Foxtrot Delta Bravo

After letting the bacon hang in the basement for 24 hours with a fan going ten feet away, to develop a pellicle, I took it out and smoked it in the back yard for a few hours, over some oak chips.

Then I put it in the freezer for an hour to stiffen it up a bit and took it to the deli slicer.

Here’s three bags, each with five wax-paper-wrapped servings of bacon (around 8-10 oz each). We go through around one serving of bacon per week with our normal bacon-and-eggs breakfast, so that’s 15 weeks.

Guess I’ll be buying another pork belly or two in August!

In a conversation with some reactionary friends about weight lifting, Dark Enlightenment tweeted

@gaelic_norseman @outisnusquam I want to work out at a gym where the equipment consists of a squat cage, a couple benches , a sled and iron.

— Dark enlightenment (@enlightdark) April 13, 2013

I responded

@enlightdark @gaelic_norseman @outisnusquam How’s this for a dungeon? Squat cage, bench, heavy bag…and HANGING MEAT twitter.com/tjic/status/32…

— tjic (@tjic) April 13, 2013

and Gaelic Norseman replied

@tjic @enlightdark @outisnusquam that may be the most American thing I have ever seen. Awesome

— VikingManx (@Gaelic_Norseman) April 13, 2013

LOL!

It’s been five days, so time to take the panchetta out of the fridge, scrub it under cold running water to get the cure off, blot it dry, and then hang it.

Speaking of dried meats, how are the pepperonis coming along?

Very well, thank you!

Also, the other side of pork, the bacon, is out of the cure and hanging on the squat cage for a day or two to develop a pellicle, at which point it will be smoked.

1. trimmed the ribs.
2. made some sauce
3. cooked the ribs for five hours

ZOMG!

We’ve got 15 pounds or so of pepperoni curing in the basement, but we’re running low on bacon. And while I’m in a charcutterie / salumi

mood, I decided that I might as well experiment with a new addition to my repertoire.

As I’m not yet harvesting my own pigs, it’s not super easy to lay hands on a full pig leg for country ham or prosciutto, but I called ahead and found that Whole Foods had several full pork bellies on hand.

We stopped in and got two – about 30 pounds of meat.

I told the guy “don’t even open up the sealed plastic – I’ll take them whole. It turns out that if you’re willing to do a little bit of butchering, there are some bonuses – you get the skin (good for making cracklings, or just adding body to stock with all that great collagen), and you also get a full set of ribs…at pork belly prices. Woot!

This is what 15 pounds of pork belly looks like (almost $100!):

Removing the ribs:

Making the panchetta rub:

Rubbing down the panchetta:

Thirty pounds of processed meat. From left to right:

1. one pig skin
2. 10+ lbs of panchetta with skin attached for hanging
3. 10+ lbs of bacon
4. baby back ribs
5. more baby back ribs

The bacon and panchetta will sit in the fridge for a week or a week and a half, then the bacon will come out and be smoked, and the panchetta will come out and be hung down in the paleo-cave, between the other dried meats and the squat rack.

…and roasted leeks!

From the Irish cookbook. Went a bit overboard on the leaks, hence what should be an orange soup is green.

Make sure to wash your leeks thoroughly to avoid a slightly gritty mouth-feel!

B+.

From the Irish cookbook.

Leftovers just got better and better.

Scaled the recipe up a bit and used a hard apple cider in addition to the Guiness.

A.

Made 15 lbs of pepperoni yesterday, following the tried and trued recipe in Charcuterie by Ruhlman.

Should be ready in a month or two.

From The Complete Irish Pub Cookbook: salmon steamed with hard apple cider, servedd with leaks in cream sauce.

This plating is kind of a mess, as it’s actually a picture of leftovers.

A: a really solid way to use salmon.