Smoked bacon – 1st attempt

Once upon a time I was a vegetarian, fed up with the way that animals were being treated. Eventually I went back to the dark side, tempted all the way by smoked bacon. It’s the one thing that I couldn’t resist. Many years later and it’s time to cure and smoke my own bacon!

In short I dry cured some belly pork for 7 days in the fridge in a freezer bag. Once the curing time was up I wiped off any remaining cure and left it to dry overnight on a rack in the fridge. Drying allows a sticky layer to form on the surface and smoke sticks to it like …. to a blanket.  As fridges circulates air it’s a great way to dry meat.The bacon was then smoked for 8 hours using whiskey oak before being placed back in the fridge for a couple of days inside a freezer bag to ‘rest’.

The picture shows the bacon, some cheese that I did for a friend and some haddock.

Hickory smoked cheese

Had to try it as I bought a load of hickory dust the other week!!! I thought that it would be too strong a taste, especially if I left it in there for +6 hours, but hey if you don’t try you don’t find out.

So a piece of regular mature cheddar and a small piece of Stilton went in for four hours, suitably wrapped in some muslin. Once out, they were left for five hours or so before being rushed to the table – we had some friends round who wanted to try the cheese. I would have preferred to have left it overnight to mellow a bit. But no! 

Outcome? Another one to repeat!

Reuben

Ever had a Reuben? No? Nor me until earlier today. It definitely won’t be my last!!

Last weekend I took a piece of brisket and brined it for nine days. The brine composed of two litres of water, 200g of salt, 75g of sugar, 2 roughly chopped garlic cloves and a tbsp of pickling spice. To make sure that everything was suitably dissolved I heated the brining ingredients gently together in a saucepan. Once dissolved it was left to cool to room temperature.

The brisket was put into a freezer bag and then the cooled brine was ladled in. I squeezed out as much air as I could and then zipped it up. To make sure that nothing leaked out, this bag was placed in another freezer bag and the whole package was put into the fridge. Each day I tried to move the brisket within the bag to make sure that everything piece of the brisket got a good soaking.

So today was the day! Some peeled carrots, a bay leaf and a roughly chopped onion were put into a saucepan along with the liberated brisket. Enough water to cover the meat was added and then it was brought to a simmer and left for four hours – hey presto Salt Beef.

Rye doesn’t agree with me and we couldn’t find any sourdough yesterday so good old white bread had to step into the breach. A layer of 1000 island dressing, a slab of salt beef, a mound of sauerkraut and some emmenthal cheese went between the slices of bread before being toasted. All I can say if you never had a Reuben you’re missing an eating experience!

Would I do anything different. It’s probably against the rules but I would toast the bread on one side before building the Reuben. Other than that, absolutely nothing else would change.

Getting the hang of it

After dipping my toes into the water last week with a small piece of haddock, this week we upped the volumes, brining and smoking times. First off the brining. I used the same brine as last time – 2l of water, 240g salt, 40g sugar, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder and a tsbp of pickling spice. The pickling spice was initially put into a cup and then just enough boiling water to cover the spice was poured in. After 10 minutes or so, i.e. after it had cooled down it was added to the rest of the ingredients. During this 10 minutes the other ingredients where whisked to make sure that everything dissolved. We did try and add a twist, the juice of half a lemon. It needs a better palate then mine to detect this once the haddock had been smoked!

The haddock was left in the brine for a couple of hours, held down by a sieve so that all the pieces of fish remained immersed below the surface of the brine. Once brined the haddock was removed, dried using paper kitchen towel and then placed skin side down on a tray. The tray was then placed in the fridge for about 10 hours to allow it to dry and form a sticky layer on the surface.

Last time I used Beech which produced a lovely mild taste. Yesterday into the smoke generator went some whiskey oak dust – looking for a stronger taste. I filled up the whole of the CSG, lit it and then left it to do its business overnight.

