Black bacon experiment

[British Red]

I'd use apple wood for taste. A little smoke for a long time to get the penetration.
Mesquite might be OK as would any other junk fruitwoods (pear/plum/apricot/peach).
I want to see the bacon fat just about yellow from smoke.

1/4" slice with rind to fry. The rind skin gives me something to chew on, all day long.

I always do a big apple wood smoke for the first hour in my BBQ. I'm convinced that some of that evaporates
during the rest of the cooking time (2-4 hours) at 275F.

There's a guy in this village that makes prociutto and panchetta. I've tried for years to get on his list.
Always "too late for this year". I need somebody else to do it for me to buy.

Fiona loves rind on. It depends what I'm doing with it for me

 

[British Red]

Hey Red, i've done the cure with black treacle and i'd definitely go with smoked, rind on always. The unsmoked was delicious, but cold smoking it over maple took it to another level. I also added some cayenne to the cure.............Wow!

PS, why is this on the Sub zero area???

I'll smoke it then! As for Sub Zero...um...I thought I posted in food.

Blame my old age!

 

[British Red]

A nice wood to use in the smoker is Juniper branches.

Pine is also traditionally used.

In fact, across Europe, I think most woods are used. Maybe not Yew though, unless the meat is a gift to Mother-in-law??

Quebecois 'smoked meat' is a travesty.

I tried pine once. Never again. Tasted like creosote

 

[British Red]

Smoked maple cured bacon is my all time favourite. I've no idea how it's done , maple syrup in the cure perhaps?

Dry cured with Maple syrup instead of sugar making a paste

 

[British Red]

You need to visit a First Nations smoke house somewhere along the Skeena River in BC.
Everybody has a car garage. Everybody parks in the driveway. The garage is a smoke house.
Every able bodied family shares in the responsibility to make certain that the elders get enough to eat.

Maybe 200 salmon in there. No brine, no nuthin', just alderwood smoke for a week.
They never had sugar. Sea salt was made but in small quantities.
The concept is to dry the fish as well as preserve them as a large part of the winter food supply.

I don't see much but prociutto and panchetta where drying is a key part of the preservation. True?
Can you reconstitute dried slab or slice bacon? Kinda, sorta?

Oh yes. Old high salt flitch was soaked before use

 

[Janne]

Sorry, I translated wrong.
Should be Fir.

Yes, a strong taste. When using those kind of woods, you need very little.

Juniper boughts ( thin branches with needles) have you tried that?

Fish like Mackerel is great with softwoods, specially Juniper!

The technique is to use dry split wood, a good smokeless fire, then have bits of branches (soaked in water beforehand) on top.

Works well with Juniper and Fir, (the tree with the short needles).

I guess our FennoScandi palates are used to stronger flavours. Tar (as in pitch) are losenges very tasty to us!

 

[British Red]

Yes, a strong taste. When using those kind of woods, you need very little.

Juniper boughts ( thin branches with needles) have you tried that?

Fish like Mackerel is great with softwoods, specially Juniper1

.

I haven't but I do grow some Juniper. I have an old plum tree to fell soon. I'm making sawdust from it!

 

[Janne]

Just check it is the proper Juniper. I am not knowleagable enough to know if all are harmless and tasty.

The berries mature blue, and have a sweetish flavor. You like them to flavor your home made Gin or Genever ( if you are an adventurous Brit!)

Just saw this in Daily Fail. Seems us Scandihooligans like the taste of tar since prehistory!


https://www.dailymail.co.uk/science...5-700-year-old-Norwegian-hunter-gatherer.html


Never smoked using Plum wood. Delicious I am sure!

 

[Robson Valley]

First Nations here traditionally have been using Alder for salmon.
Little fire, low smoke, maybe a week or more.Keeps the smoke house just abov freezing.
On the north coast, the FN use alder for a few days and cedar for a few days.
Some, they cut into chunks and soak in a maple syrup marinade.
Called "salmon candy," it is addictive.

For ribs, chickens, shanks, potatoes and corn and soon to be a meat rabbit,
I use several dry rub mixes and I like fruit woods and apple in particular.

 

[santaman2000]

Fir makes more sense. It’s closer to Eder than pine and cedar is common for “planking” fish.

 

[Janne]

I have searched Swedish recipes online and pine nedleds are used to smoke fatty fish lie salmon, eel and mackerel.
I had no clue.
The pine is called Scots Pine, Pinus Sylvestris

My guess is that the amount of brining, heat, type of smoke producent and length of time was adjusted to the food smoked.

I do not like Smoked Gouda.

 

[Robson Valley]

Janne, I can't imagine anything worse than pine-smoked fish. Nothing.
We use toilet bowl cleaner with a pine scent.
Given what they have for wood, alder grows around the world in Taiga. Use it.

You have to think about diffusion times for the smoke. You can't hammer that stuff into the meat.
I run slow and steady apple wood smoke for the first hour in the smoker BBQ. Maybe 275F for 3-5 hours.
That's maybe 2 big handfuls of wood chunks, no more.
Cut into the meat at the table and you can see the pink "smoke ring" maybe 1/4" into the meat.
That's enough. Too much goes like creosote stinky.

 

[Janne]

I think you would spit out the Finnish Tar losenges then!
https://images.app.goo.gl/n4u5FHzJg3pX1nXk7

Tar and licorice.

Interesting reads!
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/finland/articles/finland-love-tar-flavoured-food/

https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/using-pine-spruce-or-fir.119142/

Sorry to be off topic, but it ties in a bit.

 

[TLM]

Only alder for smoking, juniper is used for flavor. Hereabouts I don't think anyone uses pine or fir for smoking fish, the resulting taste would be something from a far away galaxy. The "berry" of a juniper is really a cone biologically, Juniperus communis is the one used for flavor.

 

[Janne]

I assume you speak Swedish, do a search! I was also surprised that conifer was used ( Tall / Tall barr ) in Sweden.

Juniper needles and branches are truly fantastic. I would say it is my preferred wood for smoking fish.

( I look forward the new Star Wars movie too! )

 

[TLM]

My spoken Swedish is somewhat rusty but I still understand
most of what I read.

One of my first tries in smoking fish over half a century ago (wish I could not say that) no one really told me what to use so I used the easiest available, birch and pine. Even after skinning those perches nobody could eat them.

It has been alder ever since.

 

[British Red]

The curing and dry aging is complete. Its a very firm finish, there will be no ooze when frying!

 

[Janne]

I could see myself having some thick slices, gently fried in a pan, a couple of Free Range eggs.............
For Dinner, not Breakfast though.
I want my taste buds to be fully awake.

 

[British Red]

Funnily enough our pedigree Cream Legbars are laying well right now, as well as our Buff Orpingtons so there's plenty of eggs

 

[baggins]

ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! It's almost pancetta looking. What time are you serving ?