Remembering my first firepit cooked food

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atomicsmoke

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Apr 3, 2014
4,313
1,235
Toronto, Canada
I tried for a long time to remember the first open fire/outdoor cooked food I had. All my memories point to roasted bacon on a stake. OK...this is loosely called bacon...it has barely any meat...is the fat portion of the pork belly. This would be cured in salt before Christmas (cold weather time), dried a little when cured than cold smoked. Then dried some more. After smoking and drying would last for a year at room temps.

Back in my highschool/university days this bacon would be subsistence food on multiday hiking or camping trips. Ice boxes were not practical the way we traveled (train, bus) and fresh food would take more space anyway. A slab of bacon would feed you for days. Compact, full of calories (good thing at that time) filling. Along the way we would pick up cheese and milk from shepperds with grazing sheep in the mountainous regions, some vegs from farmers. Bacon was great as a cold cut for lunch with fresh cheese and tomatoes. But the real feast happened in the evening when we set camp, start a fire and got roasting going.

Of course this was mainstream "BBQ" not reserved for remote camping only. I had roasted bacon in our backyard with my parents since I can remember.

Today's roasted bacon process looks like this:
- 3 pieces of bacon a one guanciale

- makeshift roasting stakes (any wood stick will do)
- as the bacon roasts you collect the rendered fat on a slice of bread topped with green onion

- guanciale half way thru

- bacon ready



Please don't tell my doctor...
 
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My kids were not too crazy about the idea of eating "roasted fat". They participated anyway for the campfire fun...but once we sat at the table and tried it out they wanted seconds.
 
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Now that right there is old-school for sure.

Looks delicious! Not surprised your kids wanted seconds.
 
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