maple-cured ground venison bacon

i tried this a year or so ago, with very fair results. i'm just getting around to posting results now, but late is better than never!

a few notes:

first and foremost, i've never done anything like this before, and this was my first attempt; consequently, it wasn't perfect, although the basic method was quite sound. the recipe, however, needs a little tweaking, so we'll see what lessons we can learn and what we can come up with for a second attempt.

i used 100% ground venison that was 100% fat free, so i decided to employ a binder. you see, since this is a ground-meat bacon and therefore isn't inherently solid, you need ingredients to bind the meat together, or else you will just end up with seasoned burger or sausage. the process of curing itself does this to some extent, but i decided to help it along with two binding agents that i hadn't really tried before. the first was a combination of ground oatmeal and beer (water would work just as well), 1/4 cup of each per pound of meat. this works well for binding sausage and helps to retain moisture, and was great for my pepperoni project:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeb...eroni_topic1612.html

but for thin slicing such as bacon, it is usually advisable to add something to further aid in the binding of the meat itself. after some reading, i decided that unflavoured knox gelatine:


http://knoxgelatine.com/

would be the right thing to use, since gelatin (collagen) is what naturally binds muscle groups and other stuff together in large hunks of meat anyway. in my limited research, the general rule of thumb i came across was two packages of unflavoured gelatin for each 5 pounds of meat.

for a curing agent, i employed morton's tenderquick:


http://www.mortonsalt.com/prod...ing/tenderquick.html

this stuff works very well and is widely available in my area. morton recommends 1.5 teaspoons per pound of ground or thinly-sliced meat.

for this project, i wanted maple flavour infused with the bacon. this is something i've never tried before, so i was flying blind. i had no access to maple sugar, so i chose to use a combination of pure canadian maple syrup and mapleine maple flavouring:


http://www.mccormick.com/Produ...on-Maple-Flavor.aspx

after running through some scenarios, i came up with something that i hoped would work. here's the recipe that i came up with:

3 pounds ground venison
4.5 teaspoons tendequick
6 oz. (3/4 cup) maple syrup
1.5 teaspoons maple extract
1.5 teaspoons black pepper
3/4 cup ground oatmeal (for binding)
3/4 cup of beer (for binding)

i want to make very clear that this recipe was a "prototype," and results showed that it does need some modification - the basic method i used is definitely sound, but the ingredients need some tweaking. for instance, it definitely needed more salt for flavour, and i also believe it could have benefited from more maple and smoke flavour. i am thinking also that the addition of some more black pepper might help as well. more on that later.

i got some pictures to run through the process. i apologize in advance for the (lack of) quality of some of the pictures. my camera at the time sucked - there's no polite way to say it, and i'm an 80's kid, so i'll simply say that it sucked. the flash washed out a few times and the colour was off on a few, but the pix will be adequate for you to get the idea, hopefully.

here are the goods used (not pictured: 3 pounds of ground, fat-free venison, unflavoured gelatine and black pepper):



left to right: oatmeal and beer (for binding), pure canadian maple syrup, mapeleine and morton's tenderquick.

the procedure was fairly easy - first, i added the recommended amount of tenderquick (in this case, 4.5 teaspoons):



previously, i had only used tenderquick for sliced and ground jerky, and for a pretty good venison bologna:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeb...D=1567&title=bologna

and my aforementioned pepperoni, so this project, while somewhat familiar, was indeed new territory.

after thoroughly mixing the cure into the meat, i added the pepper, mapeleine and maple syrup. the graemlins must have stolen my pictures of these steps, because i never did find them, but based on the amounts above, you can imagine how it went. based on results, i needed more of everything, and also some added salt, which i will incorporate into my next attempt. when i do, i will adjust the recipe and this post accordingly.

next, i prepared to try my oatmeal binding experiment by taking some oatmeal:



and giving it a whirl in my food processor:



i used twice as much oatmeal as recommended above, and the result was a slightly stiff bacon. on my next attempt, i will stick to recommended amounts and see how it goes.

