Misfitmorgan's Journal - That Summer Dust

[misfitmorgan]

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

Yep, i do think the egg washing has gotten out of control. We dont wash our eggs if they are not dirty. Of course I tested my birds and the flock was negative so no salmonella worries for me. I also keep my eggs out on the counter. I saw someone on a blog was talking about SOAKING their eggs in a heavy bleach solution they made....."to get rid of all the germs". If i could have smacked that person thru the screen i would have, not that i am worried about what they do to themselves, i am more worried about others following their example blindly.

 

[misfitmorgan]

You can slice bacon with a sharp knife. IT will not be as pretty but cooks/tastes fine.

Well you could just make food for yourself to eat and tell them to go have a salad

 

[Baymule]

I hope that after y'all get settled in your new place, you can post a thread on slaughter and processing. I posted what we did, but as a newbie to that sort of thing, I'm sure it could be much improved upon.

 

[misfitmorgan]

I think you did great Bay!

It's not so much about this is the exact way and any other way is wrong, its more about look i did this and i have xxxlbs of usable meat now and i saved $xxx.

We can see about working on a slaughter/process thread though. We have 8 hams to do that we have put off...gonna have to get those done after we move. We should also have 2 bellies to cure/smoke into bacon.
We may do some smoked chops and smoked sausages for christmas presents. We need to buy a vacuum seal machine...ok well not need but i would much rather have vacuum seal and they are pretty cheap.

I have some jowls i might try making some jowl bacon. There will also be more sausage!

 

[Bruce]

Should we all send our addresses for your Christmas list?

You can slice bacon with a sharp knife. It will not be as pretty but cooks/tastes fine.

Well you could just make food for yourself to eat and tell them to go have a salad

Oh, I don't know if DW and DD2 could eat it if it isn't pretty!! OK, maybe they aren't THAT bad. It is bacon, they would eat it. And the commercial stuff sometimes gets nearly paper thin, guess their slicers need adjustment then. Neither DW or DD2 has ever complained about it. I do have knives and methods for sharpening them. I'll try to remember to ask the meat guy at the Farmer's Market about the possibility of getting a pork belly from him. Probably would have to wait until the next slaughter time since obviously he is bringing prepackaged (vacuum in plastic) product that was done by the processor. Worth a look, the package of side pork I got had acceptable meat/fat ratio. Naive question: how big (dimension and weight) would an "average" pork belly be?

They would still expect me to make their salads. And it can't just be "throw some lettuce in a bowl". Nope. Gotta have scallions and carrot and celery and spinach (but not for DD2 and not much for DD1) and the carrot has to be peeled for DD1 and cheese (but DD2 wants her's on the side) and cucumber and pine nuts (but not for DD2) tomato (in season) but not for DW or DD1. I'm sure I've missed something. Yeah I usually do get them to help with that but it sure isn't a "quick side" kind of thing.

 

[misfitmorgan]

A commercial average pork belly is 12-13lbs, please note a "pork belly" is usually half of the actual belly.

Commercial processing is kill, slice down the belly to gut.....so the belly is always in two "halves". So when asking for a pork belly you may want to specify how many pounds of belly you would like, to help clear up confusion.

Example:
Guy1 - can i get a pork belly?
Guy2 - a pork belly?
Guy1 - Yes you know the part of the pig they make bacon out of usually?
Guy2 - oh ok, how much do you want?
Guy1 - The whole belly
Guy2 - ok if you say so.
Guy 2 brings out a package of a "whole pork belly" that is 40lbs

While probably not necessary to do the skit i found it fun!

Average pork belly - 8-20lbs depends on the size of the pig and is only actually half the belly from said pig
Entire/Whole pork belly off of said pig - 16-40lbs

Depending how long you smoke the bacon for your going to loose about 20% of the weight, so 40lbs raw will be 32lbs of cured uncooked bacon.

You can leave the skin on or take it off before or after curing and smoking. If the skin is left on for cure and smoking reduce your cure by 10% if going by weight and also know your going to lose about 30%(instead of 20%) of the weight after it is cured/smoked and ready to slice.

Cold smoking loses less weight as well, hot smoking will lose around 25% depending how hot you go. If that confusing i can try to explain it better.

Costco carries pork belly....11-12lbs normally.


I would be happy to send porkie presents to you guys!! So long as we have extra pork lol. When i get home i am taking about 45-50lbs of pork out of the freezer so i can make it into pulled pork on the big grill tomorrow. I'm keeping proably 5lbs, then i am giving half of that to my friend and half to my mom.

I think that gets us down to like 250lbs of pork left. DH said i'm not allowed to buy any meat until we use up at least half of the pork we have. He wanted to do chickens this year but the freezers were already mostly full.

Your DD and DW would have starved to death when i grew up. At our house it was here is food eat or go hungry....no snacks, no soda, no candy, nodda if you didnt eat dinner. My siblings all raise their kids the same way.

 

[Bruce]

Cute skit Yes, it IS good to make sure people are talking about the same thing.

I think that gets us down to like 250lbs of pork left. DH said i'm not allowed to buy any meat until we use up at least half of the pork we have.

Sounds like Christmas needs to come early for you!

Pulled pork, yum.

I'll have to check out the Costco pork belly as an alternative to the guy at the Farmer's Market. In fact, since I've never smoked anything, it may be better to learn on what I ASSUME will be less costly meat.

 

[CntryBoy777]

IMHO, ya can't get any better bacon than jowl bacon...that is my Favorite.....
Around here if the skin is left on it is called rind-on bacon. When I was growing up the same thing happened at our house, too.....except there wan't any snacks or other stuff to get whether ya ate dinner or not.....we had sooo many meals of cornbread and purple hull peas that I had to try many things on them just to be able to eat them again. I would always save a wedge of cornbread to be buttered and covered in honey, molasses, or sorghrum. I'm mighty thankful it was peas and not turnip greens..........in order to stomach those nasty things I have to have pepper sauce.

 

[Bruce]

So I did some Googling on "smoking bacon" and found that to be a "last and not required" step. I'm so ignorant! I figured it was smoked instead of being "cured", either/or. Seems one needs to plan ahead when they want bacon, has to sit in the curing "stuff" (maple syrup, the REAL stuff, brown sugar and non iodized salt) in the refrigerator for a week, turned daily or every other day. Then you have another day to smoke and then leave it in the refrigerator 1 more day. I gotta say the people in the videos I watched had some super good pork belly, much more lean than fat, unlike commercial bacon.

 

[OneFineAcre]

So the place that processed our hogs sends the "pork belly" to us like this
It's labeled bacon
We call it "streak of fat streak of lean"
We eat it just like this
It's not bacon
If you've never tried it I suggest you do
Totally uncured
Very tasty