.
Anything goes.
Hello folks,
This isn't really related to anything that is posted in this forum topic at the moment, but I am writing because I am using gmail. See, I am subscribed to the forum, which means that I'm supposed to get email notifications of EVERY reply, including ALL new topics. It was working great for a while, it was easy for me to read and catch up with everything people said and I could continue with my life chores. I could read and learn, yet still do the stuff I needed done. Well starting last mid-week, I stopped getting notifications. I just thought, gee--maybe no one had anything to say. But that didn't sound right. So I had this hunch and went to my spam box, and it turns out ALL the Metallicman forum notifications were dumped there. I don't understand how this happened, since all the previous notifications successfully made it to my regular inbox like it was supposed to. So I mark every one of these email notifications as "not spam". I have been doing this every day since the middle of last week, and still it's being sent to my spam box!
So if any of you guys are using gmail, please check your spam box once in a while. Something you want to read or know about may have been dumped there against your will.
There seems to be an update that now makes MM spam. Check your spam rules.
No updates hum. I've been pumping out from three to four new articles every day for two weeks now. Perhaps your gmail views this volume of articles as spam. This could be the reason. I know that any updates that I get from other websites that surpass three in a week are automatically thrown into spam.
Maybe I should cut down the frequency so that the gmail service won't identify it as spam.
I also note that my long time visitor visits dropped substantially. I was in the thousands. Now I am only in the tens. What happened? Isn't the content interesting any longer?
It’s not your content. It’s who your content is pissing off.
The same thing happened to yahoo mail BTW. I just Un spammed it all, but someone has their undies in a bunch for humanizing America’s “enemies” of the week.
Yeah, I would have to agree with pissedlizard that it's the content of your content that's the real "issue". Every single day, I have to be dedicated in going to my spam box. I marked everything not spam, yet it is sent back to spam. Again and again. The same threads or new threads, still spam. I feel this is clear evidence that they are actually reading our emails carefully to keep tabs on us. I don't like this, but unfortunately I don't have real email options right now. I'm just thankful that they are not outright bouncing it or deleting it, because I know they have the power to do that. Even with this hassle, I am grateful that I know to look in my spambox to get the valuable information and views I signed up for.
Agree with Pissedlziard and Old Wine. When I first signed up for the site my confirmation went into my spam box, which I actually suspected it might. Personally, I visit the site daily to see what's new, even if I don't post daily.
Three options.
[1] Turn off all spam filters.
[2] Continue what you are doing.
[3] Get a new email, and "whitepaper" Metallicman.
Is my Bacon welcome here? I have raised my own pork and processed it in many ways, including this cured then smoked bacon. My love for food and home preservation knows no bounds.
If anyone is curious about process and recipe, just let me know. Happy to share all of my experience here.
Enjoy!
Uploaded files:
For PissedLizard upon request.
CURING (Stage 1)
- The key I have found regarding charcuterie and bacon in particular is not to overthink it. Google any bacon recipe online, and note the RATIO of salt/sugar and importantly "pink salt" for the cure. If you don't plan on having your bacon hanging around (who does?) you can ALWAYS reduce the amount of pink salt (nitrates) by half. The flavour will change so experiment. Here is literally the first link upon googling "home made bacon"
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/homemade-bacon-3362606
- Now once you grab a recipe like this, begin by experimenting. This pork belly plus salt/sugar/pink salt & spices is going to go into a ziplock bag. This is the cure process.
- Here is where I go "off the reservation". They OFTEN say to keep this thing in the bag for 7 to 10 days. I don't know WHY this is but inevitably the bacon is way too salty. Disgustingly salty. You can correct this very simply by soaking bacon in water for X minutes in order to draw salt out if its gross. This can be a very quick process, sometimes 20 minutes or less, should you need to draw out salt. For me? I keep the belly in its ziplock bag for approx 3-5 days max.
- Spices are totally up to your imagination. In the picture above, I've used red pepper flakes (usually 4 to 6 times what any public recipe recommends), whole black peppercorns (you can see them embedded), Turmeric, Bay. You can literally use anything, including curry which is deadly. Use anything you can imagine and the bacon will taste like it.
Smoking (Stage 2)
- Again do not overthink. There are hundreds of ways to smoke something and most people are ridiculous to the point of being religious about it. I prefer to stay simple and use a cheap beat up Hibachi BBQ. The easiest method is the "snake" method. Use it and you will be happy (as mentioned you do NOT need a Webber grill or any other brand name).
- Critically is that you want to keep the meat on the side opposite the briquettes. Also critical is to include wood chips of hardwood (apple, plus, apricot, alder, yadda yadda) laid along a line on the briquettes. Time to smoke? Whatever you enjoy, but I like 10-14 hours, where the snake "dies out" and the bacon cools down inside the BBQ naturally.
- During the smoking keep the bacon fattiest side up for self basting. Critically, at around Hour 3 or so, you will flip it to be fat down and WATCH it. You want to sear up and cook that fat layer enough to give it amazing colour and grill marks (see above). Once you do that (only 1 time) it will get flipped back to the its non-fat side and you can wait it out until finished.
- ALTERNATE - Another way is a primitive way. Use a Tire-Rim fire-pit, hang a grate over it. Lay down the bacon on the grate. Cut spruce boughs and create a WigWam over a low smoky fire which you have built and sustained in the Tire-Rim fire-pit. Make sure boughs are GREEN and high enough up to avoid fire hazard. Toss chunks of hardwood into the smoky fire and tend throughout the process. This style of smoking cannot be left alone. I find it can do a good job in 6 to 8 hours this way, and its simply fun.
NOTE - Literally anything can go into that ziplock back that you think will taste good with bacon flavour. Take fresh hot peppers and smash them up seeds and all, and toss them into the bag if you like spice. Dial down the sugar as much as you want if you don't want too many sweet notes (I don't like it).
OUTCOME - After experimenting with 3-4 bellies (or half bellies), you will eventually be greeted with your brain saying "Whoa, this is the best bacon I've had in my life".
Guaranteed.