![]() ![]() The salt actually has a bit of an earthy flavor too. The salt is tinted pink from the red clay found on the island. And now pink salt, since I have so much it may as well be considered a staple now! I pulled about a bag of Hawaiian pink salt from the island of Kauai. I had three or four kinds of different salts in my pantry that were given to me, on top of my staples of kosher and sea salt. When you are chef, people tend to gift you with food related items. I would cure the bacon with the classic combination of sweet and salty. Yes I know that porkiness is not a word, but it DOES exist in my vocabulary. What flavors did I want to infuse my bacon with while I cured it? I like my bacon pure, tasting slightly of smoke and sweet porkiness. I’ll be curing meat for years to come with the size of this bag! And that’s all right with me. I ordered some from one of my favorite spice purveyors The Spice House, but then got antsy and got a giant 5 pound bag from another wholesale restaurant supply place in the produce district of downtown Los Angeles. Pink salt is a salt and sodium nitrite, which helps prevent the growth of botulism while curing your meats. Next I needed some Prague powder #1 or pink curing salt. ![]() I was in hog heaven! So now I have another belly in the freezer waiting to be cured. I went to my local restaurant supply store and they had them by the case, which actually had TWO full pork bellies. It was like riding a bicycle, or pig as the case may be.įirst, I had to get a pork belly. I dusted off my old textbooks and got to studying. My Garde Mange classes in culinary school were some of my favorites, but I have been out of school for a long time so I needed a refresher on curing meat. I’ll worry about that later.įebruary is all about the salt cure. I’ll make that one later, although here in Southern California I may be hard pressed to find a place cool and humid enough to actually cure it. Being the meat lover I am, this was right up my alley! As I am always late to everything these days, I missed the January challenge of making duck prosciutto. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen and Kim of The Yummy Mummy came up with the idea of a Year of Charcuterie, or curing your own meats, sausages, pate, etc. WHAT happened you say? Charcutepalooza is all about meat. I have always entertained the idea of curing my own bacon, but just never got around to it. And my 4 year old loves bacon so much that given the choice between me and bacon, I think the bacon would win. If you follow my blog even the slightest bit, you will know I love pork. ![]()
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