Ground and formed bacon

Northern_Smoke · February 03, 2015, 06:08:23 AM

I was on Facebook the other day looking at posts from a group I follow and came across "Ground and Formed bacon". This seemed interesting. As it turns out there is a company that makes a mix that you add to ground pork and wild game. The idea is to use up any kind of meat to make a bacon like product. I got to thinking that it wouldn't be hard to replicate this so i gave it a try. I had 1.5 pound of elk left in my freezer and about 3 pounds of pork shoulder from some sausages I had made. Into the grinder it all went for a medium grind. I based the bacon seasoning mix on how I cure pork bellies. It's just a simple salt, brown sugar, cure and maple syrup mix. Although I did add some NFDM to help with moisture and binding. Next I put it all in the kitchen aid and spun it around for about 3 or so minutes. I had some disposable aluminium pans on hand which I lined with cling wrap so the meat would come out easier. This was all assembled and packed as densely as I could get it. It then went for a 24 hr chill in the fridge.

I smoked it as I normally do back. Same times, temps and smoke. Unfortunately I do not have pictures up until this point but it pretty much looked like any other kind of sausage picture.

I let it sit over night once I was done smoking it and this morning we cut some and fries it up. I was afraid it would have much more if a ham flavour but to my surprise it was like bacon. It had the texture somewhat of Turkey bacon but the flavour of pork.

Everyone that tasted it has called it a winner so it may be something that happens a little more often around here.

Salmonsmoker · February 03, 2015, 07:15:03 AM

Great post N_S. Interesting.

ragweed · February 03, 2015, 07:30:54 AM

Very nice, N_S. Gonna try for sure using goose in place of elk. Thanks for posting.

TMB · February 03, 2015, 07:36:23 AM

Looks really good, would just pork 20/80 work? Would I need more fat?

Northern_Smoke · February 03, 2015, 04:38:59 PM

I would think 80/20 would work out nicely I am sure my mix was much leaner than that using the elk and it turned out nice.

If anyone is interested in quantities they are as follows:
Salt 2.5%
Brown sugar 1%
Cure 0.25%
And here is where things get "iffy". I had my kids helping and they were dumping the ingredients in before I could get weights on a few of them so the maple syrup was 1/4 cup for the 4.5 pounds of meat and the NFDM was 1/2 cup. I will be making this again so I will get an accurate weight so I can keep with this style of measurement. It just makes it easy for the excel file to auto calculate based on the weight of the meat. Anyways, this produced a sweeter bacon than most store bought but we liked it. If I were to do it again and want saltier I don't think I would increase the salt but rather cut the maple syrup or brown sugar back. But any way you look at this. It is a keeper in our recipe book :)

TMB · February 04, 2015, 07:43:04 AM

Quote from: Northern_Smoke on February 03, 2015, 04:38:59 PM
I would think 80/20 would work out nicely I am sure my mix was much leaner than that using the elk and it turned out nice.

If anyone is interested in quantities they are as follows:
Salt 2.5%
Brown sugar 1%
Cure 0.25%
And here is where things get "iffy". I had my kids helping and they were dumping the ingredients in before I could get weights on a few of them so the maple syrup was 1/4 cup for the 4.5 pounds of meat and the NFDM was 1/2 cup. I will be making this again so I will get an accurate weight so I can keep with this style of measurement. It just makes it easy for the excel file to auto calculate based on the weight of the meat. Anyways, this produced a sweeter bacon than most store bought but we liked it. If I were to do it again and want saltier I don't think I would increase the salt but rather cut the maple syrup or brown sugar back. But any way you look at this. It is a keeper in our recipe book :)

Looking forward to more accurate measurements. Could you mark them in oz's?? please

Northern_Smoke · February 04, 2015, 08:38:30 AM

I will try and remember ;) The next time I make it I will get grams and oz's. The only reason I have converted to percentage is that it makes is extremely easy to scale up or down to any odd amount of meat you use. You are not confined to halfing or doubling the recipe or trying to figure out how to get 1/7th of a tablespoon of something. :)

TMB · February 04, 2015, 10:41:16 AM

Quote from: Northern_Smoke on February 04, 2015, 08:38:30 AM
I will try and remember ;) The next time I make it I will get grams and oz's. The only reason I have converted to percentage is that it makes is extremely easy to scale up or down to any odd amount of meat you use. You are not confined to halfing or doubling the recipe or trying to figure out how to get 1/7th of a tablespoon of something. :)

I sure don't mean to make it hard on you, just easier for me to figure oz's ;D of seasoning per pound

Northern_Smoke · February 04, 2015, 01:56:06 PM

It's no big deal. I used to always do it with teaspoons and tablespoons but found grams and ounces to be more accurate. Then I learned to do it as a percentage which made scaling easy and infinite and since then I had never really done it any other way. But for this one it shouldn't be hard at all to convert what I have knowing what I used ;)

Northern_Smoke · February 04, 2015, 02:09:11 PM

Ok. The recipe goes as follows:

Meat 4.5 pounds or 72oz
Salt 1.8oz
Brown sugar 0.72oz
Cure 0.18oz
And because I have not weighed the NFDM or syrup it is the same as posted above
NFDM 1/2 cup
Maple Syrup 1/4 cup

Hope that helps and you are able to give it a try :)

TMB · February 05, 2015, 12:13:58 PM

Quote from: Northern_Smoke on February 04, 2015, 02:09:11 PM
Ok. The recipe goes as follows:

Meat 4.5 pounds or 72oz
Salt 1.8oz
Brown sugar 0.72oz
Cure 0.18oz
And because I have not weighed the NFDM or syrup it is the same as posted above
NFDM 1/2 cup
Maple Syrup 1/4 cup

Hope that helps and you are able to give it a try :)

THANKS!!! That helps sooooo much ;) Just a country boy, don't know much about ciphering amounts for recipes ;D ;D ;D ;D

Northern_Smoke · February 05, 2015, 02:12:05 PM

Haha. No problem and good luck. Hopefully you find it as pleasing sense did. If not for the flavour then for the price difference. Right now bellies are at $6-$7 per pound and shoulders are under $2 if you look around

oldsmoker · February 05, 2015, 05:55:37 PM

I know that Excalibur spice makes a mix . Have used many times and great taste.

Northern_Smoke · February 05, 2015, 06:21:52 PM

Yah, Owens BBQ makes one too. But the spices and ingredients are pretty basic and if you make sausage you probably have everything you need. Plus there is the shipping. I have had food grade items stopped at the boarder into Canada so all in all it was just an experiment that happened to have very tasty results :)

Old Frenchie · February 07, 2015, 07:13:56 PM

Thanks N_S for the recipe and process. :)

I too was thinking of trying something like this because I have an intolerance to MSG and many mixes have it in the mix ( I called a few online retailers re: Formed Bacon and was told their mix had MSG) so I needed to find a way of doing it without the MSG.

I will try your recipe this weekend ! ;D ;D ;D

Thanks again.