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Mmm… Homemade Bacon
We had a 3 pound piece of belly leftover from the pork belly with mustard greens we did the other day in the pressure cooker. I’ve done homemade bacon before but this time I wanted to try it with the pink salt cure. This one sat in the fridge with a cure of brown sugar, kosher salt, and a little pink salt. We applied the cure as a dry rub, bagged it it plastic and let it go for a week, turned over daily. Here it is after the week was up, rinsed and air drying. Overnight drying is best but 4 hours will do.
After the slab dried it was rubbed with maple sugar and coarse black pepper and placed into the smoker at 175 degrees for a few hours. It still hadn’t reached an internal temp of 150 but I didn’t want it too smoky so it was finished in the oven indoors. It was cooled to room temp, bagged in plastic, and put back into the fridge for another overnighter.
It wants to be chilled for easier slicing. One of the benefits of home curing is that you can slice it as thick as you want it. I’m a little disappointed in what Kroger sells as “thick sliced”.
The maple sugar in the finish turns a nice crusty caramel color when frying. I have one more half slab of pork belly in the freezer, I’m tempted to pull it and start more bacon.
Tidbits
Gabe waits for his dog mama, she won’t be gone long because she misses her dog boy.
We eat some of the tomatoes fresh! I set a few aside when we are processing for soup or stewed for canning. I try to get the best ones – no marks or splits or spots. This sammich started out wanting to be a BELT but I didn’t have the lettuce so it just gets billing as a breakfast sammich. Brunch, actually, we don’t get up early enough…
I used up some odds and ends of pasta for this one. I still have plenty of parsley, the caterpillars that were eating it have gone away. Still have a hornworm or two – they seem to be specializing on my hot peppers now that the patio tomatoes are gone. 
We love these upside down cakes. I cut them into single serving squares and freeze them in plastic containers. They really hit the spot for late night snacks while watching videos.
More cookies! These are my current favorites. I’ve been leaving out the almonds and adding raisins. I’ve made these often enough that I can do them without looking at the recipe.
Mmm… French toast and garlic pepper sausages. The sausages are from that processing plant we travel to a few time a year to stock up. They have the best ham hocks, and they are the closest place I know that has fresh pork bellies. I buy a couple, cut them in two, and vacuum seal the halves for the big freezer.
Mrs J said we have plenty of tomato soup canned. I think she mentioned 40 quarts. Well, we better get busy with it! I used a veggie peeler to shave Parmesan for a garnish.
Mmm… smoked pork makes a fine sammich. The sides are potato salad in the back and bacon, tomato, and basil pasta salad.
I’ll wind this one up with a few cute kittehs.
Tidbits
French toast and those teeny breakfast sausages are a big hit around here, Mrs J is up for this anytime. Me, too!
This is another Harvey rescue. Cute as a button and already adopted. SQUEEE!
Kroger has these chicken quarters on sale pretty often. I think they are asking about $1/lb. I usually buy several packages and put them away in vacuum bags.
Crinkle fries and baked beans with the chicken are just perfect. Mrs J is the crinkle fries fan, but I’m no slouch at putting them away.
More of that crockpot Italian beef, this one on a deli bought roll.
This is a really hopeful looking kitteh. It’s not a Harvey rescue but don’t let that stop you! http://www.stfrancis-care.org/
One moar!
I just pulled this lasagna from the oven. It’s made with those no boil noodles. We are going to have it for dinner tonight and I’ll have more photos later.
