How to Make Beef Bacon at Home
How to Make Beef Bacon at Home
The idea of beef bacon may seem odd when bacon made from pork is so readily available. The reason some people prefer beef bacon over pork bacon is because it can be 90% leaner than regular pork bacon. The leanest beef bacon is bacon from grass-fed cattle. Although some health food stores carry beef bacon, most people have to go to a local butcher and place a special order. If you raise your own beef cattle, you can still make your own beef bacon. The good news is that making beef bacon is no different than making pork bacon. The only real difference is the species of livestock.
Beef bacon is made from beef
Beef bacon is made from beef. This is the fatty part of the belly area closest to the flank area of the animal. After the beef is slaughtered, you’ll want to put the belly meat in a refrigerator right away. The best bacon is made from meat that has been refrigerated at 5 degrees C for 24 hours before being dried. Before refrigerating the meat, you should cut it into squares, which will make it easier to handle.
Take care of the meat. The easiest way to process belly meat is a method called wet curing. Wet curing is accomplished when the meat is soaked in a brine made of salt and sugar solution. Once the meat is completely submerged in the brine, let it soak for 3 to 4 days. The salt strips the moisture from the belly meat and the flavor from the sage advertisements. When you cook the bacon you need to make sure that the temperature remains constant at 3.4 degrees C. If the temperature drops below this temperature the curing process will be stopped and if it gets hotter the meat will will deteriorate.
After the beef bacon has been in the brine for three to four days, remove it from the refrigerator and rinse it with cold water. Once the meat has been hosed down, pat it dry. The easiest way to dry meat is to arrange it on cooling racks and let a simple household fan blow over the meat. You’ll know the bacon is dry enough when a thick, shiny coating appears on top of the meat. This coating is called film and is essentially the curing brine. The wrap will help the bacon absorb some flavor as it is smoked. The bacon should be sufficiently dried in less than an hour.
Now that the bacon is dry
Now that the bacon is dry, it’s time to smoke it. To smoke bacon you will need hardwood chips and the type of wood you choose will affect the flavor of the bacon. The maple will give the meat a sweet taste, the cherry will give it a fruity flavor and the hickory is what gives the meat a good hearty flavor. Before you start smoking, hang the beef bacon slaps in the smoker.
When smoking beef bacon, you will get the best flavor if you keep the temperature inside your smoker between 25 degrees C and 38 degrees C. Smoke beef bacon for about eight hours.
After smoking the bacon. it is ready to be sliced. Although you can slice bacon by hand, the most efficient method is to use a meat slicer.
After slicing the beef bacon, you should keep it vacuum sealed and in your freezer until you are ready to cook it.
