Curing Bacon with Grass-fed Homestead
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 16 เม.ย. 2017
- Is it really safe to cure bacon and hang it in your kitchen? We turned to Dan at The Grass-fed Homestead, who has made meatsmithing and charcuterie his passion and he guided us through the process and answered all our questions. Sometimes having someone walk you through the process is the best way to learn a new skill!
Watch Dan make Paleo (no sugar) Bacon: • Traditional Bacon Curi...
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For those in NC, we got our pork bellies from Grateful Growers in Denver, NC: grateful-growers-farm.homegro...
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Jaime and Jeremy
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Established in 2015 and now nestled in the foothills of North Carolina, Guildbrook Farm is a modern mountain homestead in pursuit of developing a more self sustainable way of life. From planting, growing, canning and preserving our own food to managing our forests and land resources, our life long journey demonstrates preparedness, DIY projects, strategies and ideas that you can practice to help increase your own self sufficiency and balance with the land. Follow along as we continue to develop a little homestead in the mountains of Appalachia. - แนวปฏิบัติและการใช้ชีวิต
I loved it!! Great job Jaime!! Now I need to go eat some bacon...
A note to the viewers - if the bacon is too salty, you can soak the pieces you're about to cook in water for a few minutes. The water will absorb back into the meat a little and dilute the salt
Thank YOU for your help Dan! I will never buy grocery store bacon again thanks to you! But seriously...having this constantly in my kitchen is killing me. I want bacon ALL THE TIME!
was wondering for longer storage could you vacume seal and freeze it?
I have yearned for a life style change, the rural life was beckoning, that dream was stifled when a surgery caused a damming stroke. But you have rekindle that yearning. I can kickstart it by challenging with small scale tasks. Salt bacon to be the first. I hope you are able to reply to my question, can brown sugar be used with the coarse salt? and how about crystalized maple syrup. Thank you both for sharing.
Abbie Balcom 1
Someone may have already mentioned this or you may have thought of it, but you can soak the bacon for just a bit and then fry or bake it and it will leach out some of the salt. That is what we do for fatback, streaked meat and jowl bacon. We actually parboil it for just a minute or so.
We just processed our hog this last weekend and are using the curing process that we learned in Dans video. We really enjoyed this collaboration video you made with him! Very well done!👍👍
Isn't he a wealth of information?! :0) Thanks for watching!
This was great. I like mine smoked. I have to thank you for the video. I lost my Dad a year ago, an old man of 87 years from the old country, and he hated wet bacon. He would complain for days about it if someone sold him wet slimy bacon. lol this made me smile. Thank you.
LOL! Well I think smoking is next on the list, but likely not until the fall when things slow down a bit ;0)
O my goodness ... I’m definitely a visual learner because it didn’t seep in until you ‘followed his directions’... thank you!
You always come up with great ideas! I can't even find a lb. of bacon at the store anymore, they are all 12 oz. packages with an average price of $6.50.
+TheGaff Let us know if you try it!
These collabs are just the best.
I just told my wife we are going to cure bacon. She was grossed out when I referenced store bacon as "slimy". I think I made a case and we will be curing soon! Thanks Jaime and Dan !!!
+Fred Seeburger Yep the slime comment is what does it!
When he held up the bacon drying rack I went, "Oh, a tie rack. How creative." It's a real thing, but I suppose you could use a metal "over the door" or tie rack with the plastic caps removed? Thanks for the video, I've subscribed to Grass-fed now, too! Thanks for continuing traditions that are being lost.
Loved this collaboration!!!! Thank you!
That was really cool. I love the collaboration and that you say I am not the expert but here is someone that I am learning from. Thanks for sharing that info. I follow Dan already but I hadn't seen his bacon video. Man oh man, there is so much to learn lol. Thanks for sharing. Janice
Wow, you guys pulled together a great collab! Dan is awesome and the information is easy to follow and beautifully captured. I mean how can you go wrong with a "better bacon" video. Thanks for sharing!!!!!
So glad you enjoyed it! We really loved doing a collab with Dan :0)
Chick-a-Woof Ranch ditto!!
Thanks guys :)
Good for y'all! You will probably never go back. I've got 8 bellies curing right now, be ready to rinse Friday, bloom overnight in the fridge and hit the smokehouse (Love Shack) on Saturday for about 7 or 8 hrs. Smoke will change your life.....you have a skilled handyman! Our house is 4x4' so I have plenty of room, send me your bellies and I'll smoke them for you! Smoke is a game changer.....
