Bacon Experiments
-
So, first and foremost let me be crystal clear here, this is me speaking as Jon the guy who eats meat at home, not Jon the Walton’s employee. I had some bacon sitting in the fridge and I was working on some experiments with overly salty jerky and I decided to toss some regular shaker seasonings onto the slices of bacon and then throw that into the dehydrator which was set to 160. I tried some Cinnamon Toast Shake, some Excalibur Apple Sweet & Sassy rump rub and some Salt & Vinegar Wing Shake. I know, that last one sounds disgusting right?
First, I am saying this NOT as a walton’s employee but they were amazing BUT I’m not sure they were 100% safe so more testing needs to be done and more bacon will need to be eaten!
The Cinnamon Toast was awesome, tasted like bacon candy and the Apple was good, not great but good. The Salt & Vinegar was AMAZING! Such an interesting taste to go with Bacon but worth it as long as you are okay with the risks.
The fat starts to melt so when you bite into it you get an effect similar to charcuterie fat melting in your mouth. It then gets a little chewy if you eat too large a piece but when taken in small bites it is unreal! I just made another entire package of just the salt and vinegar and I’ve eaten most of it already.
Everyone should try this!
Jonathon That is interesting. I guess you will know soon enough if it was safe to it or not. How long did you have it in the dehydrator?
-
Tex_77 On Friday it was in there for 3 hours. The batch I made today was in it for 2 hours where i deemed it done enough/lost patience/too hungry to wait! I currently have the leftovers in the fridge and I am going to try some cold to see what that is like. As far as food poisoning as of right now I feel 100% and generally, if you are good 24 hours later you are good
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
-
Tex_77 On Friday it was in there for 3 hours. The batch I made today was in it for 2 hours where i deemed it done enough/lost patience/too hungry to wait! I currently have the leftovers in the fridge and I am going to try some cold to see what that is like. As far as food poisoning as of right now I feel 100% and generally, if you are good 24 hours later you are good
-
As long as the bacon gets to IT of 145 degree is should be safe…correct? I will stick jerky in the oven at 300 degrees for 10-15 minutes if I’m concerned the jerky didn’t reach safe temp. But this is for ground meat beef and deer jerky and IT of 165*
-
From what I’ve seen on video and read both here and other articles, you should take your meat to at least 155 F for at least 30 min. That could be achieved by taking the meat to 150 F and then placing in faux chambau for an hour. The carryover should take you up to and over the critical temp.
145 F is just a little too low as a critical temp for pork, and holding it at that temp would not be good. In My Opinion.
-
Kansasdad, I believe USDA regs state 145 as safe temp. That said I always take pork to minimum of 155 as well. But not all people like well done meat so I always quote usda regs.
-
knifemaker3 USDA states 145 for an internal temp of whole cuts of meat, once we have sliced it into strips we have introduced anything that is living on the outside of the meat into the middle. Now, part of what matters here is what temp your bacon was cooked to when it was smoked before it got to you. If it was cooked to 145 then I’d be less leery of just sticking it in the dehydrator. I will be doing a few different things with it this week and let everyone know how it turns out.
For anyone thinking of doing this I know that Satl & Vinegar Wing Shake might sound nasty but it is AWESOME on this bacon, so is the Cinnamon Toast though.
-
I’m sorry for giving out wrong information. I should have checked my chart from Amazingribs.com You guys are awesome for fact checking. I was running off of memory rather than facts. Keep up the good work.
-
I’m so doing this over the weekend !
-
OK, so I’m a week late !
Been one of those weeks.
So in my rendition of Johnathon’s BRILLIANT idea.
I love anything and everything HOT. So my concoction, I used my Habanero Garlic powder, Pico De gallo and white sugar.
I grow all my peppers from Anahiems to Scorpions…
Just pulled off the dehydrator, after 7 hours, (145*) frustrated because they still don’t “feel” done. Into the oven at 190* for an hour. We’ll see. They smell amazing though.! I’ll update once, I’m done.
20191006_105245.jpg "
-
DougSmokes I’ve got a legitimate problem on my hands here…since I last posted about this I have made 3 full batches of jerky with different seasonings!!! The Buttery Garlic was amazing as well and your concoction sounds amazing. The only downside is the fat is a little chewy (ok ok a lot chewy) but the feeling of it melting as soon as you bite into it is worth it! My suggestion would be to take small bites.
Glad other people are gonna try this! It’s almost like making a piece of weird charcuterie but in just a few hours!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
-
DougSmokes I’ve got a legitimate problem on my hands here…since I last posted about this I have made 3 full batches of jerky with different seasonings!!! The Buttery Garlic was amazing as well and your concoction sounds amazing. The only downside is the fat is a little chewy (ok ok a lot chewy) but the feeling of it melting as soon as you bite into it is worth it! My suggestion would be to take small bites.
