Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[Bruce]

But you need to have a smoker or a smoke house, right? I'm pretty sure my wife wouldn't want me smoking meat in the oven Maybe I could "smoulder" some in the woodstove

Don't know what a smoker costs. I wouldn't mind being able to do it if I had a reasonably priced meat source (let's face it, Farmer's Markets aren't exactly the Walmart/Costco price business). But it wouldn't get used much. THOUGH, if I keep having trouble finding uncured bacon (the big grocery stores seem really fickle about carrying it and what they have often looks like fat with a little meat) I might have to do something myself. My wife LOVES bacon and while nitrates don't give her migraines like they do me, her rheumatologist said they aren't good for her. Fortunately for ME, I prefer sausage and McKenzie makes an uncured bag sausage, easy to get in any store here. Of course my wife won't eat sausage

 

[Baymule]

@Bruce, we bought a $99 offset barrel smoker at Walmart and it performed just fine. Whike it isn't fancy, it got done what we wanted done. Not like we were smoking the whole hog!

I didn't want the nitrites in our bacon either, so I rubbed the slabs with brown sugar and salt, packed them in 2 gallon ziplock bags and only let them stay in the refrigerator 2 days before smoking.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Bruce - I use one very similar to Bay's.... except mine is a little more "used" looking, lol! Picture below is NOT mine - just a pic of what it looked like about 10 years ago!

 

[babsbag]

We have one like Bay's too, but it is OLD and HEAVY...DH found it on CL. I also have an electric one, called a Big Easy. We used it a lot until DH found his treasure on CL. I haven't done bacon...I should.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I'm not sure i understand what your calling "cured" and "uncured"?

Bacon - cured, cold smoked (needs to be cooked)
Pancetta - cured (needs to be cooked)
Prosciutto - cured (eat raw) Prosciutto di parma is cured with sea salt only
Ham - wet or dry cured, hot smoked (no cooking needed but often done anyhow) Ham can be cold smoked
Pork Belly - uncured, unsmoked "bacon" as in it is the same cut as bacon with nothing done to it

Something being cured or uncured does not always mean it does or does not have nitrates in it. Pink salt is not required for curing of meats. As far as i know any meat can be cured with sea salt, table salt, kosher salt, himalyan pink salt(no nitrates), or the stuff we refer to as pink(curing) salt which is table salt and sodium nitrate. Pink/curing salt actually pickles the meat instead of curing it and perserves the color.

Nitrates occur naturally in several foods such as celery. Far as i know there are no commercially sold breakfast meats that do not contain nitrates, yes even if they so no added nitrates or nitrate free etc...they use celery juice instead of sodium nitrate. Many fruits, vegetables and grains are high in naturally occurring nitrates. Your body converts some nitrates into nitrites but your body sees no difference between say celery nitrate and sodium nitrate. Your body however will only convert some nitrates to nitrosamines which is what usually cause negative effects on people. Vitamin C will inhibit the formation of nitrosamines. So all that comes down to, have you tried vitamin C first and also...you can cure without curing salt/pink salt/nitrates.

Bay and FEM are right you can smoke meats in anything. Cold smoke bacon is generally a 2 day smoke after curing for your preferred length of time and you dont need any heat on the meat just smoke. There are many videos of people smoking bacon, pork chops, fish...in a cardboard box with a hot plate, a small fan, and a pie tin full of wet wood chips. Lots of people make smokers out of new metal trash/feed cans. Anything that will hold the smoke in and you can put a small amount of ventilation in and something to make smoke will work just perfectly well.

You could cure and smoke pork belly you get from the store to make it into nitrate free bacon. You can also ask the meat department of a local store to order you some pork belly or to save you a whole belly when they do their normal order.

A butcher only curing or smoking meat once a year seems insane. The pig we sold ended up with 49lbs of bacon, ham, and smoked pork chops.

What is a uncured bag sausage? just a bulk sausage?

 

[goatgurl]

I've got a side of bacon in the freezer that youall are going to force me to taking out and start curing and smoking the dang thing.

 

[Bruce]

I am aware that celery contains nitrates, I ASSUME a lower concentration than what they use in "cured" meats.

To my knowledge, as seen in prepackaged grocery store items:
Cured - sodium nitrate will be one of the last ingredients.
Uncured - no sodium nitrate.
The uncured costs more, I ASSUME because they make less of it. I really do not understand why commercial stuff still includes sodium nitrate since everything is refrigerated now. I have not seen a scintilla of color difference between "cured" and "uncured" bacon in the store nor during the time an opened package has sat in my refrigerator.

I shouldn't have said "uncured" sausage. It doesn't say anything on the package. It just doesn't have sodium nitrate in it which, I guess, is my poor method of distinction. The bags are 1 pound "loose" sausage filling as opposed to being packed into "skin" and twisted into links. Some link sausages doesn't have sodium nitrate, some do.

