Posted: 8/23/2009 4:48:45 PM EDT
OK, it may not be the healthiest thing for you, but darn if a good piece of bacon isn't a beautiful thing.
Pulled one of the bigger slabs out of the freezer yesterday. 
Slice it up....a little thicker than commercial bacon is a good thing. 
A relatively small slab makes a lot of slices. 
The size of some of these slices was phenomenal. 
A 16" pan only fit four of the raw slices. 
I don't think I can ever buy bacon from the store again. 
This is what bacon should be. |
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Looks GREAT did you cure it yourself? I have used the honey cured bacon recipe in "GREAT SAUSAGE RECIPES AND MEAT CURING" First time it was a huge hit second time it didnt turn out worth a darn. No, this was from the butcher. I'm not sure we'll have an operable smokehouse in time for this year's hogs, but I'm working on it. Gonna do pancetta at least this season. How'd your bacon fail the second time around? |
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Looks delicious! What kind of slicer is that? It's the 1/4 HP slicer from Cabela's. |
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Having grown up with my best friends parents owning a pizza joint. I always wanted a good slicer. We finally got one recently and wow is it one of the nicest additions to the kitchen. We use it for all kinds of things now and its not only stretched our food budget but greatly varied our diet. Its one item high on my recommend list even if you think you are good with an electric knife. Tj |
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Quoted: Having grown up with my best friends parents owning a pizza joint. I always wanted a good slicer. We finally got one recently and wow is it one of the nicest additions to the kitchen. We use it for all kinds of things now and its not only stretched our food budget but greatly varied our diet. Its one item high on my recommend list even if you think you are good with an electric knife. Tj TJ, what all are you doing with it that you didn't do before? |
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I need to cure my own bacon so I can have it without nitrates or nitrites. Gotta have a smokehouse first.  Have you run across any "no nitrite" bacon recipes? I'm kinda interested in that too, but my understanding is that good no-nitrite bacon recipes are few and far between. |
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How'd your bacon fail the second time around? Dont know what went wrong on my 2nd try all I could taste was the salt. Really disappointing when the first batch was some of the the best bacon I ever had. My grandma always gets some side meat uncured. She sprinkles on sugar then flours it before she cooks. Its really good and I have never heard of anyone else doing this. |
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Quoted: Having grown up with my best friends parents owning a pizza joint. I always wanted a good slicer. We finally got one recently and wow is it one of the nicest additions to the kitchen. We use it for all kinds of things now and its not only stretched our food budget but greatly varied our diet. Its one item high on my recommend list even if you think you are good with an electric knife. Tj My parents had a restaurant back when I was young, and the slicer was my favorite thing to "borrow". Especially for processing deer. Throw slice-able sized chunks in to the freezer for 30-45 minutes prior to slicing, and cutting steaks to near any thickness desired was a complete breeze. Excellent tool. The commercial meat grinder (attachment for the mixer they used daily) comes in at 2nd place. Some friends and I processed 6 deer at once one evening. That equipment made it a breeze. (both were Hobart brand IIRC) |
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Having grown up with my best friends parents owning a pizza joint. I always wanted a good slicer. We finally got one recently and wow is it one of the nicest additions to the kitchen. We use it for all kinds of things now and its not only stretched our food budget but greatly varied our diet. Its one item high on my recommend list even if you think you are good with an electric knife. Tj TJ, what all are you doing with it that you didn't do before? Its blown my mind really. The ease to use these and how thin they can slice opens up entire new worlds. Our favorite right now is probably "Ribeye" sandwiches. We can buy a a couple of steaks that would normally feed us once and get a heck of a lot of really good meals out of them. We slice them from really thin like an Arbys to a nice medium cut that you can serve up medium rare. Like this post, its opened bacon slabs back up to us again as well as luncheon meat of all kinds from baloney tubes to sausages. For cheap meats it opens up new uses. I think it was Feral again who did a thread on a roast. I personally don't like round roast (prefer chuck) but man you thin slice a round and it takes on a new life. Same goes for all tougher meats. Cook them large with a medium rare center then cut them thin, it takes on a whole new taste. Large is a key word, not having to buy meat cut to a thickness to match what you intend to cut, opens up buying thicker cuts, storing, then cutting to match the meal you intend to prepare. Now none of this is really new to us. We've used knives and electric knives since I can remember. What it does is make it so much easier, way more control, and way more consistent cut. That opens up things we use to avoid. Good slicers have a lot of thickness adjustment and is a criteria that separates the less costly ones from the more expensive ones. It is worth the money to get the most diversity one cans. Other than specific dishes if I had to name one major benefit is now we buy out meats way more in bulk saving money. Then we before we vacuum seal and freeze we'll have the slicer out. Some we leave as we bought it others we slice for other types of meals. We label the vacuum bags accordingly using terms like sandwich sliced, medium sliced, thick sliced. By controlling the amount, we reduce scrap and left overs. By slicing left overs, we make different dishes and utilize leftovers more. Food stuffs (like poultry) we once considered pulled we now see sliced as an option. It adds a lot of diversity to your meal choices and buying choices. Tj |
