Guanciale haning in the cold room

The second challenge of Charcutepalooza is The Salt Cure. This is nothing new to me. I have been dry curing pork belly, hams, jowls & various bits for years. Those of you who follow along on The Gastrocast are very familiar with the extent of my efforts and my attempts to bring you along for the ride. Fortunately, so far, the Charcutepalooza challenges have matched along with things I am already doing and can cook for the show. For this week’s episode—Gastrocast #203–Lapin Aux Pruneaux—cooked in honor of the Chinese Year of the Rabbit, I thought I would speak a bit about bacon, share my short video on rolling Pancetta, and link to my Guanciale efforts.

Ever since I first saw pork butchery and learned about the 4-6 types of commonly recognized bacon (depends on which country you are in, and what the cure, method & cuts are) I have been practicing dry cured bacon, sans nitrate/nitrites which I feel are completely unnecessary for this application. Sometime I choose to smoke the dry cured belly, aka bacon, sometimes I don’t. Other times I choose to shorten my methods and roll the piece of belly, without skin, into a Pancetta Roll:

Meats Hanging in the Smokehouse

More often than not, I smoke the meat. More often than not, I leave some—if not all—of the belly in the salt cure beyond the 3-4 days which works well for “sweet” bacon, aka breakfast rashers. This extra cure time makes the meat saltier, drier, but also enhances storage time and keeping properties. I am hearkening back to a time before refrigeration here. To a traditional bacon, which takes advantage of salt, time and smoke to make a shelf-stable meat which can easily hang in the larder or cool part of the kitchen for most of the year. This bacon is what I reach for most of the time. Not as a meat-in-itself, but more as a seasoning, a flavoring or ingredient. This bacon works excellently to flavor stews, braises, drape over pheasant or perk up a soup. It is a bacon I am not afraid to keep on the counter during the day. It is firm, dry and does not weep any sort of liquid. Part of this is the cure, the method, the smoking. Part of this is the quality of pork I raise. Additionally, this “style” of bacon can not be smoked and then used as “salt pork”

Cutting Bones from Slab Bacon

Before I continue with “how” is use the bacon and share a great recipe with you, I also want to address how I choose to cure the belly pieces. Not only does my pork have the skin on, but also the rib-section. Not only does leaving this membrane and the small pieces of rib and membrane greatly aid in storage properties by keeping the least amount of flesh exposed to the air, but also having a few salty, smokey bits of pork bone around is a great addition to a pot of beans or soup or a dish of braised winter greens.

Bacon in Curing Tub

My most recent batch of bacon has been cured in my normal mix of salt, brown sugar, bay, thyme, black pepper & juniper. Some people claim that the extra herbs can’t be tasted once you smoke or further cook with the meat, but I think they are very present. Perhaps that is because of the amount of time I leave the meat in contact with the flavors. Contrary to popular instruction, as well, I leave my salted bacon out in a cold room. NOT in the refrigerator. Remember—bacon was developed out of a need to store meat. Pigs were usually killed in the autumn or winter, much as I prefer to do them still. For farm consumption this method has always worked just fine.

Bacon Air Drying Before Smoking

I recently read somewhere that bacon and salted meats used to be cured in wooden boxes. The excess liquids would seep into the pores of the wood and the residues were left from batch to batch. Presumably this enhanced the flavors and developed a culture of sorts which added to the characteristics of a certain curer’s meats. Until I get a wooden box built to experiment with, I have been using plastic tubs. Notice in this photo how much liquid has drained from this belly from half of a pig. I usually place any unused cure in a baggie inside the tub in case I need to add some more cure to an area of the bacon while I am overhauling it. Once the meat is cured in the tub, I take it out to hang for a few days to air-dry and drain before it goes into the smokehouse. This helps drain the excess moisture added when I rinse the salt and cure off, which is what helps the smoke to bond with the meat and give it a rich color while smoking.

Dry Cured Bacon Ready to Use

One other note about bacon and cured meats in general. If you notice these photos, the meat is fully fatted. There is thick layers of fat between the meat. This is because I raise my pigs for longer than average. The meat from maturer pigs—on average 1 year old, or 6 months older than commercial pork—cures better. Think the difference between veal and beef…. This extra time also develops the muscle structure and flavor of the meat.

And now..on to the recipe. My friend Kate Hill’s Lapin Aux Pruneaux from her book A Culinary Journey Through Gascony.

Diced Bacon Lardons

Home Dried Prunes

Fried Lardons

1 Rabbit (A large stewing rabbit rather than fryer, if you have a choice.)
Salt & freshly ground Pepper
2 oz bacon, diced
2 Onions, quartered
2 Shallots, halved
2 T Duck Fat or Oil
2T Flour
4 Carrots, cut in chunks
2 Stalks Celery, cut in chunks
2 to 3 sprigs Fresh Thyme
1 T Fresh Parsley, chopped
18 prunes, pitted
1 bottle red wine minus 1 glass
1- Joint the rabbit into even pieces and season with salt and pepper.
2- In a large stewing pan with a lid, place the bacon and cook over medium-high heat. Toss in the onions and shallots and cook until they start to brown. Remove from pan and set aside.

The Finished Dish

3- Place the fat or

oil in the hot pan and add the rabbit pieces. Sprinkle with the flour and brown on all sides. Add the carrots and celery and return the onions and shallots to the pan. Place the thyme, parsley, and half of the prunes in the pan. Pour the wine over the rabbit and make sure it is just covered by the liquid, adding some water if needed.
4- Cover and cook over very low heat for 60-75 minutes. Never let the mixture boil, rather it should just simmer.
5- When the rabbit is very tender and starting to fall off of the bone remove to a hot platter and hold in a warm oven. Add the remaining prunes to the sauce and with the lid off, reduce the liquid by 1/3 by simmering briskly. Serve the sauce over the rabbit along side some rich mashed potatoes or sautéed fingerlings.

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