical responsible for the heat seems to break down in bacon.
If you experiment with anything with a strong smell (herbs, garlic) I recommend not putting it in a fridge with your regular food. The smell will get into everything that can absorb odors (like butter and eggs).
I never tried to make my own bacon but I think I'm going to start just for trying.
I have done marinated (sp?) salmon before and it tastes great.
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Not salty soil where I'm at. Matapeake silt loams. Old patch, not taken care of properly, the grass in the yard and some weeds have invaded. Hard to tell where the yard ends and the patch begins now. Losing out to competition, not soil depletion I think. Though I suppose we could always till that compost heap of mine in for good measure!Good. Mix the compost with as much topsoil as you can from the patch, then lay it back down before you plant the seeds.Yeah, compost is great for that, and adding a bit of manure would never hurt either. The point of the salt is to keep out unwanted plants as most plants can't handle very much salt, but apparently, as long as you don't go overboard, asparagus will handle it just fine.
Reminds me of pumpkins, which, surprisingly, handle acidic soil just fine.
Found that out after we had 15 volunteer pumpkin plants growing in the pine-tree grove/ditch thing by our house after tossing rotten pumpkins there thinking that the needles would keep them from growing... yeah... no. Our best year with pumpkin growing was the one year we weren't trying to grow pumpkins at all.
Asparagus like seaweed mulching as well. It gives them a bit of salt and adds a lot of nutrients as it composts.
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I had not eaten pork rinds or how the hell they are called in English since a lot of years ago, but because of this thread I had the need to eat them again, so I bought a bag of them and I am enjoying them!
We have the ones who have a bit of pork fat and the ones that are only the skin of the pork. I only like the latter. But I didn't remember that they were as tasty as they are.
Pork rinds had a big market surge in the US when the first 'low carb/high protein' diets were a fad. Because they are salty and crunchy and fat and protein (no carbs!!!), they were the go-to snack for people following those diets.
It moved them from a cheap lower class, (primarily southern) food to a respectable upper class (South Beach) snack, and the proliferation of various flavors (cilantro-lime, anyone?). It also made them much more readily available outside their original regional roots
I guess they have always been a thing here.
I was surprised to see the other day in the store a snack made of fried cod skin. It was surprisingly good.
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I just came back from a local steakhouse. I had a sirloin, a Caesar salad, fried okra, and helped split a bowl of hot artichoke spinach dip. I'm comfortably full and will probably be asleep soon... lol
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Deep fried okra is definitely a southern thing. Most of my yank life I had no idea what it even was.
I like it raw or fried. Boiled it's slimy and the texture is terrible. Not a fan of pickled okra, either.
Guys, guys. Okra should be shallow fried, not deep fried.
Slice it, shake it in a paper bag with cornmeal/flour/salt/pepper. Put it in an iron skillet with a thin* layer of bacon grease on the bottom, single layer of okra slices.
Fry until golden brown, flip okra and fry some more until it is crispy.
Serve hot.
*1/8 to 1/4 in layer of hot grease on the bottom of the skillet.
Deep-fried is a commercial fast-food joint abomination that was created because dropping okra in the already-available-potato-deep-fry-machine was simpler than actually frying it. You want a thin wrap of cornmeal, not a winter coat of blobby flour
That IS my favorite way to eat it, and it's the way I grew up eating it. But you don't get that style in restaurants. At least not any that I've encountered.
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I will say one thing southern folk got right is grits. Don't even bother in yankee country we got no idea what we are doing up here.
Don't even know what okra is.
Don't even know what okra is.
It's a semi-tropical vegetable from the mallow family, originally from Africa, brought to the US by slaves, and adopted as poor-folk food across the south. Easy to grow in drought conditions, and a critical ingredient in Cajun (and sometimes Creole) food.
It has thickening properties somewhat like cornstarch.
I never tried to make my own bacon but I think I'm going to start just for trying.
I've seen several how-tos on how to make your own cold smoker, and I still want to try cold smoking bacon.
The next week or so, I'll be swinging by the butcher and hope to pick up some guanciale (Italian cured pork jowl) so I can make bucatini all'amatriciana, which sounds delicious.
I will say one thing southern folk got right is grits. Don't even bother in yankee country we got no idea what we are doing up here.
I've lived in the (U.S.) South my entire life and I'm still not fond of grits (or polenta either), even though my mom was raised loving grits. But even I have to admit that cheesy grits served with crumbled bacon and garlicky shrimp is still pretty delicious.
We mostly talk about food.This thread is so varied.It's what makes it so interesting.
Hmmmm, Food-lovers are Way too Loquacious? Nah, that'd never catch on.
That's what FaWtL means? I've seen that theme a lot of times and never knew.
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That's what FaWtL means? I've seen that theme a lot of times and never knew.
Almost. FaWtL is Forums are Way too Long, started because one Paizo poster complained that too many people reply to threads; I think he wanted threads capped at 25 comments or less. So, naturally, this made a bunch of folk immediately turn that thread into the longest series of threads on the Paizo forums.
Edit: Oops, he wanted threads capped/pruned down to 10 pages or less. Poor IssacX. I hope we didn't break his brain too badly.
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There's something bad about people answering to threads?