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Good slicers have a lot of thickness adjustment and is a criteria that separates the less costly ones from the more expensive ones. It is worth the money to get the most diversity one cans. Other than specific dishes if I had to name one major benefit is now we buy out meats way more in bulk saving money. Then we before we vacuum seal and freeze we'll have the slicer out. Some we leave as we bought it others we slice for other types of meals. We label the vacuum bags accordingly using terms like sandwich sliced, medium sliced, thick sliced. By controlling the amount, we reduce scrap and left overs. By slicing left overs, we make different dishes and utilize leftovers more. Food stuffs (like poultry) we once considered pulled we now see sliced as an option. It adds a lot of diversity to your meal choices and buying choices. Tj We're not huge deli meat consumers, but the slicer has let us buy bulk deli meats when they're on sale and vac pack some while we slice the rest. Our local supermarket knocks of $0.80 a pound if you buy in bulk and they don't have to slice it. Add that discount to the sale price and it's made deli meats a more attractive proposition. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Having grown up with my best friends parents owning a pizza joint. I always wanted a good slicer. We finally got one recently and wow is it one of the nicest additions to the kitchen. We use it for all kinds of things now and its not only stretched our food budget but greatly varied our diet. Its one item high on my recommend list even if you think you are good with an electric knife. Tj TJ, what all are you doing with it that you didn't do before? Its blown my mind really. The ease to use these and how thin they can slice opens up entire new worlds. Our favorite right now is probably "Ribeye" sandwiches. We can buy a a couple of steaks that would normally feed us once and get a heck of a lot of really good meals out of them. We slice them from really thin like an Arbys to a nice medium cut that you can serve up medium rare. Like this post, its opened bacon slabs back up to us again as well as luncheon meat of all kinds from baloney tubes to sausages. For cheap meats it opens up new uses. I think it was Feral again who did a thread on a roast. I personally don't like round roast (prefer chuck) but man you thin slice a round and it takes on a new life. Same goes for all tougher meats. Cook them large with a medium rare center then cut them thin, it takes on a whole new taste. Large is a key word, not having to buy meat cut to a thickness to match what you intend to cut, opens up buying thicker cuts, storing, then cutting to match the meal you intend to prepare. Now none of this is really new to us. We've used knives and electric knives since I can remember. What it does is make it so much easier, way more control, and way more consistent cut. That opens up things we use to avoid. Good slicers have a lot of thickness adjustment and is a criteria that separates the less costly ones from the more expensive ones. It is worth the money to get the most diversity one cans. Other than specific dishes if I had to name one major benefit is now we buy out meats way more in bulk saving money. Then we before we vacuum seal and freeze we'll have the slicer out. Some we leave as we bought it others we slice for other types of meals. We label the vacuum bags accordingly using terms like sandwich sliced, medium sliced, thick sliced. By controlling the amount, we reduce scrap and left overs. By slicing left overs, we make different dishes and utilize leftovers more. Food stuffs (like poultry) we once considered pulled we now see sliced as an option. It adds a lot of diversity to your meal choices and buying choices. Tj Thank you. Very informative. I did take note of the round roast thread, and want to do that. I just have to run up on a deal for the roast. Oh, and I have to get one of those thermometers. I'm not much into gadgets of any kind. So it takes a lot to convince me that one is worth the storage space and the money to get a good model. We don't eat deli meats because of the preservatives, so I'm not sure one would be worth it for us right now, but that ability to shift into new ways of thinking because you can slice very thin...that's attractive to me. |
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My brother offered me a commercial slicer recently.
Thing weighed 150# plus, and he said for the amount of use he gave it, it wasn't worth the set up/cleanup. I declined. I either freeze or thaw roasts etc to about 75% solid, slightly moveable, but still crystalline, then cut to desired thickness with a SHARP knife. |
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Any idea if it will adjust to make enough room for a whole brisket? I like buying corned brisket and making pastrami, but most of the "home use" slicers I've seen can't fit a piece of meat as large as a brisket. |
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Any idea if it will adjust to make enough room for a whole brisket? I like buying corned brisket and making pastrami, but most of the "home use" slicers I've seen can't fit a piece of meat as large as a brisket. Doubt it'll fit a whole brisket, but it's no big deal to break the meat down into pieces that will fit. That's what I have to do with balognas, salamis and cheeses. It helps a lot to have one flat side anyway when you're slicing something that's irregularly shaped like a roast, brisket or bacon. |
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My grandma always gets some side meat uncured. She sprinkles on sugar then flours it before she cooks. Its really good and I have never heard of anyone else doing this. We used to get some as "fresh side meat" when the butcher was behind on curing.... tasty stuff. Roll in flour and add salt and pepper. Don't remember anyone using the sugar trick, though. It was good, but it doesn't taste like bacon..... |