Bacon Cookies Food

ULTIMATE BACON SARNIES

Steps:

• Me and my dear friend Pete Begg have two very different approaches to the institution that is the perfect bacon sarnie. The only thing we agree on is that bacon ain't bacon unless it's smoked, but that's pretty much where the similarities end.
• We do both use two 1½cm-thick slices of simple standard white crusty loaf, but I favour a bloomer and Pete tends to go for a tin loaf. Pete's a 3 rashers of streaky-bacon boy; I'm a back-bacon boy. He cooks it in a frying pan, starting out from cold with a little drizzle of olive oil and gradually bringing the temperature up to medium-high so the fat renders out, placing something flat and heavy on top to ensure super-even crispy bacon. I, on the other hand, put the grill on full whack, rub a tray and 3 rashers of back bacon with olive oil, then blast it until golden and crisp, which encourages the fat end of the bacon to curl up, creating a little pond of delicious bacon juice in the middle.
• Pete butters his bread, then lays the bacon on side-by-side, like floorboards. I skip the butter, but push the bacon to the side of my tray and lay the bread in the fat for a few seconds before assembling, letting the bacon rashers sit on the bed of bread like spooning lovers. At this point, Pete goes into another gear and displays a little trick his dad taught him as a boy, sandwiching his creation together and placing it back in the pan of smoky bacon fat to lightly toast on both sides, again with a little weight on top. And it doesn't finish there - Pete stipulates that if the bacon runs north to south it must be cut east to west into 3 thin sandwiches, so you get 3 bacon soldiers in each, from which he gets 3 perfect bites. Genius. I simply cut mine diagonally from corner to corner and get it in my gob as quickly as possible .
• Having been brought up in Essex I have a loyal commitment to HP sauce, but Pete pulls yet another trick out of the bag, treating his plate like an artist's palette with 60% ketchup, 30% English mustard and 10% green chilli sauce, feathered together with a knife, to ensure 9 erratic, beautiful-tasting mouthfuls. Wow.
• These two sandwiches are both delicious, but most importantly, this is how I like mine and Pete likes his. How do you like yours?

BACON COOKIES

Steps:

• Fry bacon pieces in a large skillet over medium heat until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon to paper towels, and cool completely.
• Into a large mixing bowl, place the flour, butter or margarine, egg, salt, and heavy cream. Using the mixer's hook attachment, mix the contents of the bowl together until combined; then transfer the dough to the counter, and quickly mix with your hands. Knead in cooled bacon pieces and pepper.
• Roll up the dough into a log, to a diameter of about 1 1/2 inches. Wrap in aluminum foil, and refrigerate for 2 hours, until firm.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Remove foil, cut dough roll into slices, and place slices on greased baking sheet. Brush each slice with beaten egg yolk.
• Bake in a preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until brown. Remove to a wire rack until cooled completely.

HOME-CURED BACON

Steps:

• Place the pork belly in a large Ziploc bag. Add the salt (and pink salt if using) and the cure additions. Rub the cure into the pork belly, turning the bag over and over and pressing the cure into the flesh. Close the bag, squeezing out all the air and refrigerate for seven days. Each day, flip the bag over. Some liquid will begin to gather in the bag.
• After seven days, wash the cure off the meat, rinsing thoroughly. Pat the bacon dry with paper towels and set it on a rack over a baking sheet. Allow the bacon to air-dry in the refrigerator for 6 to 24 hours.
• Preheat the oven to 225 degrees. Roast the pork belly in the oven to an internal temperature of 150 degrees for about 90 minutes. Chill the bacon well, then slice thick or thin, to preference. Any bacon that doesn't easily slice may be cut into chunks, for starting a pot of beans or soup. Wrapped in parchment paper, then wrapped in plastic wrap or foil and placed in a Ziploc bag, the bacon will keep for three weeks in the refrigerator and three months in the freezer.