I'm totally gonna build one. 😊
You will love it!
When I was young my grandmother would put the bacon in water to take out some of the salt, it would sit room temp. And she would change out the water a few times in that day.
That does help! We did it like that also after this initial taste test
I love Dan and his family - Little Buddy and Penny (the loner guard llama) are great entertainment! :)
Aren't they such a great family?! :0)
Absolutely! :)
:)
Geez...WHY do we even buy that stuff at the store?!?! The slimy bacon response is spot on...great and helpful video!
great video. I just found Dan's channel through Justin Rhodes' farm tour videos. I have my grandfather's recipe but it is help to see the process as I was a child when he did it.
Smoked chicken is also really good too. It comes out almost like ham, only more juicey.
No ref ridge needed after curing is a big plus. If it’s to salty for you, soak it water, cold one hour before cooking.
Great video. I am excited to try it . Thank you for all your great videos!
I cannot remember much, I was too young, but I remember my grandparents wrapped in their meat in cloth, pre smoking, but they didn't smoke all of it.
Interesting. I imagine the cloth was to prevent bugs, but not sure why the partial smoke. Let us know if you remember why!
Another great video guys. My first time curing bacon from a hog we received at a local Farm was a total flop, it was way too salty. I will definitely be following this process and trying it again soon, thanks again for the great video.
BTW.. I felt the same way about making homemade sauerkraut for the first time. How on Earth could a vegetable sitting on the counter for 2 weeks be good for you?... I was sold after the first batch and will never buy sauerkraut again from the grocery store. It's super easy to make and an excellent way of preserving cabbage. Again... we love your videos and keep up the good work.
Cool! I’m just getting started by gathering info, supplies etc.... I’ve always wanted to know how to make bacon. We love it but we didn’t know the slimey stuff was bad either. Going to give it a go! Thank you!
You guys are progressing nicely in your journey of sustanence.
I am just starting my seventh year of prepping/homesteading and I am not leaving you guys in the dust by any means.
My first year garden was 16 sq. ft. (4' X 4') and I'm now at right around 2000 sq. ft and still planning to expand, anywho , kudos, keep up the good work , and GREAT videos !
Good for you! Luckily we aren't in a race - although it feels it this spring with everything happening at once! Thanks for watching :0)
This is the perfect instructional video collaboration.Easy to follow and getting the info and watching you apply it was great!
Your videos are great and I appriciate the time you spend giving clear instructions and enough info to really feel confident in trying things.Thanks
+Jessica Compton - Great! We're glad they are actually helpful to people because that's what we're trying to do. 👍🏻
This was so interesting! I'm.so glad I know now. I've never been a huge fan of bacon, but now I think my body somehow knew that weird slimy stuff wasn't really bacon. I'm excited to do this myself and taste the difference. Thanks so much for this tutorial!
You can soak your bacon slab in water for up to an hour To adjust the saltiness
How timely! We picked up 30# of pork belly on Saturday and began curing it. We built a smoke house (cold smoker) last fall and have only used it for smoking cheeses, salt, and nuts so far. Soon we'll cold smoke our pork bellies! Can't wait for the real deal!!!
Sounds awesome! We hope to build one to and try it!
A way to reduce chewiness and/or brittleness of bacon is pan cook it. A little bit of oil at the start is all you need, as the fat will help cook it the rest of the way :)
Thanks for the tips!
Great job guys. The bacon here in the uk is pumped full of water and sulphates when you try to fry it all the water comes out and the added chemicals make a white slurry which then burns the water that comes out prevents the bacon from frying and instead boils it. Boiled bacon goes hard not crispy. Hard bacon with burnt chemicals put me off buying the stuff. They inject water to increase the weight because water is cheaper than bacon so they can increase their profits. I’m going to try out home made myself. Thanks for making bacon taste good again. I’m old enough to remember when they didn’t inject water and chemicals and can’t wait to try the proper stuff once again. I thought it would be tricky but you have made it look simple. Great job, great video, great tasting bacon.
I'm impressed WOW WOW AND WOW!!!! I'm so doing this. Thank you both
When testing it you should not tell your taste testers which is which until after they have decided what they like. The home cured option may take time but has no 'extra' nasties in it. That is one of the fundamentals of homesteading, getting better quality.
Great video! Now I want to try it! You made it look so simple. I know what I am doing with our pigs this year!
It was super easy!
That is good to Know! Thanks!