I still have a couple of threads I created that didn't get enough love and fell into oblivion until they get necromanciated in a couple of years when I cannot even remember having posted them and I no longer care.
I was expecting at least a troll or two ;-P
Don't even know what okra is.It's a semi-tropical vegetable from the mallow family, originally from Africa, brought to the US by slaves, and adopted as poor-folk food across the south. Easy to grow in drought conditions, and a critical ingredient in Cajun (and sometimes Creole) food.
It has thickening properties somewhat like cornstarch.
We called it 'Ladies' Fingers', for some reason...
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I like it raw or fried. Boiled it's slimy and the texture is terrible. Not a fan of pickled okra, either.
On the list of things to make one day, I want to make an African style gumbo that I saw prepared once, which used the slimy portion of okra as the thickening agent. I just don't make gumbo very often, it was always my dad's thing (though he hasn't made it in a while either).
We're also northerners, but we fell in love with Cajun food on a trip to New Orleans back in the late 80's.
That's what FaWtL means? I've seen that theme a lot of times and never knew.Almost. FaWtL is Forums are Way too Long, started because one Paizo poster complained that too many people reply to threads; I think he wanted threads capped at 25 comments or less. So, naturally, this made a bunch of folk immediately turn that thread into the longest series of threads on the Paizo forums.
Edit: Oops, he wanted threads capped/pruned down to 10 pages or less. Poor IssacX. I hope we didn't break his brain too badly.
Longest series, not the longest thread though... last one to post wins is at least one which is longer.
Pffft. Deep 6 FaWTL is currently at over 3000 pages. Which is more than seven times the length of LOtPW.
which is a shame, if you think about it.
We are not doing our job, then xD
Eh I'm pretty sure about half the posts on FaWTL is from captain yesterday or one of his aliases.
Like my aliases hadn't plagued LOtPW for a while too xD
I don't know what you mean.
If that's real then I'm gladly contributing to crashing the servers.
90% of my posts are probably useless but that doesn't keep me from saying whatever comes to my mind at the time.
Today I'm going back to my experiments with quinoa seeds. They are becoming increasingly popular. I tried them last week for the first time and I cooked it like I was cooking a veggie rice. It tasted good.
I'm also thinking of baking a zucchini spongecake today. But I still haven't decided how lazy I feel.
Pffft. Deep 6 FaWTL is currently at over 3000 pages. Which is more than seven times the length of LOtPW.
Not to mention it is Sixth in a series, since they used to regularly crash the boards by sheer length. If you sintered them all together as The PMG has said he would on occasion there'd likely be upwards of a half-million posts all told.
I've seen it a few times but never decided to post there. The topics were not anything that I could contribute to when I looked.
There seems to be a diversification of chat threads these days. This thread could evolve into one. We don't have a good cooking one yet :). I drifted away from FAWTL a few years back, and founded a thread of my own. Then there's the whole 'ask somebody something ' group of threads. If there's one thing gamers love it's gabbing.
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One day I will have my own ask me stuff... one day... when I am ready.
I'm super in to Asian recipes ATM. soy sauce is good on like everything. Didn't realize until recently that the salt content however is higher then... salt.
Yeah was thinking about going that route can't imagine the taste is any different.
I often use soy sauce as a substitute for salt in some recipes, specially oriental ones.
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I've used it for shrimp and the like, but I mostly like to keep my seafood recipes very simple because the taste of seafood itself is great and I don't like to disguise it.
I always felt shrimp needed lots of seasoning personally or else it was quite bland.
most fish I use lemon or a spicy breading. now salmon I tend to go light on seasoning as not to overwhelm it.
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I'm super in to Asian recipes ATM. soy sauce is good on like everything. Didn't realize until recently that the salt content however is higher then... salt.
I'm having a love affair with hoisin sauce right now. It's just the right balance of sweet and savory.
I have a few recipes I've been holding onto that requires it I think I'll make one of them next week. I keep hearing good things about hoisin sauce.
Most crabs are great just boiled with some salt, as most crustaceans are. In a cocktail with just some oil and vinegar/lemon they are great, sometimes with some peppers and onion.
I like octopus in the traditional way: boiled without salt and then just salt, olive oil and a mixture of sweet and spicy paprika. With boiled potatoes in the same cooking water of the octopus it's great. A plus if you also use the water for baking bread!
I don't like stuffed squid a lot, but I love it with rice, with its own ink or in a paella. Also roasted with just salt and oil or the small ones filled with a mixture of their own tentacles, peppers and onion, with a bit of cayenne. Cayenne is great for squid. Also in a stew with its own ink, some veggies and potatoes.
Clams and the like I like them just roasted with some salt and oil or with a traditional recipe called «a la marinera».
Don't make me talk of seafood! It's a soft spot for me!
I know octopus is not common outside of Galicia and Asiatic food, but do you usually eat squid or is it also exotic out there?
Exotic here I only know about a handful of restaurants that have squid or octopus a few Asian and one Italian with some decent fried calamari. I don't think I can get it in local stores would have to go to a niche place for it.
I was curious as they are popular and frequent here.
Deep fried squid rings are very popular (picture an onion ring but instead of onion it is a squid).