It smells tasty and I want to eat it!

July 19, 2009 1:37 PM

What do I do with smoked rib bacon?

So I've been going to this fantastic deli near my house and trying all their different meats, cheeses, and bacon. Today I decided to try the "smoked rib bacon."

I was sort of expecting it to be sliced like the other various bacon I've bought there (gypsy bacon, danish bacon, regular bacon, apple bacon, etc) but instead it's a large chunk of meat (sort of like a pork belly, but with bones in it) and I have no idea what to do with it.

So what do I do with smoked rib bacon? How do I prepare it? Can I just eat it? Do I need to fry it or cook it in the oven like normal bacon? Do I cook it like it's pork belly?

Any ideas are welcome. Thanks.

posted by Arbac to food & drink (11 comments total)

is it already smoked? you could slow cook it like pork belly. I recommend layering it with kimchi in a pot until the pork is falling apart and serving over rice.
posted by billtron at 1:55 PM on July 19 [1 favorite]

Slow cook it in the oven or on a grill so you can get some crispyness to it. There's nothing like crispy pork fat, right?
Buy a jar of orange marmalade and brush it on during the final stages of cooking as a glaze. If you cook it in the oven, put a pan with beer in it on the rack below the pork-cooking rack. Catch the drips and keep it moist with tasty beer flavor.

My personal favorite way of slow cooking pork is to put it in the crock pot with some sort of fruit juice and seasonings (paprika, chili powder, garlic, masala, etc) and then finish it on the grill to give it a crispy, smoky exterior.

You could also add it to gumbo or jambalaya, taking the place of the traditional tasso pork.



And PS. This thread is worthless without pics.
posted by Jon-o at 2:00 PM on July 19 [1 favorite]

It is already smoked. Or so the label says. Would that make a difference?
posted by Arbac at 2:02 PM on July 19

If it's already smoked, it's probably already edible like tasso. Why don't you try a piece?
posted by Jon-o at 2:05 PM on July 19

I recommend you ask the place you bought it from. If it's a great, small place, they're likely to have some deli-cious ideas.
posted by Night_owl at 2:05 PM on July 19 [2 favorites]

Is this it?

It looks like it's Germanic in origin, or something Eastern European. Where you go with it depends on what kinds of things you like to eat, but one thing that might be cool is to integrate it into a potato salad (I'm trying to think of summer things). I can't tell what the structure is like, from that picture. You could tear the meat off the bone, render it, add onions and vinegar, pour it over potatoes, and eat it with kielbasa or some nice grilled sausage. Throw a bunch of parsley or tarragon in there--it'd look gorgeous. If you serve that at room temperature, with a Riesling....I'm coming to your house.

If you're interested in greens, you could probably incorporate it into collard greens, or black-eyed peas. Greens become something wonderful once pork fat has made an appearance.

I can't tell how much fat is on it, from the picture. If it's not too fatty, you could simply grill it. If it's as fatty as bacon I'd be worried that once the fat rendered off and all the flames had settled down and your grill was all greasy, you'd be left with beef jerky.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:28 PM on July 19

Okay, here's another thing: pasta is the great blank canvas of the world's cuisine. That, chopped up, with some sage, brown butter, and long strips of parmesan cheese, might be awesome. That would require a pinot noir.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:30 PM on July 19 [1 favorite]

Okay, I'm not done, apparently.

The things to consider are the origin of the food itself, where it comes from, and what the other qualities of food grown in that place are. The easiest thing to do with any weird piece of food is whatever the locals have been doing with it. Secondly, your own personal preferences, whether you lean toward heart meat and potatoes type things, whether you're interested in exploring cuisines from other countries, and frankly, what the weather is like, because if I had to cook a big piece of pork inside right now I'd kill myself. Then you look at the thing itself, its structure, fat content, what it has to offer you to work with.

These are big variables!
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:34 PM on July 19

"Hearty" meat and potatoes type things.
posted by A Terrible Llama at 2:35 PM on July 19

add it to beans - cook navy, pinto or great northern beans with a bay leaf, some garlic and a chunk of your bacon. Beer, some slowly sauteed onions, little molasses or maple syrup and mustard - cook it all together long and slow. good stuff.
posted by leslies at 5:07 PM on July 19

What do I do with smoked rib bacon?

What, you could not have asked this question before the last meetup?

I'd go for jambalaya, because it's always so much better with "gourmet" bacon than the cheap breakfast kind.
posted by rokusan at 6:07 AM on July 20