These "offset" smokers. From quick investigation, the fire is in the little "barrel" on the side and the big part is where you put the stuff to be smoked. Can they be used as regular BBQs as well? My propane BBQ gave up the ghost, I haven't replaced it since I didn't use it all that much. If the offset could be both a smoker and a BBQ, I could sort of justify messing around with smoking stuff as I figure out what I am doing as opposed to buying "just" a smoker.

Oh, and a stupid question, I ASSUME that when you smoke bacon, you do the whole slab then slice it, right?

I've got a side of bacon in the freezer that youall are going to force me to taking out and start curing and smoking the dang thing.

Get going @goatgurl !

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Yes, you can put fire directly in the bigger part of the "smoker" and use it as a regular bbq/grill. I cut my bacon into smaller chunks that would fit in a Ziploc bag. I smoked these chunks until I got a temp of 150 degrees - or really close anyway. Certainly no expert here - I've made bacon exactly twice in my life, lol! But, I guarantee you it's DELISH!

 

[misfitmorgan]

I am aware that celery contains nitrates, I ASSUME a lower concentration than what they use in "cured" meats.

To my knowledge, as seen in prepackaged grocery store items:
Cured - sodium nitrate will be one of the last ingredients.
Uncured - no sodium nitrate.
The uncured costs more, I ASSUME because they make less of it. I really do not understand why commercial stuff still includes sodium nitrate since everything is refrigerated now. I have not seen a scintilla of color difference between "cured" and "uncured" bacon in the store nor during the time an opened package has sat in my refrigerator.

I shouldn't have said "uncured" sausage. It doesn't say anything on the package. It just doesn't have sodium nitrate in it which, I guess, is my poor method of distinction. The bags are 1 pound "loose" sausage filling as opposed to being packed into "skin" and twisted into links. Some link sausages doesn't have sodium nitrate, some do.

These "offset" smokers. From quick investigation, the fire is in the little "barrel" on the side and the big part is where you put the stuff to be smoked. Can they be used as regular BBQs as well? My propane BBQ gave up the ghost, I haven't replaced it since I didn't use it all that much. If the offset could be both a smoker and a BBQ, I could sort of justify messing around with smoking stuff as I figure out what I am doing as opposed to buying "just" a smoker.

Oh, and a stupid question, I ASSUME that when you smoke bacon, you do the whole slab then slice it, right?


Get going @goatgurl !

Yep i agree the offset smokers can be used as a grill just fine. My ex-hubby owned one and we used it a lot as a smoker and a grill/bbq, the one we had even had a place for a spit that we bought after market.

I mentioned celery specifically because when they use celery juice in place of sodium nitrate they dont have to label it with sodium nitate as they can simply label it as natural flavorings. Celery has 3,151ppm for nitrate, Us Food and Drug puts a 500ppm regulation for sodium nitrate on finished cured meats...so that would be less then celery. It may just happen that celery doesnt turn into nitrosamines so doesnt affect you.

If there is no color difference i would assume it has nitrate("natural") or food dye. We have made "cured" meats without sodium nitrate (which USDA says makes it not a cured meat but the rest of the world disagrees) and there was definately a color difference, the most noticeable difference is in hams. As far as i know USDA requires the use of nitrate in all packaged cured meats.

Yes the whole slab or chunks as FEM mentioned, then it is chilled and sliced. About half frozen gives the most even slices.

Yes, you can put fire directly in the bigger part of the "smoker" and use it as a regular bbq/grill. I cut my bacon into smaller chunks that would fit in a Ziploc bag. I smoked these chunks until I got a temp of 150 degrees - or really close anyway. Certainly no expert here - I've made bacon exactly twice in my life, lol! But, I guarantee you it's DELISH!

Thats a hot smoke for bacon. 150-225F is hot smoke, cold smoke is 100F for approx 30 mins then 80-90F for 6 hours. Hot smoke is a faster wetter method. That used to be part of the distinction between dry bacon and wet bacon, most all commercial bacon is now cold smoked. Not that i'm knocking either method at all i LOVE bacon no matter how it is smoked or cured.

Hot smoke is the way to go if your not using sodium nitrate, because the higher heat makes it smoke faster which reduces the risk of bad bacteria coming in.

There are many ways to hot and cold smoke, i just gave examples. I don't think one method is really better then another for flavor, just time/technique may be better for one person over another.

 

[Bruce]

As far as i know USDA requires the use of nitrate in all packaged cured meats.

Yes the whole slab or chunks as FEM mentioned, then it is chilled and sliced. About half frozen gives the most even slices.

That would explain it. Just like they require eggs to be washed to within an inch of their "lives". Then require refrigeration because the natural bacteria barrier has been destroyed.

So besides the smoker, now I need @Latestarter's slicer Getting expensive. But then even the cheapest bacon I will buy runs about $7/pound and that is NOT the "uncured" stuff. Too bad people in this house are so pissy about what they will eat. Lots of food *I* will eat could be put on the BBQ.

T-13