Bacon/Pancetta update

BACON IS READY!  Finally the wait is over.  Got my hair did today after work and then went to my mother in law's for dinner.  But, I was dying to try my bacon.  By the time I got home, it was 8:30 pm, but I was determined to try even a little bite.

I sniffed the bacon to ensure it was not rotten and thankfully, it was not.  I rinsed the slab to get rid of the extra salt, but most of the fennel seeds and black pepper stayed on.

Yup...back to crappy pics for now.  It's 830 pm and I am tired!

The bacon smelled sooooooooooooooo good cooking.  Finally I got to taste the fruits of my labour (not really labour.  It sat in the fridge for seven days and I flipped it once a day).  It was really tasty!  The fennel added a nice licorice-y tarragon-y flavour.  P says it's fatty.  Well yeah, it's bacon.  P says that bacon isn't usually this fatty.  Okay I will admit it is fatty, but it's a treat and not meant to be eaten everyday.  Plus it's high quality pork and it tastes soooo yummy.  The only downside is that with the awful knives that I own, it's impossible to slice the bacon thin like store bought bacon.

So much potential, so little time

Last night, I made polenta and put it in a loaf pan in preparation for a dish I was going to make today, but as mentioned above, I did not get home early enough.  It was to be polenta cakes with caremlized onions, bacon, and goat cheese with a honey drizzle (based on a recipe I had seen on the internet).  To add to the naughtiness of eating bacon at 8:30 pm at night, I pan fried a slice of polenta in the pork fat for my lunch tomorrow and cooked a few more little pieces of bacon.  Packed some asparagus as well to be microwaved with some lemon juice.  That's my lunch.

Honestly, I can't go back to store bought bacon.  This is revolutionary in my little world.  

Shame!

Got a message this morning from Verf regarding my pancetta.  Verf says it has not become a rotted body part.  Here's a pic:

Looks good so far!  Three more weeks and an x number of days to go!  Can't wait to try this as well.

Further updates to be posted.