I’m trying something savoury this week.

This week’s bacon is cured with garlic, pepper, bay leaves, and juniper berries.
It should be ready to smoke by next Wednesday.

[27/09/11] Update:

Had to smoke 2 days early because some nasty weather is coming. It’s pretty firm, but may be slightly under-cured.

Its aroma has a hard-to-place sweetness about it from the bay leaves, but this is nicely tempered by the crushed juniper berries.

As usual, we start up the smoker nice and early.

Pictures of cooked bacon coming. It will need a day in the fridge for the taste to stabilise, but it’s pretty good. Lightly flavoured due to short curing time, but still nice.

So. It’s been a while, but I’ve just finished curing some maple-pork-belly bacon. Tomorrow, we smoke!

[14/09/11] Update: The smoking…

It’s good to see that the smoker still works (although it’s a little rusty), but I’m looking forward to buying an electric smoker next year so I can start cold-smoking.

Today’s smoke will be Hickory:

Aaaaaand… we’re off!

1 degree to go! Note that the thermometer says beef because it won’t let you cook pork at bacon-smoking temperatures (the bastard):

And here’s the (almost) finished product – a cured, smoked, pork belly (whole pork loin, without the bones, is a better cut, but harder to come by):

It’s best to let it cool overnight in the fridge before slicing, but I’m so excited I can’t wait:

It’s important to note that the bacon (especially the end pieces) will taste quite salty at first, but it will mellow if you keep it, uncovered, in the fridge for a day or 2.
Finally, we fry it up:

Delicious!

[20/09/11] Update: Michele and I have been eating bacon pretty much every day since I made this (we just ran out, today), and I have to say that it’s improved heaps with age.

• The chicken’s brining, and the sausages are made.
  They’re a little dry (partially due to their low fat content), but I think they’ll be fine as long as they’re cooked fast.
• I’ll be skipping the smoked chicken breasts and, instead, lightly smoking the ginger-szechuan chicken.
• Ribs will be made on-the-fly tomorrow.

I’ve scaled back on the spice, this time, as many of tomorrow’s guests aren’t nuts about spicy food.

Update: Just sauteed one of each type of sausage over medium-high heat, and they’re great! I think it was the griller that was drying them out.

Meet SAUSAGETRON, from planet chorizo:

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I’ll be hosting the annual masturbacon meatfest next Saturday.

Currently on the menu:

• Mild italian pork sausage
• Mexican-style chorizo
• Ginger-szechuan brined chicken
• Smoked chicken breasts with maple-pomegranate glaze
• Satan ribs (if I can be arsed)

Unfortunately, I ruined the entire batch of 34 sausages at the last minute. Which was a pity; they were great (although a little dry).

I’ll be uploading the photos tomorrow – there were a LOT of sausages. And the smell was awesome (garlic, red wine, and gin).

I just picked up around 3.5kg of boned boar leg. This weekend, I’ll be making boar sausages!

Stay tuned…

I brewed up a batch of maple-bourbon brine, which I used to cure a couple of pork tenderloins.

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While my first attempt at Mexican-style chorizo was not entirely successful, their texture and flavour have vastly improved after being dried in the fridge overnight.

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Tonight, I’m going to be trying out a new recipe for Mexican-style Chorizo sausage. It includes Ancho and Chipotle chillis, and tequila.

Stay tuned…