Canadian bacon and Guanciale

[mjdeez]

Deck the halls with boughs of..........what the heck, thats not holly! 

Smells a lot better than holly. I used some fresh thyme. Maybe 1/3 to 1/2 of the package, and it is extremely fragrant. My hallway smells awesome... who needs candles when you can have your house smelling of pork and herbs?

My husband would let me do it I think...would drive the dogs crazy...HOWEVER...we can't get our home cool enough for 2 months...I am so looking forward to seeing this when it's done!!! I find the entire process of hanging the protein really interesting...I have never lived in an environment that it was possible so...keep us updated!!!

I will definitely keep you updated. I wish I had thought of the hallway idea a month ago. My hallway is pretty chilly in the winter time so it is an ideal place where I can keep an eye on it. I should be good for a week or two but it will start warming up and I'll need to move it.  My dog had her eye on it but she's a really relaxed old dog so she forgot about it pretty quickly and took a nap.

[mjdeez]

Canadian Bacon update:  It tastes good.

7 days in the cure, rinsed off and left on an upside down bradley rack in the fridge to form the pellicle. And tied up.


In the smoker.


Out of the smoker.


Cut up and bagging... Mostly sliced, but I left about 1/2 lb diced for cooking.

[3rensho]

Looks SO good.  It's almost breakfast time here - please place a dozen slices in the transporter and have Scotty do his thing.

[mjdeez]

Looks SO good.  It's almost breakfast time here - please place a dozen slices in the transporter and have Scotty do his thing.

Ok, I put some in and hit start, but all that happened is the package is nice and hot. Maybe the transporter is broken. Or maybe it is a microwave, not sure which.

I probably should have added a little more detail about the taste earlier. The canadian bacon turned out really well as a savory canadian bacon. There was no maple sugar / syrup added, just the sugar from the MTQ sub cure used.  I would definitely try to make this again, and while I might change up some of the aromatics (herbs, etc) I will probably keep the cure part the same as this time.

[mjdeez]

Guanciale update:
Ok, the Guanciale was finally ready to be cut down today -- mostly because the temperature of the unheated hallway was up into the 60's with today's nice weather (high 80s).  I was at work so I let my wife have the honor of cutting it down and put it in the fridge.

I cut into when I got home from work. I'll post some pics tomorrow, but the taste is fantastic. It is amazing, tastes so much better than it looks (pretty much like the other pictures already posted).  My biggest concern right now is if I'll end up with food poisoning, in which case: Probably no pics tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

[mjdeez]

My wife wanted to try some also, so I got the camera out and took a couple of pictures.  Enjoy!