Description
We cure this from the bellies of our own hogs, rubbed dry with salt, a little maple sugar and black pepper, then left seven days on a rack in the cure room and turned daily. No injection, no water added, which is why it does not spit and shrink to nothing in the pan. After the cure it goes onto pecan smoke cold for around six hours and then rests a day before we sell it.
Buy it as a slab and cut it yourself. Chill the slab hard, almost to the point of freezing, and you can take clean quarter inch slabs off it with a sharp knife. Start it in a cold dry pan over medium low so the fat renders before the edges colour, and pour the fat off into a jar as you go.
Specification
- Breed: Berkshire cross, Lockhart, Central Texas
- Cure: 7 days, dry, salt, maple sugar, black pepper
- Smoke: pecan, cold, approximately 6 hours
- Trim: rind on, evenly squared
- Sold by: the pound, unsliced slab
Cooking
Cold pan, medium low, turn every couple of minutes until the fat is clear and the edges are bronze. For thick cuts, finish in a 400F oven on a rack for eight minutes.
Storage
Two weeks in the fridge wrapped in paper, not plastic, it needs to breathe. Freezes for three months with no real loss, though slice it before freezing if you want it ready to go.
Marissa T. (verified owner) –
Actual slab bacon with the rind still on. It renders instead of boiling in its own water like the packet stuff. I chilled it in the freezer for twenty minutes and got clean thick slices.
R. Nakamura (verified owner) –
The pecan smoke is present but not loud. Maple is barely sweet, which is what I wanted. Second three pound order.
Gail Prentice (verified owner) –
Very good bacon. Fattier than I expected on the one pound piece, though I understand that is the belly. Rendered it down and kept the fat for cornbread.