Original Pownce Post 

 Pownce Pork Project - Day 16
Give a Little - Get a Little (bacon)

We are back in the swing of things! Thanks to everyone who weighed in on the smoke question.  I had totally not counted on folks picking a blend of woods, but what a great combo: cherry and oak. I wish I could claim that the oak was from my yard like the cherry, but they are both high quality and great smokin' woods.

The bacon has come along nicely. In just a few short weeks we have chosen a path (savory vs sweet), picked some flavors (garlic sage, YUM), cured the super fat belly and smoked it to perfection.

Tonight I threw the cured slab into the smoker with some chunks of cherry and oak and in just 2 hours a rich, smoky, huge slab of bacon emerged... open source bacon at that! p

Now the part that I've been waiting for. The auction!

Here's the plan - over the next few days pick a food-related charity...anything from your local food bank to the United Way....if it feeds people, promotes healthy food, supports local farms, ANYTHING...just make a donation. It doesn't matter if we start at Ten Cents or Ten Dollars ... if, at the end of the week the highest donation is $5 or $500, it doesn't matter...

Make a donation, take a screen shot, post it to Pownce and your in the running.  (do me a favor and reply to this thread with a link if you decide to post your own thread)

I've decided to slice this bad boy in half (have you seen the pics? There's plenty to go around). The person who donates the most gets one half..everone else will go into a raffle and maybe we can get a Pownce celebrity judge  to pick a name.

BTW - I'll match the highest donation, up to $50

Winners get their bacon shipped via fedex cold packs right to their door.

Original Pownce Post

Pownce Pork Project
Day 7 - now we wait

    The curing started two days ago, and so far so good. We have about a week to go before the smoking. The curing process is not that mystical, but it does involve some mojo in the form of "pink salt". Pink Salt is just one of the parts of the actual cure for bacon. All last week we voted on the flavorings in the form of herbs and spices. With the flavors there is no special formula, just add as much or as little of something as you like. The cure, on the other hand, is a lot more precise.
    
    The cure is a mix of sugar, in the form of dextrose, kosher salt and "pink salt", or sodium nitrite. Dextrose, though really just simple sugar, is not the same thing you find in the baking isle of the local grocery. Dextrose is used in curing over granulated sugar for the curing process because it is a very fine powder so it desolvs easily. Kosher salt is not that special either, although cooks prefer it for the big kernels of salt that stick to food but not to ones hands. In curing it has the added benefits of not being as "salinic" as table salt. There is more of the pure salt taste, in other words, and less of that chemical taste. Butchers also prefer it because it is easier to weigh out, something that is essential for curing.
    
    That leaves Pink Salt as the lone mystical ingredient in the process. Sodium Nitrite is a poison, its toxic even in small amounts. When purchased commercially it is died bright pink to avoid any confusion with table or kosher salts. Nitrites have been linked to COPD and, probably erroneously, to cancer. Health food stores tout "nitrate free" meats and snacks. All of which prompts the question, why on earth would we add them to food? Its a valid question and one that everyone should ask themselves when shopping and consuming foods with nitrites. What sodium nitrite brings to the game, when used in very small doses, is a death sentence for bacteria. Specifically nitrites are very good at preventing botulism. Nitrates are also responsible for the rosy red color and, to a degree, the porky taste of cured meats.
    
    That means there is a lot of controversy around the use of nitrites in food. I will concede that a diet full of nitrites is fairly unhealthy. Curing foods often happens in an environment that is very hospitable to bacteria - low oxygen, high moisture and warm temperatures. When you introduce nitrites (and their big brother, nitrates) things get a lot safer. Plus, you get that great color and taste that makes bacon bacon, and not just salty pork.
    
    For more information I am going to again mention Harold McGee's amazing work: On Food And Cooking. Mike Ruhlman's Charcuterie is another must for anyone interested in doing this stuff at home.
    
    As a final note, I have not posted the recipe for the cure because its based on precise weights of the dextrose, salt and nitrite. If you are curious, check out Charcuterie. You can find both books here