This morning we had kedgeree and it was very tasty indeed. There’s some of the freshly smoked haddock left over for tomorrow evening’s meal. It will be interesting to see how the taste has developed.

Starting to get a little adventurous…smoking pheasants and haddock

The first two ‘smokings’ took some sausages and cheese, no need to do any preparation, and put them straight into the smoker. As I mentioned in my last posting I was given some pheasant breasts last week, so a chance to push the boat out a little. It was also an opportunity to smoke some haddock, one of my favourite foods.

I made couple of brines – 2 litres of water, 240g of salt, 40g of sugar, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder and a tbsp of pickling spice. I placed the pickling spice into a cup with enough boiling water to cover the spices. In the meantime I mixed together the other ingredients, making sure that the salt and sugar dissolved, otherwise it’s water with some granules on the bottom of the container! When everything had dissolved I stirred in the pickling spices.

The pheasant breasts went in to its brine for an hour and a half, the haddock for 45 minutes. The haddock was then allowed to drip dry for a couple of hours. When the pheasant breasts’ time was up, I dried them off using paper kitchen towel and then wrapped 2 in back bacon and 2 in prosciutto ham. Everything that I’ve read says to wrap in streaky bacon so that the fat helps to keep the breasts moist. Must admit that both versions tasted really nice! 

So off into the smoker – beech again. The pheasant breasts went in for a couple of hours and the haddock for four. 

I know that part of the pleasure is the preparation and smoking, but for me the enjoyment of eating it is the main thing. First the haddock – not strong enough for my liking but a very decent smoky taste that I wouldn’t refuse anywhere it was served. Next time I’ll use oak instead of beech. The pheasant breasts, whether in bacon of prosciutto, were fantastic! Cooked by pan frying for 5 minutes each side and then 10 minutes in the oven @ 180 degrees. Moist, with just the right hint of smokiness so as not to overpower the core taste. 

Filling the smoker

Everything that you read says to experiment and try things out. I wouldn’t say that I was overly adventurous for my second outing with the cold smoker. After the first time I had a request from a friend to smoke some cheese for her, so not really the time to try new things. This time around it was a case of trying a different wood, beech, and that was it. Into the smoker went:-

8 Lincolnshire sausages – 6 hours

4 pieces of cheddar – 8 hours

1 piece of Shropshire blue – 8 hours

1 piece of Sainsbury’s blue (really brave here!) – 8 hours

So to the results – the sausages were far better than last time, the base product needs to be good otherwise you’re adding flavour to rubbish. The cheeses are really nice. Just smoky enough without over-powering your taste buds. With all of them you get the smoky taste and then the flavours of the cheese come through after.

The beech doesn’t impart such a strong flavour as the whiskey oak which allows the other flavours to come through.

Next up brining for the first time and some pheasants!

Smoking at last!

This week my eco cold smoker ‘starter kit’ arrived from Amazon. I wasn’t sure quite what to expect, how big would it be, how easy would it be to assemble, what would food taste like once I’d subjected it to be smoked and many other thoughts went through my mind.

So today was the day when I was going to start to get some answers. How big – not very, hmm interesting when compared with many ‘build your own plans’; how easy to assemble – I did it twice to make sure that I didn’t miss something out the first time around!

I set my newly constructed eco smoker in the corner of the wood shed. With food to hand, more on that in a bit, I carefully filled the maze of the smoke generator with whisky oak dust, lit the tea light and waited for it to catch before placing it in the bottom of the smoker.

Food wise I decided to start with some supermarket mature cheddar, a soft cheese that I found in the price reduced bin and some rubbish mass produced ‘pork’ (really!) sausages. The cheddar went on the bottom shelf as it would come out last, then the sausages on the middle shelf and the soft cheese on the top shelf. I also put in a couple of apples to see what they would taste like. Both cheeses were placed on muslin cloth to allow easy handling and to catch any drips / moisture.

