Kiwi bacon

[johnyd]

Ok guys and gals, here is my latest attempt, you guys call this buck board, we just call it shoulder bacon, I dont know if you roll yours like this but it gives it shape for when you slice.

I left the rind on this one....... something I dont normally do but thought I'd go with that just for a change.

The wood I used for smoking comes from the Pohutukawa tree ....a native tree of New Zealand that is protected ....... these chunks came from a tree damaged in a storm so its all "kosha"

here is my shoulder butt all boned out and has gone thru 8 days in a zip loc bag along with the usuall pink salt cane sugar etc I added some coffee grounds for a savoury flavour

As I was double smoking I decided to add some colby cheese for the first stage, and here is the tied and rolled green bacon

Here we are in the smoker and a nice TBS floating up. I did the cheese for 3 hrs and the bacon had 4 hrs cold smoke first

This shows the deep colour the cheese went to, along side is two bits of the wood I used....... no they're not pieces of bacon lol

So as I was now going to apply the charcoal I opted to smoke a couple of chicken breasts, heres what they looked like after 2 hrs

After 4 hrs out came the bacon I think it looks ok!

and the other side

So after a night resting in the fridge it was time to undo the string and run it thru the slicer ....... the black flecks you see are pepper and coffee grinds

 

[beer-b-q]

Looks Great...

 

[scarbelly]

Great looking stuff. Interesting with the rolling of the bacon.

 

[tyotrain]

Great looking bacon bet it will be tasty

 

[SmokinAl]

Looks real good, never seen it rolled before. What was the reason for rolling it?

 

[bluebombersfan]

Looks delicious, the slices look pretty good with it rolled up!

 

[bassman]

Good looking bacon.  I guess with rolling it like that, you only need one slice for your BLT.

 

[Bearcarver]

Looks GREAT, Johnyd !

Very nice!

Is it just me, or does the top one on the right look like a fetus?

Bear

 

[fpnmf]

Looks delicious!!

   Craig

 

[nogoer]

Wow thats wicked cool looking bacon! The rolling reminded me of a psuedo recipe i saw in Rytek's sausage book. It's a german cured pork called Shickenspeck (sp?) which is a belly rolled around a loin. Shoulder rolled up i bet is almost the same taste, just less fat. I never did find a recipe for making Shickenspeck though, same deal with authentic kassler ripchen. I'm getting all pysched up to make some shoulder bacon now. If you get it tight enough it will look like pancetta!

 

[roller]

Thats different but it does look like it would work...but we can`t do it because we do not have any PKU&^%FBGT%$#  wood !

 

[johnyd]

when its rolled and it cools down after the smoke, the fats and gel set in that shape and hold it all together. Maybe its a hang over from our English forbears I know that the butchers here have rolled it for years, so rolled bacon is probably a tradition ( and they could fit more in the brine bath ) It takes away the "taggy look" you get on the bone side when its boned out.

Hey Bear carver your right! that bacon on the right does have the shape of...........oh I dont think I can eat it now 

 ( oh yes I can) Its easy to get the roll tight so long as the meat isnt too thick for its width.

As you can see from the photo of it "lying on its back" 6th shot down this was a little thick for its width, ideally the skin edges should almost join up.

If you want to attempt a roll hjeres a couple of tips

make a large overhand knot in some jute twine (butchers twine) slip the meat through this and form your roll. starting from the centre cinch down the knot and keep working the roll "round" dont worry if its not real tight at this stage. tie this knot of with another overhand knot on top.

The easy way (cheats way) is to now make another seperate loop 1 1/2 inches along the length and just work either side of the first knot alternating untill you reach the outside.

Its usually done with one continuous thread and linked together but I couldnt figure a way to describe the technique.