Has anybody tried "buckboard" bacon using the recipes for bacon on the main site (or any other recipe)? I'm thinking about giving it a try with part of a pork butt.
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No, but that is interesting.... -
I have never seen that. See, i have been around here for years now and I haven't reached the end of this BBQ labyrinth.Comment
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johnec00 I just read the little there was. This sounds awesome. I can't believe I never realized this little gem. Thanks! I have made plenty of bacon from the maple bacon recipe. It always turns out amazing. I am curious how the Backboard bacon equates to belly. Most of the recipes are for one pound of belly.Comment
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Really? No one here has tried this yet? That might be a first. I might just have to be the one.Comment
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Spinaker - Seems that nobody jumped right up and said it was great (or terrible), so I decided to give it a try. And see if I can do a photo play-by-play like others on the Pit site do.
Started with a ~8 pound butt.
De-boned it by slicing approximately bacon thickness slab off of the fattier side of the butt. Just rolled the rest up for the next PBC pulled pork.
Cut the slab into two about equal pieces (about 1 1/2 pounds each). Looks a little like extra meaty bacon.
Used the AR site's simple bacon recipe (scaled by 1.5X) for one piece and the maple recipe for the other. Then into plastic bags and to the beer fridge for at least a week.
More to come. Hopefully it won't be to show a picture of me throwing them in the trash!
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Well, I've made it, and I have pictures ready to write a piece, but haven't done it. I tried it mainly because I couldn't find Belly or loin one time in Maui. I did ask here if anyone could give advice on how to cut it, but no response. I checked out YouTube, but, as often, not much of use and some absolutely wrong information.
Your butt above looks a lot nicer, and closer to belly, than mine did. I found the results disappointing and I threw most of it away. But maybe that was just my methods and my piece of meat. I certainly wouldn't bother if I could get nice loin or belly. I wish you better luck.Comment
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this is going to be interesting...nice photos BTWComment
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Have considered it, but not yet done it. I'm betting that it ends up like a hybrid between bacon & Canadian bacon.... Let us know, please.Comment
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Looking good so far. I am looking forward to that finished product!! Thanks for doing this.Comment
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Here's conclusion of the buckboard bacon experiment
Last night, took the pieces of butt out of the cure bags (after 8 days), rinsed, and soaked overnight in ice water. Smoked with kingsford charcoal and apple chunks at 225* to an IT of 165* in the thickest section. Here's a pic fresh out of the smoker.
Tried a cut with the grain and another across the grain.
Sliced test slices both directions (about 1/10 inch thick) and fried along with a piece of belly bacon from a previous experiment with the same AR main site "simple bacon" recipe. Belly bacon is on the right.
Critique:
First, I have to say that the belly bacon was a little too salty for my taste, so I soaked the buckboard bacon overnight to reduce the saltiness. The overnight soak probably over did it, the flavor was somewhat washed out. Otherwise, it tastes like bacon, which, for me, meets the minimum requirement. The finished product was not quite as crisp as the belly bacon, but as Meathead points out in his main site article, "hot smoked" bacon will not be as crispy as the commercial product, so neither one was crackly crisp. Crackly crisp is, by the way, a technical term. Cut across the grain was better than with the grain in terms of crispness.
I had been concerned that this would be like fried ham, but that is not the case. On the scale from bacon to ham, its definitely toward the bacon end. Regardless, most of our bacon is used for cooking things like beans, soup, and etc. For cooking, the buckboard bacon will be as good or better than store bought bacon, salt pork, or home made belly bacon. And $1.09 per pound I paid for pork butt beats the heck out of the $4.00 (skin on), or $5.00 (skin off) that they get for pork belly around here.
I could not tell much difference between the maple syrup recipe and the simple recipe. Again may be due to the long soak.
If I do it again, I will either skip the overnight soak, or shorten it significantly. But it will be a while before I have to worry about running out . . . . .
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I do buckboard bacon all the time. I super love it. Whenever I'm hosting a big party or going to a big party, I'll make some buckboard in advance in then fry it up or bake it that morning. I always love the reaction I get from it. In my opinion (and I recognize that not everyone is going to feel this way), buckboard is far superior to belly bacon.
I've done buckboard with multiple recipes. But I didn't really love it with the maple wet cure from the bacon page.
What I do love, however, is doing it with a regular dry cure, then taking a chunk of it after smoking it, and turning it into buckboard bacon "burnt ends" with my homemade maple chipotle BBQ sauce. I think I actually posted a picture of that somewhere around here.
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