Friday 1 April 2011

This little piggie....

went into my makeshift smoker about an hour ago.



I am absolutely of the opinion that a life without bacon is not worth living.  I am seriously considering marketing some of those silicone bracelets like those fatuous smug "I have an invisible friend in the sky to watches everything I do and judges it" nutters wear. Instead of WWJD. I'd have EGBWB. (Everything Goes Better with Bacon). Maybe a book. "Thursdays with Bacon".. a "tail" of life, love and loss based on the wisdom of cured piggy goodness. If they can have The Tao of Pooh, why not the Bhagavad-Gita of Babe.

Given my odd predilection for order and ritual, it's probably why I'm not Jewish. Well, the bacon thing and also kosher wine is crap.

But I digress.

The fact that 99% of my cooking utensils are in a shipping container somewhere in the Arafura Sea, AND the fact that I now live on a tropical island with no traditional smoking wood is a mere trifle.

A piffle, if you will.

I haz teh interwebz.

So, after finding out about boar taint, cold smoking vee  hot smoking, I've settled on the very delectable EssJayEff's tea smoking mix.

You can read it.here.

Because I want a long slow smoke, I've doubled the quantities. I lined a dodgy wok I picked up for $10 with about eight layers of foil, added the smoke mix..




 I also picked up a pizza tray, Have NO idea how or what pizza is made up here, as I haven't had one yet but this is a non-stick round tray with holes in it. It's a perfect fit on the wok, and will allow  a good flow of smoke over the soon-to-be-bacon.


I then used another pot and inverted it as the lid. It fits perfectly! It's been on the smallest gas jet, on low for about an hour now, and I'm just beginning to smell something akin to burnt toast. I will resist the urge to take a peek, and let you all know how it goes.



UPDATE AT 2 HOUR MARK:

Ok, after much twitter discussion, I put the smoker over the biggest gas ring and cranked up the heat. This is because I took a peek and the meat was steaming, but there was no smoke. After about 5 mins on high, yes, there is indeed smoke!!

In fact,it smelled like burning toast! I panicked a bit. Burning toast flavoured bacon is NOT on my agenda, but I am assured by essjayeff that this is normal.

I couldn't resist the urge to peek and man, it looks and smells unbelievable!!! I took the opportunity to add a few slivers of cassia bark,just to sweeten it a bit.

So it's now back on the small burner, on low and it's smoking away happily. 

Dude, I'm making BACON!!!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm going to your place for breakfast!

- Jazz

Griffin said...

I'm with Jazz... I'll bring the coffee. Oh and the iron trousers to keep my legs safe from the ninja puppeh!!

JenEmery said...

OMG I hope all your effort ends up worth it and you finish up with the bestest ever bacon you've ever tasted!!
Jen
xx

Reese Darragh said...

OMG! You are smoking your own bacon! I got to try that. Thanks for stopping by at my blog!

Love,

Reese