At what weight do you process your pigs to get a good amount of bacon?
if you smoke it, you'll see a big diff with a more familiar bacon flavor, thanks for sharing guys.
Hopefully sometime in the fall we will build a smoker
So how did you end up storing it? Did you get hooks? Or did you just keep it in the fridge? I just watched your Pioneer Breakfast video and I guess I hadn't got around to watching this one yet. Love your videos and how-to's. Thank you for taking us along on your journey to being more self sufficient! I'm working on my skills as well.
Our house is humid and humidity is the bane of preserved meat so we just kept it in the fridge
Loved this, especially the comparison to the slimy bacon. Great video once again, thanks!
That is what really got me!
Awesome video! Well produced and very informative. I now want to make bacon (did I mention I'm vegetarian?)! Lol! Will definitely check out Dan's channel.
All vegetarians and vegans secretly love bacon (I know, I was one)..that is why all the faux bacon recipes made out of eggplant and whatnot! ;0)
Just wondering if you had started cooking your store bought bacon before you started filming? I've never seen bacon look like that from the store. We raise and butcher our own pigs and smoke our bacon. We also use the brine method, but I think we will try curing this way. Soaking the bacon in warm water will draw out more of the salt also. Really enjoying the videos. Processing a video on some shout outs to channels I've enjoyed watching. Your channel being one of them.
+AllmendingerNDHouse No we cooked it for the first time on camera. We will look for your video! Thanks for thinking of us!
Your oven, kitchen and fan look very clean. Maybe a video how to keep your kitchen clean :) would love that...
I sort of did: th-cam.com/video/krwF5DxhjQE/w-d-xo.html
awesome.
That was an awesome video!! I really enjoy when you guys do comparisons. I would choose the grass fed pork too. Hope you guys had a great Easter!---Tressa Daigle
+Tressa's Stay at Home Life You too Tressa! Thanks for watching!
thanks, for the information. I am unable to see the description on my cellphone. I am going to try this also. I have learned so much from you. great job!!!
+Josephine Gallegos You should have a little arrow to the right of the title that if you click it, it will expand the description. Hope that helps!
Nice collaboration work guys! Subscribed!
Awesome! You will love their channel!
Thank you!
Jaime, I'm wondering if you considered using Kosher Salt? Wasn't Dan saying the coarser the salt the better? Also with that in mind I wonder if you could use Rock Salt, the kind used in old ice cream makers?
Exactly what I wanted to suggest. I got some Celtic salt/pure salt from evaporated sea wster. Himalayan sea salt isn't as salty
do NOT use rock salt
Store bought products aren't always that healthy. Home grown process meats and vegetables, definitely the way to go. Thank you for sharing the goodness.:)
I completely agree! Thanks for watching Pam
I grew up on home raised animals and we cured our own pigs. We had a smoke house.
Jaime, the thing Dan didn't tell you and you should know is the fact that fats do not absorb salt. Meat does! Less meat on the belly = less salty.
Great video. I feel better about attempting the bacon process. Cheers!!!
My favorite video you've done! I am doing this!!
Awesome! Let us know how it turns out!
After watching this I’m on my way to town to pick up pork belly
Thanks so much Jaime and Dan. My daughter loves her bacon and toast for brekky every morning so l think this would be perfect for me to make it myself. Have always wondered how to do it and thought it was too hard but you guys have shown me it's not. Down under bacon is pretty expensive so am going to find some pork belly and get bacon makin.
YEAA!! It is so very simple! Let us know how you like it!
Blessings
Great job....if you need more flavor, add some organic maple syrup to your cure and it’s amazing, this is how we make ours, now it does add to the cost but so well worth it....
Fun collab! Looking forward to checking out Dans channel. Bacon looks great. What an awesome skill to learn.
All these skills add up! Definitely check out Dan's channel, he has really great vids!
Can you freeze it?
I do it a bit different. Generally as follows... Place the pork belly in a large ziploc bag with the cure - three tablespoons of course salt and an equal amount of maple sugar for five pounds. I also add some nitrites to prevent botulism (it is not the end of the world). Place in the fridge. Turn it over every day for seven days. Remove pork belly from the bag. There will be a lot of liquid to pour out. Rinse and dry off. Smoke the bacon at not more than 225 degrees until the internal temperature is 150 degrees. Cool and slice. Adjust the amount of salt in the cure until you get the desired saltiness. The bacon will be very firm with no shrinkage in the pan. You can add other items to the cure, like garlic. I love it!!
