Makin' Bacon
Feb. 9th, 2013 05:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
desperanceNote to self: next time, don't go to the giant Chinese supermarket the day before Chinese New Year. On a weekend.
Aaargh.
But my curing salts came this morning, and I got Charcuterie the book last week, and, y'know. I wasn't going to wait, was I?
Actually, seriously, it is an astonishment to me how hard it is to find pork belly here. It's such a standard cut of meat in the UK, any small supermarket meat section will offer it, and every butcher would have it as a matter of course. Here, you either need the specialist butchers or the Chinese; even the Hispanic grocery store doesn't have pork belly, though they have curious offals I had not otherwise come across (beef marrow guts! I must, I must try beef marrow guts. Just because they exist, really).
So to the Chinese supermarket we went; well, Karen went to the English pub next door and waited for me while I braved the insanity of the aisles. And even there, the slab of belly that I wanted wasn't out on the shelves, and I had to queue at the butchery counter and ask for it. And I didn't really get as big a piece as I wanted, but hey. Start small. (And I may also have come home with random other stuffs, including stuffs that Karen really doesn't want to know about...)
So I have mixed up a basic dry cure and coated every side of the belly therewith, and it sits in the fridge in a Ziploc bag, and in a week or so I should have basic bacon. I'll let you know.
Also two days ago I made lime-and-lemon pickle, which is sitting in jars on the living-room floor beside the heating vent ("stand on a sunny windowsill", the instructions said; and as it happens we are back into the days of sunshine, but tragically we do not have an indoor sill, and if we did the cats would occupy it. I know what happens when cats dispute with foodstuffs for sunshine. All my chilli plants ended up on the floor, while Barry got the window).
Also yesterday I made ciabatta. Which is okay, but not quite what I was working for; I think I'll try a different recipe next time. At the moment I am struggling nobly against a dreadful temptation to buy another book...
(Also I bought a garden fork, and am engaged on the long slow process of turning clay into loam. Wish me luck.)
Aaargh.
But my curing salts came this morning, and I got Charcuterie the book last week, and, y'know. I wasn't going to wait, was I?
Actually, seriously, it is an astonishment to me how hard it is to find pork belly here. It's such a standard cut of meat in the UK, any small supermarket meat section will offer it, and every butcher would have it as a matter of course. Here, you either need the specialist butchers or the Chinese; even the Hispanic grocery store doesn't have pork belly, though they have curious offals I had not otherwise come across (beef marrow guts! I must, I must try beef marrow guts. Just because they exist, really).
So to the Chinese supermarket we went; well, Karen went to the English pub next door and waited for me while I braved the insanity of the aisles. And even there, the slab of belly that I wanted wasn't out on the shelves, and I had to queue at the butchery counter and ask for it. And I didn't really get as big a piece as I wanted, but hey. Start small. (And I may also have come home with random other stuffs, including stuffs that Karen really doesn't want to know about...)
So I have mixed up a basic dry cure and coated every side of the belly therewith, and it sits in the fridge in a Ziploc bag, and in a week or so I should have basic bacon. I'll let you know.
Also two days ago I made lime-and-lemon pickle, which is sitting in jars on the living-room floor beside the heating vent ("stand on a sunny windowsill", the instructions said; and as it happens we are back into the days of sunshine, but tragically we do not have an indoor sill, and if we did the cats would occupy it. I know what happens when cats dispute with foodstuffs for sunshine. All my chilli plants ended up on the floor, while Barry got the window).
Also yesterday I made ciabatta. Which is okay, but not quite what I was working for; I think I'll try a different recipe next time. At the moment I am struggling nobly against a dreadful temptation to buy another book...
(Also I bought a garden fork, and am engaged on the long slow process of turning clay into loam. Wish me luck.)