It's Alive!

As I mentioned in a previous post I got some pork belly from Arnolds Farm which I decided to cure half of and make some bacon. Well, the cure is over and I took it over to Bower's place yesterday and we (read as "he") smoked it for about 3 hours till it reached an internal temp of 150. We were a little worried that a good portion of the fat would render off, in reality there was a little shrinking but almost no fat loss. The cure came out to be a little salty and I think next time I'm going to cut 2 or 3 days off the cure and just smoke it longer. The other option is to get a new belly and divide it up equally and cure each piece for different lengths and come up with a good standard cure time. Once your smoking the meat the cure isn't so much for preservation but flavor. The smoke brings the internal temp up to a safe zone, so frankly you could eat the stuff raw. My next project is going to be some air cured meats. I've been aching to do this for many years, and I think I'm finally going to take the plunge. Funny thing is I told myself I'm going to start brewing again, not really sure where I'm going to keep all this equipment! I digress. I brought the bacon home last night and showed him where he would be sleeping. I then cut some very thin slices and fried them up to make a very sexy BLT. I had some cherry tomatoes, red leaf lettuce, mayo and sourdough toast along with the thick and crispy bacon. Nothing to say but Wow. The lettuce cut the saltiness nicely, and it was just plain yummy.


On another note I finally found a great little neighborhood bar just down the street. Archie's looks like its been there for way to long and the sparseness of the decor would suggest they are not out to impress any hipsters. Mike, Leyla and I went after a great dinner at Glunz's Bavarian Haus. The fact that there were only 10 people in there on a Friday instantly makes it great in my book, it didn't hurt that there was Pit Bull running around playing with his ball. Hamms beers were $2 and some very stiff 7&7's were the same price. Free pool and nice jukebox make this my kind of place. Dark, friendly, no attitude and empty.