It is not cheap. Pork belly is pricey. You can get bacon way cheaper on sale at the supermarket. But it is not as good as home-cured bacon.
The method you describe is probably intended for long term storage without a fridge. I'll have to try it and see.
can't wait to try this!
It's super easy!
salt every 2 or 3 days than every day. less salty. check youtube for Pancetta, which is Italian bacon. To die for!
Very cool :) I'm going to try it!
so did you find the motivation to try it?
Y'all build you a small smokehouse on your new property. . We grew up on home cured meats, it's easier in a small smokehouse. . Also besides bacon, you can do hams, roasts, loins, etc, not just pork either, beef cures well too
and chickens, turkeys, deer-elk meat oh yeah and FISH...
Thanks for the lessons.
You're welcome!
what about the side cuts?
Has anyone tried to use coconut sugar, instead of cane sugar?
Very cool! And super easy. :)
It really was!
Great vid!
Is it possible to use brown sugar instead of normal sugar?
is it possible to add another seasoning like pepper, or dry garlic?
Yup
Sugar is sugar and your body will see it that way.
What excellent info! Going to try this!!
+ebony5766 Yeaa! Let us know how it turns out!
Great video! I Like watching Dan's journey too.
Isn't he great?! I love his "borrowed" llama!
Fun timing -
I just watched his video a few days ago.
He's got a lot of great info on there!
local meat processing companies
ask if someone did not pick up
you can buy
I smoke mine. I raise my own pigs. I use apple wood. Where I live smoking is old way to do it. My pop was from SC. And he salt cured his.
I’m going to definitely build a smoke house at some point 👍🏻
@@Guildbrookfarm my farm is an old place. And there was a old stone smoke house that needed some repair. But there is plenty of stones in the field. So all it took was time to put it back into working order.
I am a small farmer. Only milking 120. I am organic. And my farm is off the grid. I have three windmills and a digester. Cutting out the power bill and fuel bill which are two of the biggest expenses of farming.
Fantastic!
Cool collaboration! A timely video for me, since we just had two hogs processed. I'm going to try this. However, the butcher sliced the bellies for us, so I'm thinking that will make for extra saltiness. That little unicorn stole the show.
Ah yes I don't think you can do it if it is presliced. I think there are wet cures you can use that you may want to research.
Is there a way to cure without using salt?
For us low sodium folk.
Smoke it
So try long wise like Tracy below said. Maybe also use sea salt if you did not already. Love the idea.
I wonder if you actually made "salt pork" instead of actual unsmoked bacon, but this video was very helpful. I wonder how this would be if pressure-canned for shelf-storage? Thank you!
Would it be less salty if you used even coarser salt? There are some sea salt available that is almost like rock salt.
I think so. I bough "course sea salt" but I think there is ice cream salt that is courser. I may try that next time
Thank you, very nice video and interesting. I like the fact we can make bacon without all those preservatives!! It does not seem to be terribly difficult. It is doable . Thank you Jaime, for sharing. Also, Thank you to the tasters for their opinion. Blessings Laura M
It was very easy! Try it!
Excellent video!! Now ya gotta teach us to smoke it! I bet it's extra amazing smoked! Thank you both for all your help. You're awesome!!!!! God Bless! ~Lisa
+Lisa Booker - I'm gonna build a smoker!
Can you can the bacon or Mylar/oxygen bag it?
I am going to try this..thank you...better then the preservatives in slimy bacon
Awesome video thanks for sharing.
Smoke that bacon and it will be even better!
so try slicing it long wise; and see if it is more tender? is there a way to get it not to be so salty?
+Tracy Bruring Yes courser salt or less salt or you can soak it before cooking. This was our first try and it was still very good!
Go Jamie, you rock girl!
Wondering if you put less salt for a few more days if that would make it taste less salty?
I think I just needed a courser salt. I got only what they had at the store but I think I can find much courser. It was very good regardless!
Awesome enjoy 😃
Not that I'm saying homemade bacon isn't better (because it totally is), but the "slime" factor isn't a big issue. Pork is a fatty meat and when sliced up and vacuum sealed, even homemade can get a little slimy to the touch. Store bought can still be good, just make sure that it is free of potassium nitrite and other unnecessary preservatives (sodium nitrite isn't the best for you either but is very widely used). If you run out of homemade, try a local butcher shop- they sell fresh and don't usually add anything unnecessary to the product.
