Makin' Bacon!

Short Version: We made bacon.

Long Version: Two years ago while in New Orleans for the ELCA National Youth Gathering, we went to Chef Donald Link’s Cochon restaurant, which was incredible. Next door to the restaurant was Cochon Butcher, where they make a great deal of really awesome products, most of the porcine variety. It too was incredible, so much so that  I brought back a whole cooler full of tasso,  andouille, boudin, and pâté.

    Last year Chef Link came out with an award winning cookbook,  Real Cajun.  The award was the James Beard Award, which is like the Pulitzer Prize of Food. I got the book for Christmas, and one day in March Alice discovered that it had a recipe for bacon.  She suggested we should make our own. After about a week doing some research, we decided to give it a try, although our version would be the “wet” version endorsed by Alton Brown rather than Chef Link’s “dry” cure.  We also decided that we would use “cold” (70-80 degrees) smoke rather than “hot” (140 degrees).

7 lbs of pork belly from Caughman's Meats

Marinating in the brine for 4 days

Drying out so the pellicles can form.  Pellicles are kind of thin skin or membrane.  Think of the skin on Jello or pudding if you don't cover it in the fridge.  The smoke sticks to the pellicles. Without adequate pellicles, you get sooty meat.

The Hardware (Yes that's duct tape, but HIGH TEMPERATURE duct tape!)

The Hot Box

The Cold Box

The Smoke Pipe

Smokin'!

After 5 hours.

    It took less than a hour to put all this together. The boxes I got from work, and they were perfect, but it was a very windy day, so we really couldn't see how much smoke was being produced.  Next time I'll shoot for a calm day and hopefully be able to judge the smokiness better.  We thought the computer fan would work well, but it ate 9 volt batteries very quickly, so we wound up with a 4 inch personal fan plugged in. 

    How'd it turn out?  It was very good! It was not near as salty as regular bacon (maybe only 25%?) which is good, and it doesn't have nitrites in it, which is also good.  (Side note, when Alice was pregnant with the chaps, she had to give up nitrites, so she had to make do with sausage only, no bacon or ham!) We made excellent BLTs with it that night, and had it for breakfast the next day. We've since used it to make praline bacon with, which turned out very well. The only real drawback to me, was that it is impossible to slice bacon well and truly and hemingwayesque unless it is mostly frozen.  If it is totally frozen, you can still do it, but it takes a while!

    We will definitely do this again, but probably not right now, at least not this way. You really should not let the meat get over 80 degrees during the smoking, unless you're going all the way up to 140-150.  By the time I get around to trying it again, I think it will be too warm for that.

PI(E) Day

Sunday a week ago, we had Pi(e) Day at church as a fund raiser for the Youth Mission Trip.  We had sweet and savory pies, told pi jokes, sang American Pie(Lutheranized) and of course someone got  Pie In The Face!  We spent about 3 hours in the kitchen on Saturday afternoon, and about 3 more Sunday Morning! The Kids did a great job!

For Entrées we had Chicken Pot Pie and Chili Frito Pie, with sides of Strawberry Pretzel Pie, Tomato Pie, and Collard Pie with Hoppin’ John Crust, but the real stars are the desserts pies:

Key Lime Pie

Berry Pie

Kentucky Derby Pie

Pecan Pie

Peanut-butter Pie
Apple Pies

Chocolate Pie

Chocolate Chip Pie

Sweet Potato Pie

And of course, Moon Pies!

We raised almost a Thousand Dollars!  How cool is that for Pi(e)?

On a slightly different yet related note, Alice and I were unable to partake of all the festivities. We had just about gotten everybody served when Stewart called to say he had been in an accident in Catherine's car. Thankfully, nobody was severely injured, thanks to airbags and intervention by Ultimate Higher Authority.

Cabo's Fresh Tacos

We heard about this place a while back, but didn't get there until today. We were all very sorry we hadn't made there it sooner. It's less than half a block from work, which could be bad.  Today was Five  Dollar Friday.  $5 got you a taco, chips & salsa, and a drink with free refills.  We all got tacos, duh: Chicken, Grilled Shrimp, Fried Shrimp, and Veggie.  The tacos are double wrapped cornmeal tortillas, with a really good slaw in addition to the named filling. All the tacos were good, but the salsa was killer. Lots of roasted goodness in it, with enough heat to make you notice,  but not hurt yourself.  We also split a side of their Cabo Pups, which are hush puppies with Jalapeños, cheese, etc. Good, but not exceptional, and very filling(they're plum sized).  

We didn't get a chance to really study the menu, but we can do that next week, because beside the salsa, the really cool part is that they mark your receipt.  If you come back within 7 days,  you get 20% off. Not a bad trick, huh?  Cabo's is only open for lunch, sadly. 

I'm back!

Sorry it's been a while.  We had illnesses and surgeries of various sorts over the last month, but things are more better now! Lots of stuff to talk about and hopefully I'll catch up over the next couple of weeks.  

Spring Break started for the Chaps last Friday, so we were all at Surfside for a long weekend. Catherine's roomie, Anthea, had to go back to Charleston yeasterday, so as we drove down Highway 17 we stopped in Beautiful Scenic Awendaw for lunch at the SeeWee Cafe

My dad found out about this place when he was volunteering at the United Methodist Retreat center just down the road. His crew would come for breakfast and/or lunch. Excellent Salads, Fish, Scallops, Veggie Plates, and FREE HUSH PUPPIES! The Fried Green Tomatoes and Butter Peas were good, but the Collards and Red Rice stole the show!  The Collards were almost creamy, while the Red Rice had bits of smoked sausage that gave up a wonderful flavor.  Very Very Nice!