PEAMEAL BACON

Steps:

• 1. In a plastic (preferably) container large enough to hold both the brine and the meat, mix together the water, maple syrup, salt, cure, and spices.
• 2. Scoop out a scant 1 cup (200 ml) brine, and use it to load the brine injector. Then, inject the loin every 3/4 to 1 inch (2 to 2.5 cm), inserting the needle about 3/4 inch (2 cm) deep. Try to distribute the brine evenly over the loin. Place the loin in the container with the remaining brine, and keep the meat submerged with the help of a plate or an object of a similar build. Cover and refrigerate for 4 full days.
• 3. Remove the loin from the brine and pat it dry. Then roll it in the meal of your choosing. Give it a day's rest, uncovered, in the fridge, so the meal and meat form as one.
• 4. You have two options on cooking it: you can slice it and griddle it for a minute on each side (for thin slices that is), or you can bake it at 375°F (190°C) for about an hour, or until it has a core temperature of 142°F (61°C), then slice it. I like it the first way, especially when it gets a bit burnt on the edges and I have added a dash of maple syrup that caramelizes a bit toward the end.

CLASSIC TRADITIONAL AMERICAN BACON RECIPE

Steps:

• Skin it. If the skin is still on the belly, remove it and use it to make cracklins. It is sometimes hard to tell if it is still there. It is usually a darker tan color compared to creamy colored fat. You should be able to make a cut in fat with your thumbnail. Your thumbnail will only make a dent in skin. Leaving skin on causes problems for salt penetration, and when you fry it, the skin gets very hard and you probably won't like the texture. Removing the skin can be tricky. Sometimes you can grip a corner with your fingers and run a knife under the skin to peel it back by running the knife between the skin and fat. Sometimes you just have to shave it off with a sharp knife.
• Cure it. Pour everything except the meat into a zipper bag large enough to hold the belly. A 1 gallon (4 L) bag will hold a single 3 pound (1.4 kg) slab. Zip the bag and squish everything around until well mixed. Now add the belly, squeeze out the air as much as possible and squish some more rubbing the cure into the belly and coat all sides. Put the bag in a pan to catch leaks and place in the fridge at 34 to 38°F (1.1 to 3.3°C). The belly will release liquid so every day or two you want to gently massage the bag so the liquid and spices are well distributed, and flip the bag over. NOTE: If you use more than one slab in a bag it is crucial that the slabs do not overlap each other. Thickness matters!
• Rinse off the cure. Remove the belly from the bag, and throw the liquid away. Quick rinse it to wash off any thick deposits of salt on the surface. Most recipes tell you to let the slab dry for 24 hours so the smoke will stick better, but, as the AmazingRibs.com science advisor Dr. Greg Blonder has proven, smoke sticks better to wet surfaces, so this extra step isn't necessary.
• Fire up. If you are using a grill, set up for 2-zone cooking or fire up your smoker.
• Cook. Smoke over indirect heat at 225°F (107.2°C) until the internal temp is 150°F (65.6°C), about 2 hours. You can use any wood you like. Hickory is the tried and true. I'm partial to cherry and applewood. After smoking you should slice off the ends, which may be very dark and more heavily seasoned, and taste them right away. They will be more salty than the innards and the fat will be a bit stringy, but you'll love it all the same. Just wait til you cook up an inside slice!
• Cool. Now let it cool on a plate in the fridge. Cold bacon is easier to slice. Use on a slicer if you have one, or use a long thin knife to slice it. Try some thin and some thick slices. You can also cut bacon in cubes to make lardons and use them like bacon bits in salads, mashed potatoes, mac and cheese, baked beans, in sauces or to garnish chops, or roasts.
• Wrap it tightly with several layers of plastic wrap, and then a layer of foil, and refrigerate for up to 2 weeks or freeze for up to 3 months. Do not wrap in foil alone because it can react with the salt.
• Slice. Slice it across the grain. For evenly thick slices, a slicing machine is the best choice, but I rarely use mine because it is a pain to clean. Besides, I like to keep the slab intact and tightly wrapped in the fridge or freezer to reduce exposure to oxygen which can make the fat taste funny in a week or two. When I make bacon I usually shoot for hunks 6 to 8" (15.2 to 20.3 cm) wide across the grain to make sure my thin 9" (22.9 cm) knife and frying pan fit. If you put a slab in the freezer for 15 minutes or so it gets stiffer and easier to slice.
• Save the bacon drippings. While your bacon is cooking lay out a section of newspaper several sheets thick, and cover it with a layer of paper towels. As soon as the bacon is done, move it to the paper towel to drain. Let the fat in the pan cool a bit and then pour it in a glass jar and refrigerate. Hot bacon can melt a plastic tub, so be careful. Save the fat for up to a month and use it to fry. Broccoli and potatoes are especially good cooked in bacon grease.