Glad other people are gonna try this! It’s almost like making a piece of weird charcuterie but in just a few hours!
Jonathon Ha,Ha. Now I’ve got someone to blame !!!
Took another 2 hours in the oven at 190*, but they came out perfect, not chewy at all like your experiencing for some reason. It actually snaps like a SlimJim. I gave up on the dehydrator after 7 hours @ 165* setting. Meat topped out at 145* after 6 hours, almost like a brisket. The oven did the trick though. May have been the thick cut bacon…? What did you use?
I was a little disappointed with the heat, next time Ghost pepper powder
Here are the done pics.
-
DougSmokes We also did some straight in the oven just like normal bacon but we sprinkled seasoning shakers on it and it was amazing. You can get to that crispy level without the dehydrator if you want! Glad it came out well but not surprised the heat mostly disappeared, ghost pepper powder will help a little but with such a dry product it might still cut down the heat a significant amount.
Do you think there was a difference in going from dehydrator to the oven other than starting out in the oven? Should i try it?!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
-
DougSmokes We also did some straight in the oven just like normal bacon but we sprinkled seasoning shakers on it and it was amazing. You can get to that crispy level without the dehydrator if you want! Glad it came out well but not surprised the heat mostly disappeared, ghost pepper powder will help a little but with such a dry product it might still cut down the heat a significant amount.
Do you think there was a difference in going from dehydrator to the oven other than starting out in the oven? Should i try it?!
Jonathon Have you tried this with beef bacon?
-
DougSmokes We also did some straight in the oven just like normal bacon but we sprinkled seasoning shakers on it and it was amazing. You can get to that crispy level without the dehydrator if you want! Glad it came out well but not surprised the heat mostly disappeared, ghost pepper powder will help a little but with such a dry product it might still cut down the heat a significant amount.
Do you think there was a difference in going from dehydrator to the oven other than starting out in the oven? Should i try it?!
Jonathon I usually do my muscle meat and ground jerky on the dehydrator with no issues. 6 hours, done. My thought with the bacon, is the issue may be the fat in the bacon. I plan to do this again with regular bacon both ways to see which is better. I would think that doing it all in the over should work. Just cheating a bit, like a Traeger…
(Which I soon plan to buy !) -
Tex_77 I like that idea !!! Or turkey ?
-
DougSmokes Yes, the issue is 100% the bacon fat, the lean doesn’t get chewy at all but I feel like I’m not selling this well enough somehow. The fat is the best part! You bite into it and it just melts, its awesome…but then it doesnt melt all the way and gets chewy, so take small bites.
Ive tried thin cut, thick cut and regular and regular is the best in my mind.
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
-
Tex_77 Haven’t tried with anything other than pork yet. Beef could work well I would imagine? DougSmokes So turkey bacon is restructured and made like we did here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pkarprCyccw and I would be interested to seeing what happens if you added it during the mix?
My worries are specifically with the Salt & Vinegar as it could make it overly salty and the vinegar could denature the proteins and make the binding process tough but adding any shaker during this process could cause issues. Probably just make it regular and sprinkle on the seasoning at the end.
-
DougSmokes Yes, the issue is 100% the bacon fat, the lean doesn’t get chewy at all but I feel like I’m not selling this well enough somehow. The fat is the best part! You bite into it and it just melts, its awesome…but then it doesnt melt all the way and gets chewy, so take small bites.
Ive tried thin cut, thick cut and regular and regular is the best in my mind.
This post is deleted! -
I did another batch this morning. I wanted our customer service and a few select other people to try this to see how good it was! After I was done I took the pH and the water activity and it was 6.01 ph on Cinnamon Toast and 5.15 with Salt & Vinegar, the water activity was .48 though, so the pH is pretty much a moot point, these were shelf stable.
So, I did this by sprinkling seasoning on both sides and then putting it in the dehydrator for 5 hours at 160°. I rotated the trays from top to bottom twice and one time I flipped the pieces of bacon, probably didnt need to do it but I figured why not?
What this gives you is a piece of bacon that is ready to eat at any time that still has some nice moisture to it, it doesnt overly dry it out. Now, take SMALL bites. The initial bite into it is awesome the fat practically explodes and you get a huge amount of flavor, take small bites though because once you bite into the fat and get that awesome flavor it gets more than a bit chewy!
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
Hello! It looks like you're interested in this conversation, but you don't have an account yet.
Getting fed up of having to scroll through the same posts each visit? When you register for an account, you'll always come back to exactly where you were before, and choose to be notified of new replies (either via email, or push notification). You'll also be able to save bookmarks and upvote posts to show your appreciation to other community members.
With your input, this post could be even better 💗
Register LoginSponsored By:
