Bumby’s Bacon Lab II: Lamb Bacon
This post has been literally years in the making.
Life - mostly positive - has happened in the intervening time. Though I have become more of a lurker...um, a silent member of this great community over the last few years, I have nonetheless remained grateful for it. Please see this post as a token of that gratitude.
There are a ton of skeptics to lamb bacon.
The chief gripe is that lamb bacon is very time intensive per pound and that the butchering is a hassle (a big, big hassle). Others take issue to the chewier mouthfeel, the less consistent texture, and the somewhat unattractive, asymmetrical slices that lamb bacon produces.
I completely understand the skepticism. But hear me out.
At this point, I have been making lamb bacon for so long that it is no longer an experiment but something I make regularly. Probably 50 - 100 pounds a year. I had a batch on my twelve year old WSM as I started to write this post.
I started making lamb bacon because, living in New York City, I have friends who keep kosher or halal and thus cannot enjoy pork bacon. I was uncomfortable having them over for a smoked feast and excluding them from arguably the best part of these feasts: the meat candy. And, as those of us who have tried bacon substitutes to pork know, turkey bacon, beef bacon and duck bacon are simply not comparable to the richness of pork bacon.
Enter the humble lamb.
Although I cannot tell you why - I would guess that there is a similar high fat content in lamb "belly" to pork belly - lamb bacon is actually very close to pork bacon in richness. Though similar to pork bacon in flavor, lamb bacon is a bit gamier (as one might expect).
Regardless of the reason, lamb bacon is incredible and worth trying.
Many of my discerning friends who partake in both actually prefer my lamb bacon to my pork bacon even when I use the same cure. Because lamb bellies are thinner, there is more surface area for a wet cure and so the cure and the smoke are free to impart more intense flavor. And a little gaminess is not a bad thing.
The key - and challenge - to lamb bacon is the butchering. To start, the cut to order at a butcher is the lamb breast, which is roughly the equivalent of ordering a pork belly still connected to the ribs and the breast bone. Because lambs are so much smaller than pigs, the butchering of a lamb breast is a much more careful and time consuming endeavor. The goal should be to preserve as much meat as part of the breast as possible. The butchering process I use involves several steps, which will be familiar to those who trim Saint Louis cut ribs from a store bought pack of spare ribs: (i) removing the very elastic membrane from the back of the ribs while taking care to preserve the very small flaps, (ii) separating the flap meat from the bones and cartilage - I either separate the flap meat entirely or keep it attached and cure and smoke it with the rest of the lamb breast, (iii) removing the ribs - I often cut out each individual rib out to save the meat between the ribs because, unlike with a pork belly, there is not enough meat on a lamb breast to save a separate set of ribs, (iv) removing the breast bone and cartilage, (v) removing the really hard fat (there is usually some on one of the sides of the lamb breast that is not pleasant to eat as part of the bacon) and (vi) trimming the "powdery" fat on the underside of the breast (e.g., the side where the ribs used to be). If done right, this process typically yields a chunk that is a half inch to one and a half inches thick and weighs two to three pounds.
Alternatively, I frequently rely on my amazing butcher to do the butchering and trimming for me. For those in New York City, I go to International Meat Market in Astoria. I realize I may be lucky to have such an incredible butcher locally. What takes me thirty minutes per lamb breast takes them five. Worth it after a generous tip for the hardworking butcher.
I generally follow the same wet curing method as I do with pork bacon, which is the AmazingRibs method. I have experimented with many different cure flavors on lamb bacon. Though I typically use my tried and true pork bacon cure on lamb bacon (personal preference and sheer laziness), I have enjoyed different cure flavors. I recall, for instance, that North African spices used in other cuts of lamb worked quite well (e.g., cumin, coriander, turmeric, etc.).
The smoking process is also about the same. One key difference that I have found is that lamb bacon should sweat for longer than pork bacon but if left on the smoker may char sooner. So that it does not get too dark, I often take the lamb bacon off the smoker at ~140 degrees to finish in the oven.
Here are some pictures of the finished product for your consideration. These chunks make great gifts (if they don’t end up in my belly first).
Life - mostly positive - has happened in the intervening time. Though I have become more of a lurker...um, a silent member of this great community over the last few years, I have nonetheless remained grateful for it. Please see this post as a token of that gratitude.
There are a ton of skeptics to lamb bacon.
The chief gripe is that lamb bacon is very time intensive per pound and that the butchering is a hassle (a big, big hassle). Others take issue to the chewier mouthfeel, the less consistent texture, and the somewhat unattractive, asymmetrical slices that lamb bacon produces.
I completely understand the skepticism. But hear me out.
At this point, I have been making lamb bacon for so long that it is no longer an experiment but something I make regularly. Probably 50 - 100 pounds a year. I had a batch on my twelve year old WSM as I started to write this post.
I started making lamb bacon because, living in New York City, I have friends who keep kosher or halal and thus cannot enjoy pork bacon. I was uncomfortable having them over for a smoked feast and excluding them from arguably the best part of these feasts: the meat candy. And, as those of us who have tried bacon substitutes to pork know, turkey bacon, beef bacon and duck bacon are simply not comparable to the richness of pork bacon.
Enter the humble lamb.
Although I cannot tell you why - I would guess that there is a similar high fat content in lamb "belly" to pork belly - lamb bacon is actually very close to pork bacon in richness. Though similar to pork bacon in flavor, lamb bacon is a bit gamier (as one might expect).
Regardless of the reason, lamb bacon is incredible and worth trying.
Many of my discerning friends who partake in both actually prefer my lamb bacon to my pork bacon even when I use the same cure. Because lamb bellies are thinner, there is more surface area for a wet cure and so the cure and the smoke are free to impart more intense flavor. And a little gaminess is not a bad thing.
The key - and challenge - to lamb bacon is the butchering. To start, the cut to order at a butcher is the lamb breast, which is roughly the equivalent of ordering a pork belly still connected to the ribs and the breast bone. Because lambs are so much smaller than pigs, the butchering of a lamb breast is a much more careful and time consuming endeavor. The goal should be to preserve as much meat as part of the breast as possible. The butchering process I use involves several steps, which will be familiar to those who trim Saint Louis cut ribs from a store bought pack of spare ribs: (i) removing the very elastic membrane from the back of the ribs while taking care to preserve the very small flaps, (ii) separating the flap meat from the bones and cartilage - I either separate the flap meat entirely or keep it attached and cure and smoke it with the rest of the lamb breast, (iii) removing the ribs - I often cut out each individual rib out to save the meat between the ribs because, unlike with a pork belly, there is not enough meat on a lamb breast to save a separate set of ribs, (iv) removing the breast bone and cartilage, (v) removing the really hard fat (there is usually some on one of the sides of the lamb breast that is not pleasant to eat as part of the bacon) and (vi) trimming the "powdery" fat on the underside of the breast (e.g., the side where the ribs used to be). If done right, this process typically yields a chunk that is a half inch to one and a half inches thick and weighs two to three pounds.
Alternatively, I frequently rely on my amazing butcher to do the butchering and trimming for me. For those in New York City, I go to International Meat Market in Astoria. I realize I may be lucky to have such an incredible butcher locally. What takes me thirty minutes per lamb breast takes them five. Worth it after a generous tip for the hardworking butcher.
I generally follow the same wet curing method as I do with pork bacon, which is the AmazingRibs method. I have experimented with many different cure flavors on lamb bacon. Though I typically use my tried and true pork bacon cure on lamb bacon (personal preference and sheer laziness), I have enjoyed different cure flavors. I recall, for instance, that North African spices used in other cuts of lamb worked quite well (e.g., cumin, coriander, turmeric, etc.).
The smoking process is also about the same. One key difference that I have found is that lamb bacon should sweat for longer than pork bacon but if left on the smoker may char sooner. So that it does not get too dark, I often take the lamb bacon off the smoker at ~140 degrees to finish in the oven.
Here are some pictures of the finished product for your consideration. These chunks make great gifts (if they don’t end up in my belly first).
Comment