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Second -- Bacon

Stone

By Stone
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Stone

Stone

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"Smushy crisp" -- a description from someone else's post. And a perfect description at that. That's just how I like it. Not too crisp, or it dries out my mouth. Not too rare or, well, it's just gross.

How do you like your bacon? (Other than plentiful.)

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nyfirepatrolchef

nyfirepatrolchef

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Cooked enough so the rind isnt gross and unwell enough to be floppy.

Found a no nitrates turkey bacon recently....yeah yeah but I cant have pork.

Hopefully it doesnt have TOO much maple syrup in it to be unsafe for me.

Id kill for some once in a while with a chicken or turkey sammich.

People...never EVER take for granted your well developed palates....or your hopeful ability to indulge them.

LIVE TO EAT DAMN IT!!!~

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=Mark

=Mark

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anyone ever eat raw bacon?  Someone told that because it's been cured, it's safe.  But I can't imagine it.

It's safe, but just contains way too much fat to be enjoyable. I attend a BBQ every year down in rural tidewater Va. and the host of it runs a working farm, is a jack of all trades and master of damn near all of them. One of his specialties is cold smoked cured country hams. These are not your wimpy supermarked hams injected with god knows what. These suckers start out at 20 to 30 lbs. each. These are cold smoked then aged for 18 to 24 months. Once done they are perfectly edible without cooking. They are essentially domestic proscuitto, and the taste rivals that of any imported proscuitto I've had. A few of the folks kind of blanched when after enjoying it were told it was uncooked pork... :raz:

For more info Check out Dan's Smokehouse

PS - Oh yeah, Dan makes his own bacon too. If you follow the above link you'll find it.

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

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mamster

mamster

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A few of the folks kind of blanched when after enjoying it were told it was uncooked pork...

Whenever I hear someone mention "raw food" or a restaurant specializing in such, I always say, "I love prosciutto!"

Matthew Amster-Burton, aka "mamster"

Author, Hungry Monkey, coming in May

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=Mark

=Mark

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It depends on your definition. If by cooking you mean heating the food, then no, curing does not involve heating. If you mean changing the physical composition of a food through chemical means OR by heating then you're getting closer.

Think of curing ham as pork ceviche... :hmmm:

=Mark

Give a man a fish, he eats for a Day.

Teach a man to fish, he eats for Life.

Teach a man to sell fish, he eats Steak

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Stone

Stone

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My father refuses to eat sushi because he thinks it's morally wrong to eat uncooked fish (I think he's also still harboring some animosity from Pearl Harbor). I try to argue that he eats lox, and that too is uncooked. Then we get into the cooked/cured debate. I usually end it by pointing out that he eats and claims to enjoy Halvah (a marzipan like confection that's similar to compressed dust), and if the Jews traditionally ate sushi he would love it. To this he claims that the worst anti-semites are the Jewish ones and points out that if I'd only date Jewish women I'd be happily married by now. Oy.

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Fat Guy

Fat Guy

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Where's that microbiologist chemist genius person who just signed up on the site (maybe she's Jewish and single too, who knows)? I'm interested in whether the chemical changes from curing are comparable to the chemical changes from heating. If they're the same or close, I think you've got to call curing cooking. If not, well, I'll still make the argument because James Beard says it's so.

Steven A. Shaw aka "Fat Guy"
Co-founder, Society for Culinary Arts & Letters, sshaw@egstaff.org
Proud signatory to the eG Ethics code
Director, New Media Studies, International Culinary Center (take my food-blogging course)

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Jinmyo

Jinmyo

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Depends on how much it's cured. Just as on how much it's cooked.

"I've caught you Richardson, stuffing spit-backs in your vile maw. 'Let tomorrow's omelets go empty,' is that your fucking attitude?" -E. B. Farnum

"Behold, I teach you the ubermunch. The ubermunch is the meaning of the earth. Let your will say: the ubermunch shall be the meaning of the earth!" -Fritzy N.

"It's okay to like celery more than yogurt, but it's not okay to think that batter is yogurt."

Serving fine and fresh gratuitous comments since Oct 5 2001, 09:53 PM

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  • 8 months later...
Stone

Stone

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Bar S, Virginia Reel Bacon. I get the stuff at Costco. I think it's the best commercial bacon I've had. Actually sliced thick so that you can feel and taste the meat.

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Holly Moore

Holly Moore

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Isn't curing a form of cooking?

As I recall from Organic Chemistry 215 (I got to take it twice), both cooking and curing denature the protien. Had I taken the course a third time, I'd probably remember what denaturing involves - something about making the flesh more edible perhaps.

Holly Moore

"I eat, therefore I am."

HollyEats.Com

Twitter

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col klink

col klink

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"Smushy crisp" -- a description from someone else's post.  And a perfect description at that.  That's just how I like it.  Not too crisp, or it dries out my mouth.

That's basically how I like it, but I refer to it as "semi-flaccid."

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fifi

fifi

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FG... I don't know if I am the "genius" you refer to but I will take a crack at this...

First, a definition of "denature" as regards protein: "To cause the tertiary structure of (a protein) to unfold, as with heat, alkali, or acid, so that some of its original properties, especially its biological activity, are diminished or eliminated." (The molecules unwind.)

That being said, meat curing has several things going on. If salt is involved, you have dehydration and some attendent denaturing of the protein. If smoking is involved, you have some conversion of the myoglobin (the stuff that makes muscle tissue red in the presence of oxygen and bluish without) to nitrosomyoglobin. That is the pink stuff. Smoking also contributes other chemicals to the mix (you probably don't want to know) that contributes to preservation. Curing with nitrates does the same thing as the nitrite component in smoke.

I consider cured to be cooked.

PS: I'm single but not Jewish.

Linda LaRose aka "fifi"

"Having spent most of my life searching for truth in the excitement of science, I am now in search of the perfectly seared foie gras without any sweet glop." Linda LaRose

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Stone

Stone

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"Smushy crisp" -- a description from someone else's post.  And a perfect description at that.  That's just how I like it.  Not too crisp, or it dries out my mouth.

That's basically how I like it, but I refer to it as "semi-flaccid."

Dude. Now I know why you're always playing with your sausage.

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