bacon of the month club round 1: J. Samuel Whiting Bacon
It was like xmas when this showed up. The packaging was darn good and two pounds of J. Samuel Whiting Bacon smiled back at me. I had to wait for a special occasion to test it out. Saturday turned out to be a perfect time. It looked pretty awesome and thick. I knew I was gonna be drinking on the beer bus soon so I just did two pieces.
The smell was sweet with a nice smoke aroma, not too much. Cast iron was the only way to go and I slowly cooked it to near crisp. The smoke smell was sweet while cooking. Not much fat rendered out while cooking. It was sticking to my uber seasoned cast iron pan which was odd. I think the sugar and lack of grease caused that.
I paired it with two eggs and some hash browns. It was pretty thick so it was not overly crispy. The flavor was very clean, sweet, with a hint of smoke. It was after taking a bite that the real flavor came out. The aftertaste was awesome. Very impressed.
Bork,
Tell me about them hash browns… Fresh Julieen cut with the madolin? Or frozen variety?
Comment by ray — April 21, 2008 @ 1:14 pm
ahhhhhhh good idea for a post.
I had asked over on the forum for some ideas.
http://www.beerorkid.com/phpboard/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=8156&hilit=hash
did some testing and figured how I liked them
http://www.beerorkid.com/2007/10/30/hash-browns/
ever since then I have had a breakfast with hash browns at least once a week.
I have used russets, yukon golds, and red taters and they all come out pretty good. I really like the crispy brown bits so I have been making them pretty thin. The wife likes them a bit thicker (tee he he), so when I make them for her I adjust.
I use a non stick skillet cuz the cast iron is for the bacon. A bit of veg oil (prob 1 tablespoon) in the pan on just over medium while I work on the taters. Theresa is a good judge of my food and said when I use too much oil they come out tasting like oily french fries. I agree.
I do have a cheap mandoline, but it does not have the grater option. I do use the guard / handle if the taters are big enough though. The ones I have been getting lately are on the small side and the guard just cant grab them. I just shred on a hand held grater with the biggest teeth. I use my box shredder sometimes.
Then I add a thin slice of butter to the oil, let the oil and butter coat all of the pan, grab the tato shreds and squeeze out as much juice as I can, and add to the pan. So when I go to flip there is very little oil / butter left in the pan so I tale some thin butter slices and tear them up and put little chunks on the top before I flip.
If you like the crunchy bits, but a good firm inside cook a bit above medium. Takes about 8 minutes with multiple flips. I like mushy and crispy so I do a bit below medium and it takes a good 10 minutes.
Comment by beerorkid — April 21, 2008 @ 1:45 pm
might i suggest 2 slices of american and 1 of pepperjack to make them extra nummy.
Comment by anonymous co-worker — April 21, 2008 @ 2:20 pm
Yeah, I can’t think of a good reason NOT to join, too. Perhaps I’ll wait until December to get the full effect in ‘09
Comment by Thew — April 21, 2008 @ 7:33 pm
Thanks! I like a good HB!
Comment by ray — April 22, 2008 @ 4:36 pm
The aftertaste was MSG. This is the dark side of bacon. Taste so good, but so wrong!
Comment by Pinko Punko — August 5, 2008 @ 1:11 am