Beef Bacon- has anyone made this?

[ChocoMom]

Picked up the beef from the butcher yesterday.  We now have 12 cases of grass-fed yumminess ready to feed the inner-carnivore.  Went with a slightly different cut order this time, though.  We took two cows down, and normally, I'd get short ribs, lots of stew meat, steaks, roasts, and a portion of ground beef. The orders we've received are primarily ground, 10# of stew meat, a few roasts, and some steaks.  Since there were no orders for ribs, and I wanted to experiment with something new, decided it was time to take a little gamble.   I had heard about beef bacon recently through my grocer, and got curious.  Had my butcher package the slabs needed to make it. And now, am on a quest for a delectable cure.  

 

Would, by chance, any of you wonderful egulletlanders have tasted beef bacon, or made it before?  Any advice, cautions, or info you'd care to lend out before I set upon the quest to make something new?   I'd love to hear about any experiences with this!   And of course, I will report back with progress and results, (and failures, should things go south.) 

 

Thank you very muchly!  Andrea

[kayb]

I will be following this with interest. Never thought about beef bacon, but if you can make duck pastrami...why not?

 

[cakewalk]

I remember a product called Beef Fry, which was basically bacon for the kosher crowd.  I ate it once, a lifetime ago, and I remember thinking it was quite awful, although I don't remember why. Probably has more to do the particular product and cooking method than with "beef bacon" in general, which I have no doubt can be great, because why not? I also look forward to following this. 

 

When I entered "beef fry" into Google many (very many) hits came back with "Kerala style beef fry," which seems to be a big thing. So perhaps @Kerala can weigh in on that?

Edited August 11, 2017 by cakewalk
Additional stuff. (log)

[Martin Fisher]

I've made it a few times from the "navel" which is 'generally' the prefered cut.

[gfweb]

I had veal bacon in Israel. It was more like Canadian back bacon than pork belly US bacon. But it was smoked and tasty if your expectations were adjusted.

 

If trying to make it, I think I'd start with a regular pork belly cure with sugar, salt and pink curing salt and then smoke it. Probably it will need a longer slower cook to make it tender enough...or really thin slicing.

[Martin Fisher]

3 minutes ago, gfweb said:

...really thin slicing.

 Yes.

Edited August 11, 2017 by DiggingDogFarm (log)

[Kerala]

@cakewalkBoy, Kerala beef fry is a BIG thing. Basically it's a dry stir fried preparation with small cubed beef pieces, lots of ground coconut, onions and various spices. It's fairly hot. You could have it with rice or chappathi. It is very popular in Kerala, and even people who wouldn't normally eat any beef seem to give this a Pass sometimes. There has been a good bit of resistance to beef consumption in recent years but Kerala is still one of the places in India where you can buy beef fairly freely. Like a lot of Kerala meat dishes, the meat is very thoroughly cooked through.

It is delicious. Does it taste like bacon? No.

 

[Martin Fisher]

From the Kosher Dosher's blog:

"My Love of [Beef] Bacon"

"Heavenly [Beef] Bacon?"

 

He's used my online curing calculator for some of his curing projects.

[gfweb]

38 minutes ago, DiggingDogFarm said:

From the Kosher Dosher's blog:

"My Love of [Beef] Bacon"

"Heavenly [Beef] Bacon?"

 

He's used my online curing calculator for some of his curing projects.

Interesting. His cure recipe looks more like one for corned beef or pastrami though (lots of spices).

 

I've made quick corned beef with bavette steak where the little strips are cured as they cook overnight in the SV machine. There's no fat to speak of in bavette, but if cured in sugar/salt/nitrate and smoked I bet it would resemble bacon in flavor.

[JohnT]

"Macon" is the Halaal equivalent of bacon in South Africa, made usually out of beef but sometimes out of mutton. I have no idea how it is made other than it is a cured meat. A lot of restaurants and pizza places serve it instead of bacon and the portions I have been served for breakfast in restaurants here, tastes very similar to bacon. It is available in the Halaal section in all supermarkets in pre-packed slices or in the Halaal section of delli's, where they will slice it for you in the thickness required. How they cure it, I have no idea, but try Google and see if anything pops up.