My plan was:-

• Cheddar – at least 8 hours
• Sausages – 3 hour for half of them and 6 hours for the other half
• Soft Cheese – 3 hours
• Apples – 6 hours

The unit worked steadily all day and at roughly allotted times I duly removed particular items, placed them in food containers and put them in the fridge. 

This evening we’ve tried out the food, asking different people of taste and pass comment

• Sausages – mixed views as in some liked the shorter smoked ones and others the longer ones. All agreed that the sausages themselves were rubbish and that the smoking actually added some flavour.
• Apples – I think that these will be an acquired taste…
• Cheddar – wow! This will not last long, in fact I may have to hide it otherwise it will all be gone very soon.

So beginners luck with some really good equipment. Next time I think that we’ll try a variety of cheeses as well as some bacon.

Sloe Gin

“So Richard, what do Sloes look like? Small and blue was the not so helpful response.” Hopefully there will be some blackthorn bushes on our walk was a fleeting thought as we set off with the dog to tramp around the fields on the outskirts so Corby Glen. Quite soon we saw a what looked like some Sloes, so taking the approach that this might be the only one in the area we started to pick as much as we could of this particular bush. Once we’d picked as much as we could from this bush we started walking again, well we got five yards before another bush full of fruit, and another bush. You get the idea…

So now we’re back home the Sloes will be washed and put in the freezer overnight before being dropped into a bottle along with some cheap gin and sugar. I think we’ll go for Tim Haywood’s recipe of 500g of Sloes, 300g of sugar and a bottle of gin.

Biltong

It’s been a while since my last post. Time has been gobbled up with various family commitments (including watching my daughter run the Great North Run) and attending a course at the School of Artisan Food on Curing and Smoking.

On the course we made Duck Procuitto (still drying), pressed Ox Tongue, Ham Hock Terrine and Biltong. The Biltong was quite easy to prepare, just takes a while to dry… Now our daughter is back at university I’ve commandeered her bedroom as the drying room as it’s probably the coolest in the house.

After 10 days I put the drying Biltong in the oven to finish it off. As we used sirloin steak in nice chunky strips I’ve (not by my planning!) ended up with some Biltong that is nicely dry on the outside but retains a tad of moisture on the inside otherwise it’d be like chewing the soles of my shoes.

I suppose Biltong is a bit like Marmite, I love it but I’ve discovered a number of people who don’t. Ah well, more for those I’ve discovered who appreciate it.

Chilli Apple Jelly

Apples, apples everywhere! As fast as we pick them up there are more that are ready to drop. Although we like the occasional apple (and blackberry) pie/crumble we’re not big desert fans. 

I can’t remember which television programme it was, but on Friday night someone mentioned Chilli Apple Jelly. Hmm, that sounds interesting, a way to try something out using the many apples that we have plus we do like chilli as a spice.
A quick search of the internet revealed a recipe on the BBC website that seemed to fit the bill, not too complicated and all of the necessary ingredients to hand. Yesterday afternoon was spent chopping the apples, removing any brown bits and then stewing them to a pulp in a large pan. We then ladled the pulp into a straining bag and left it hanging up for the evening, with a suitable receptacle there to catch the juice. We managed to ‘acquire’ 1.4l of apple juice.
This morning we started the next piece. Not too difficult to follow, just add the preserving sugar and chilli flakes, boil it and remove the scum that forms on the top. As it was boiling the whole mixture was very cloudy and far from appealing. As we removed the scum the chilli flakes were, it appeared, a ‘casualty’ as there was no separating them from the scum. By the time the mixture had reached the setting point there was clearly less fluid in there than when we started, down from 1.2l to under 1.0l (we only used 1.2l as we didn’t have enough preserving sugar). It was though very clear and and a lovely chilli red colour.
The jelly was ladled into a couple of preserving jars and the tiny bit that remained was put into a bowl and on the table at lunchtime…it didn’t last long!! The conclusion that we can draw from this is that we’ll have to make some more very soon as although the BBC website says it will keep for up to two years, fat chance of that happening!!