i then added the recommended amount of beer:



and once again mixed everything very thoroughly.then i added the unflavoured gelatine and mixed very thoroughly for a last time.

as stated above, there was a general recommendation of 1 package of unflavoured gelatine per 2.5 pounds of meat. since i was using 3 pounds of meat, i erred on the side of caution and added 2 packages. this was probably a little too much, and in future attempts, i will go closer to recommendations.

now i got down to the nitty-gritty of the project. i laid out saran wrap in the bottom of a square, glass baking dish - 2 layers intersecting in the form of a cross, with a lot of overlap - and pressed the meat mixture into it:



i then wrapped the overlapping ends of the saran wrap back tightly over the bacon loaf:



and put it in the refrigerator overnight to chill, cure, bind and set up.

the next morning, i turned the loaf out onto a rack for my smoker:



i cut the loaf in half for better smoke penetration and easier cutting:



and then let it sit for a while in order to develop a pellicle while i set up my smoker and brought it up to "cruising temperature:"



the little chief electric smokehouse is perfect for this type of thing:

http://www.smokehouseproducts....ductNo=9800-000-0000

it's not meant for smoke-cooking, since it doesn't get up to real cooking temperatures for large hunks of meat; however, it does wonders for cooler smoking and is perfect for things such as jerky, sausages, snack sticks, nuts and other such things.

as you can see in the picture above, i used maple wood chips for this project. here's a closer shot of them in the pan:



note to anyone reading this: if you know where i can get a supply of these wood chips, please let me know, as they were the best i've ever used, and i don't know where to get any more!

the outside temperature that day was well below zero, which of course dramatically affected the aforementioned "cruising temperature." i knew that the internal temperature of the venison would never reach 160. luckily, the wind wasn't blowing, but nevertheless, it was still pretty darned cold. with this in mind, i simply smoked the bacon for a couple-three hours, using 3 or 4 pans of chips, then put the racks in a 325-degree oven until they reached temperature. i then took the loaves out:



and immediately plunged them into a bowl of very cold water:



it looks like some good stuff going here! they also look a little distorted in the water, but who's keeping track?

i kept them in the ice-cold water for about half an hour; believe it or not, we didn't have any ice in the house at the time, but no worries - i simply put the bowl out in the shed to keep cold...very cold. then I wrapped them in saran wrap after drying them off and put them in the refrigerator overnight to let them rest.

the next day, i was eager to try this and see how the binding went, so i took a loaf and sliced into it:



looks like it worked pretty well! it was actually a little stiff compared to what i expected, so i will try a little less of the oatmeal and gelatine next time. also, the slices are a little thick, but the beautiful mrs. tas just got me a meat slicer for christmas:


http://www.rivalproducts.com/product.aspx?pid=972

so that won't be a problem next time!

eagerly, i fried up a few slices to try them:



note: they weren't really THIS pink - what you see is bad photography from a cheap camera!

because the bacon is completely fat-free, i did have to use a little fat for frying. i think it was butter, but it could have been olive oil spray - no matter, the bacon was frying beautifully:



when they were done, they sure looked good, albeit a little thick:



unfortunately, they didn't quite taste as good as i had hoped they would. the venison flavour came through very well, but the maple, sweetness and salt did not. because of this, i resolved to add more maple syrup next time, and also salt. i didn't add any salt for this first attempt, trelying on the tenderquick to provide saltiness, but it wasn't enough. finally, it could have used more smoke flavour, but that's easy to fix!

anyway, there it is. the method definitely works, but the recipe itself needs tweaking. if anyone has advice on amounts, i'm all ears.

This looks good too,




Cal30

definitely worth a try with just about any meat ~

I use (1) beaten egg per pound of ground venison for a binder. Works well and the meat seems to brown more evenly/thoroughly .

that sounds like it would be worth a try ~ i'll see how it works the enxt time i make this ~