Bringing Home the Bacon (Literally)

Attended a class on making bacon, pancetta, and sausage at Save on Meats in Vancouver.  If you're from Vancouver, you know Save on Meats is not located in the nicest of neighbourhoods.  I start to feel uncomfortable.  Now don't get me wrong.  I'm a social worker and work with all different types of people from all walks of life.  I don't think they mean any harm, but as I was walking, a few young guys in tracksuits attempted to talk to me.  When I got to the thick of the crowd, I walked faster and held my purse a little bit tighter.  It's hard not to when you see people strung out, making drug deals in front of you, and passing drug paraphenalia back and forth.  If one did not come from Vancouver and did not know about the Downtown Eastside, they may be quick to dismiss Save on Meats as a place with good food with quality ingredients.  But, Save on Meats seems to pride themselves on this.

Onto the meat!  The class was taught by a chef who no joke reminded me of Keanu Reeves.  So far, having had the hugest crush on Keanu Reeves when I was 13, I'm liking the class.  The recipe booklet they gave us says the following: "with a little patience and some high quality meat in hand you can harness the power of bacon in your own kitchen".  The power of bacon.  So infinitely amazing.

I won't bore you with the process (which is so easy to make), but here are some few interesting things I learned:
 

-Quality in, quality out.  The pork we used was from Gelderman Farm which is of high quality.  The pigs are free-range, antibiotic free, and apparently have lived a better life than the rest of us. 

-Nitrate, or pink salt, used to cure the pork is lethal in high doses so you have to be extra careful using it and store out of the reach of children.  A high dose of pink salt can kill a 200 lb man in four hours.  Yikes!  This does not bode well for P since he just proudly dropped below 200 lb.

-After day 4, you can add liquids for flavouring.  Genius Keanu Reeves says he pours scotch into the bag to get the smoky flavour without actually smoking the bacon.  I begin to drool at this point.

-The salt mixture can also be used on salmon to make lox.  Keanu Reeves makes me forget for one moment I have P in my life.  Lox makes me weak in the knees.

-You can use any seasoning you want.  The sky is the limit.  But, Keanu says to use dry herbs not fresh because fresh herbs are not consistent in flavour.  Dry herbs are.

Spices and herbs pictured here include garlic powder, ginger powder, italian seasoning, fennel seeds, chili flakes, cumin, Indian spice blend, cracked black pepper.  One girl dumped a whole crap load of garlic powder in her sausage mix.  Blech.

-The pancetta requires 5 weeks to hang and dry in a cool, humid place.  My tiny apartment does not allow me to do this.  As an alternative, I can cook the pancetta as is and it's considered porchetta.

-You can buy a meat grinder at Princess Auto.  That's random. Maybe I can also pick up a belt for my car because it has been screaming like a banshee for a month.  My neighbours hate my car and make faces when I drive by.

-When trimming the skin off the pork belly for bacon or pancetta, save it and boil it in water for 45 minutes.  Then take said skin and microwave on low for 10-15 minutes.  It becomes, what Keanu Reeves called, "the best potato chip of your life" or chicharone.  Don't talk to me about chicharone.  I am Filipino and we know our chicharone. 

Here's the recipe for the salt/sugar cure:

1 lb Kosher salt

8 oz granulated sugar

2 oz of pink salt, approx 10 tsp (to be safe measure by weight not volume) 

You can buy pink salt at a store called Homesteaders on Hastings.

Sausage casings.  The technique of putting casings on the extruder made me think of dirty jokes.

Here are the flavour combinations I used:

For the bacon:
-fennel seeds
-cumin

-garlic powder
-black pepper

For the pancetta:
-Went boring and used Italian seasoning

For the sausage
(went a bit crazy)
-indian spice blend (just a pinch for color)
-red chili flakes
-italian seasoning
-fennel seeds
-salt

-pepper
-cumin

Everyone that was in the class came with their significant other or a friend.  Three of us came by

Dirty jokes abound!

ourselves.  When it came time to partner up, the two men who came by themselves partnered up leaving me the odd person out.  Just like in gym class being picked last, but in this case I didn't even get picked at all.  I say out loud, "aw...lonely heart".  But that's fine.  I got the most pancetta for one person as a result.


When I got home I tried to rack my brain as to where I can hang my pancetta.  I tell P I am going to hang it in our underground parking because I was told to hang it in a cool, dry place.  I tell P I'll put where no one can see it.  P says he would absolutely not eat pancetta cured in a parking lot. It's a parking lot, not a deli.   My best friend and neighbour agrees to let me hang it in her basement.  I'm scared as hell it's going to look like a Walking Dead rotting zombie part and becomes inedible, thus wasting a really good piece of quality pork.  But my best friend tells me to take a risk and  be brave!

Ready for a hanging

P cooks up a piece of sausage.  It does lack salt.  I was wimpy with my salt.  But, the cumin and fennel flavour shone through and you could tell that the pork was good quality.  Pumped!

Overall, the class was really informative and I loved that it was hands on.  Keanu Reeves left early and the rest was taught by his colleague who was quite knowledgeable and helpful.  I am inspired not to buy bacon ever again.  Not after realizing how easy it is to make and I am able to control the quality and be creative with my flavours to suit my mood.  Asian inspired bacon with the flavours of ginger, star anise and lemon grass with sake?  Mediterranean bacon with italian seasoning and some good wine?  How about Indian curry bacon?  The options are endless.

Bacon power!