Making Duck bacon...

[davethecook]

So I got a stovetop smoker for christmas (yeah I know... I prefer the real deal too) and I want to make my own duck bacon. Having never made bacon of any type before and without a recipe, I'm just kind of going on inuition here. right now I have two white pekin breasts in a maple syrup brine, where they will stay until tomorrow (20 hr marinade), when I will hot smoke one and cold smoke the other. I think that I have a salty enough brine for the flavor that I am after, but it certainly isn't enough to properly cure the meat. If anyone out there wants to weigh in on this I would love to hear what kind of salt preparation is necessary to cure the breasts and also any tried and true recipes would be hot. thanks again.

[Andy M.]

Traditionally, bacon is cold smoked. Then it's cooked before comsumption.

There must be a wealth of recipes on the net that will give you proper brining info.

[ronjohn55]

Hi Dave!

Andy is right, most bacon (In the american sense) is cured and cold smoked pork bellys. However, I've made buckboad bacon before out of pork butts, and those are made by curing them and then I smoke them at about 225 degrees F. (I'll have to double check the times)

You mentioned that you're brining the duck, so that's a good start. Can you post the recipe?

The curing that I use contains nitrates, similar to what can be found in tender quick salt by morton. In fact, a "quick" cure for making canadian bacon out of a tenderloin is 1/2 cup tenderquick, 1/2 cup brown sugar. This also helps give the bacon it's pinkish color.

As long as the duck breasts aren't too think, I think you'll be surprised at how well the brine will penetrate.

Let us know how they turn out!

John

[Constance]

Ronjohn, tell me more about the Buckboard Bacon, if you would...

[ronjohn55]

Buckboard bacon is super easy. (Other than the waiting for it to cure part)

I'd describe it as kind of inbetween pork belly bacon and canadian bacon. You make it out of a pork butt (deboned). I used a curing mix I got from Hi Mountain Jerky company. I coated the pork butt with the curing mix, and then put it into a 1 gallon ziploc bag, which went into the freezer. After 1 week I flipped it over. After 2 weeks, you take it out, rinse it off, and season as desired (Think I just used black pepper - maple syrup might work, too) and then once they had come up to room temp, into the smoker it went.

Once it was done smoking, we cooled and sliced it, and packed it up in foodsaver bags in the freezer. It fries up great in a skillet, but the first coule pieces usually need a little bit of oil/cooking spray since there isn't as much fat.

I put a picture of it up in the member photos section.

John