Bacon

Can't have a bacon thread without a link to Jim Gaffigan's bacon routine:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drqUfOAenwQ

When I did mine, I did it at "meat" temp on my Excalibur, which is listed as 155. As I recall, it took somewhere around 12 hours. I could be misremembering. I remember that it took way longer than I wanted it to & I had to smell delicious bacon the whole time. I also remember that the rendered fat made a huge mess in the bottom of the dehydrator. I recommend putting some kind of drip tray in the bottom.

Well! We are back from our trip. I'll post a trip report later, no time now. On the bacon. I ended up using what I had already, the fresh bacon. Dredged each strip in salt, packed meal portions (3 people at the beginning of the trip, a planned 5 people for the latter part) along with bags of dried eggs, for some of the breakfasts. Heavy because the bacon wasn't dehydrated. In camp, a hassle because I had to rinse the extra salt off the bacon before cooking, and then there was bacon-fatty-salty rinse water to dispose of in bear country. Not ideal. But the bacon, after cooking, was perfectly fresh tasting, if a little saltier than usual, delicious, and a welcome treat after a few days on the trail. By the time we ate the last batch, it had been out of refrigeration for about 3 weeks.

Mina

The United States of Bacon is a new TV show highlighting ….. bacon!

http://foodbeast.com/content/2012/12/06/united-states-of-bacon-tv-show-because-this-is-america/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+foodbeast+%28FOODBEAST%29

I microwave turkey bacon (Oscar Meyer) and pat grease off it with a paper towel.

Then I put it in a freezer bag to keep critters from getting a stron whiff of it at night. Bacon like this keeps for a week W/O a 'fridge and is great mixed with freeze dried omlettes.