Friday Fi...wait, what? Wednesday Whatever!

[learnteach]

Wierd.

Briefs: 1. Madbaker is a bastad. After I make the bacon, he whispers in my ear the ease of making Pancetta. Oooooh, gotta try that. Bastad!

2. The bacon came out extremely good. Hot smoked at 180 for two hours; one honey cure in apple chips, one honey cure in cherry chips, one herb cure in apple, one herb cure in cherry. Notes: Wow, this stuff is tasty. The hot smoke cures it, so it was great coming out of the slicer. Kristen's trick of freezing it for 20 minutes made it easy to cut. Didn't rinse the herb off, and the salt got in the way of the smoke, but still adequate smoking. No taste difference between the two smokes. Next experiment: cold smoke, different herb mix, maple syrup perhaps for the sweet. But that'll have to happen after I eat this bacon, and that may take a while, or not. I'll feed anyone who asks bacon.

3. New job moving, good so far. Lots to learn!

4. Cut my hair into a buzz cut. Like it. Highlights how heavy I am, though.

5. Started bootcamp, did two days, wrenched my ankle moving boxes, should be good for boot tomorrow. Woot for boot!

6. Health insurance will kick in in two weeks, then I can start fighting earnestly again.

7. Best birthday card: The Spock Monkey from Branwen.

8. Charles Stross' latest, "Rule 34", is fun, insightful, and topical, but not as much of a page turner as his other books. Too many ideas, not enough immediacy for me, but I think it's also a love note to Edinburg and I don't know the city. Makes me want to go drink in a few pubs there, though. And it might also be that the book was good enough to give me a small nightmare. So it's a good book, but has one truely bad character. (Or is it one?)

9. LJ may be dead (Hi Cathyn!) but will G+ replace it?

Comments

[marysdress.livejournal.com]

Never thought of smoking my own bacon. This could become a new project very very soon. After the Pennsic sewing. Motivation to finish the Pennsic sewing. Share recipes for honey cure please?

Too easy for words.

[learnteach.livejournal.com]

Note: I didn't use curing salt (with nitrates) so it's not as food safe as could be, but as a brewer I used fairly sterile techniques. The honey cure was simple: Put the pork belly into the bag. Squirt honey on it until covered on one side. Spread salt on honey. Flip over, cover with honey, then salt. Seal bag, removing as much air as possible. Put in the fridge, and flip and massage every day. Didn't measure it. After the 2nd day all of the salt (used kosher salt to avoid the calcium chloride) dissolves. Flipped it daily for 8 days, then pull it out, rinse it off, dry it, and leave it dry in a bag in the fridge for a day to form a pellicle. Then, into a smoker with a thermometer--if you keep adding chips, any barbeque will do.

Hope this works for you!