Can you use some smoked sea salt in place of regular sea salt for a few days? Please make a video when you try the maple syrup. Thanks so much!
Interesting Marilee! I bet that would be awesome assuming you could find extra course smoked sea salt (and assuming it was all natural and not chemically flavored). I will be trying different variations of this and possibly try smoking in the fall.
oh yea! love me some bacon!! Great video thank you!
Try using brown sugar the next time. I think you will like it better.
mexican muscovado sugar makes the best bacon
I've always fried bacon in a pan. is there much of a difference when you make it in the oven?
+Walter O'Bringer No...you just just do more in an oven at one time
And your stovetop stays cleaner!😁 I find when I make bacon (always in the oven) that it can seem like it's taking forever at first. Meaning not much seems to change in the first 10 - 15 minutes. But then it's like a light switch going off in the last 5 minutes cooking very quickly. If that makes sense. Check it more frequently after 10 - 15 min for a total cooking time of 15 - 20 minutes @ 375°. Hope this helps.
Wet cure vs dry cure. It's all about preference
Now, who'da thunk? This is very interesting and educational! Thank you so much for posting. I got a kick out of your youngest. Don't think she was very willing to jump on the Bacon Bandwagon with this one. That's what big sisters are for...if they don't croak first, maybe you'll try it. So sweet. On another note, we love grilled pork belly cooked on a grill in Korean dishes. But then again...it's pig. Pig is good.
Great vid. love seeing the whole family involved, even if the kids are guinea pigs. lol we butchered our first hog this year and sold half to another family. worst decision ever, next year i am keeping the whole hog. Fun watching you guys, can't wait for the next one
Oh they don't mind taste testing...they were panting off screen waiting for a bite ;0)
love, love bacon! Wondering if you can use honey instead of sugar ? Friends of ours have bees and produce beautiful honey .
Keep up the great work and videos!
I know you can use maple syrup...not sure about honey. Sounds good to me though!
I use honey, with a salt & brown sugar mixture, all the time.
Awesome! My uncle was a butcher when I was a kid and we had homegrown/made bacon and there's nothing like it! I bet if you smoked it over some hickory or apple wood, it would be much more like the flavors they inject into the slime strips. I bet Jeremy fashioned a hook for you some ingenious way, too. Thanks for the video. guys.
We may try smoking in the fall (well depending on how much we have going on). But it is definitely in the plans! Hope all is going well with you guys on your homestead!
Oh man, my patience is waaaay past gone but there was some positive forward motion yesterday. You know I'll keep you posted :D
Thank you Dan! Oh I'm sorry😭 thank you to Jaime✌️
Would it be ok to vacuum pack and freeze this bacon?
Absolutely
mmmmm bacon. I'm sorry. were you saying something.....mmmmm...bacon
I hear ya ;0)
Yummy 😋
Silly question: since it is fully cured, can you eat it without "recooking" it?
cured...not cooked.
yes, but you cooked it in the oven, yes? My understanding is that you could eat it as is. Like prosciutto. Is this correct?
Sonia Lipp You peaked my interest. I did a little research www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2620635/ . The problem is Trichinosis en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trichinosis . I appears that curing may or may not destroy the Trichinella parasite; adding to the problem is different stains of Trichinella are more hardy than others. The cured hams that are traditionally eaten raw have pig rearing processes that greatly reduce Trichinella infection AND testing for Trichinella after butcher. While these homesteaders are doing a great job caring for their animals, if infected wildlife enters the pigs' area and deficates (the infection causes diarrhea, yum) and the pigs consume the tainted food, you have an infection.
great answer and very comprehensive! thank you. I know some cultures eat this meat (bacon) raw and wondered... also prosciutto is not RE cooked, but eaten only cured. thanks again!
+Sonia Lipp Good point on the prosciutto. I think those types of meats have a different curing process that involves aging. I wouldn't eat this bacon without cooking it
No pink curing salt? Not sure where to get the meat, grass fed or conventional around here. but sound intresting to try. We have a smoker we havent used for years. There is one place that raises organic, but that's not the same thing.
Try LocalHarvest.org. They may have some places local to you
OurHalfAcreHomestead, makes bacon that don't taste like salt. I've made her bacon before the family love, but I will try the in and out each day.
It didn't taste like salt, just a bit more salty than grocery store bacon. But I will definitely check out her video and see what she did different. Thanks for sharing!
yes, use dark maple sugar and you won't' be disappointed!