airedale
is one Smokin' Farker
YABT, with a tip of the hat to YACC.
Newbie here; Among other things I have been making bacon. Four very tasty batches so far.
First & second batches, used sauseagemaker. com maple cure and cold smoked. Good bacon, no maple flavor discernible in the result though.
Third batch, same cure, I picked up a 1 oz. bottle of imitation maple flavor at the grocery store. It looked so small, I just dumped it in. Ack! It turned the cure brown, filled the kitchen with maple smell, and was very difficult to wash off my hands. I really thought I had ruined the bacon. Cold smoked again, same result, little or no discernible flavor.
Fourth batch, use maple cure from lemproducts.com. This stuff smelled powerful! It was very hard to wash off my hands. I thought I had hit the maple jackpot. Cold smoked again, same result again. Maybe a slight sweet flavor but that's about it. I also cured some bacon with their pepper cure and the two slabs taste about the same. We gave some of each to a restaurant chef friend and she can't taste any difference either.
I am comparing these batches to commercial maple bacon, where the flavor is mild but is unquestionably there.
BTW I am cold smoking with the A-Maze-N (cant remember the acronym!) pellet maze for 10-12 hours and really like the smokiness. I know that's longer than most people here smoke. Maybe I'll try something shorter next batch. Could the long smoke be killing the added flavors?
Request #1: Comments, suggestions, please.
Request #2: Tell me please, why some, maybe most, of you are fooling around heating the bacon t 150deg rather than just cold smoking? I have read that this is not enough heat to eliminate the need to cook the bacon, so what is the advantage?
TIA
Newbie here; Among other things I have been making bacon. Four very tasty batches so far.
First & second batches, used sauseagemaker. com maple cure and cold smoked. Good bacon, no maple flavor discernible in the result though.
Third batch, same cure, I picked up a 1 oz. bottle of imitation maple flavor at the grocery store. It looked so small, I just dumped it in. Ack! It turned the cure brown, filled the kitchen with maple smell, and was very difficult to wash off my hands. I really thought I had ruined the bacon. Cold smoked again, same result, little or no discernible flavor.
Fourth batch, use maple cure from lemproducts.com. This stuff smelled powerful! It was very hard to wash off my hands. I thought I had hit the maple jackpot. Cold smoked again, same result again. Maybe a slight sweet flavor but that's about it. I also cured some bacon with their pepper cure and the two slabs taste about the same. We gave some of each to a restaurant chef friend and she can't taste any difference either.
I am comparing these batches to commercial maple bacon, where the flavor is mild but is unquestionably there.
BTW I am cold smoking with the A-Maze-N (cant remember the acronym!) pellet maze for 10-12 hours and really like the smokiness. I know that's longer than most people here smoke. Maybe I'll try something shorter next batch. Could the long smoke be killing the added flavors?
Request #1: Comments, suggestions, please.
Request #2: Tell me please, why some, maybe most, of you are fooling around heating the bacon t 150deg rather than just cold smoking? I have read that this is not enough heat to eliminate the need to cook the bacon, so what is the advantage?
TIA
