Jalapeno Coffee Bacon Revised

This is my revised version of my Jalapeno Coffee Bacon. The original version had no coffee  taste and only a hint of Jalapeno. The taste was great and everyone loved the bacon but my culinary goals were not achieved. Hopefully this revised version will hit the mark. Let's hope these new techniques don't over power the bacon. In this post I will give a quick outline and for more details click the link above. 

Personal preference of course so I only went with 4 jalapeno's. I used a whole pot of french press coffee and combined. 

Place all ingredients in your favorite blender (mine is the vitamix) and blend away. I strained the coffee chili mixture several times. Twice through a sieve and once through cheese cloth and sieve. 

This is my contraption I used to inject the bacon. My favorite needle for this application has multiple holes along the shaft. 

NOTE: Make sure the above mixture is cool before you inject. In fact you could do this several hours ahead or a day or two which ever is convenient. 

Inject as much or as little as you want but make sure it's evenly distributed. I injected into the sides and the bottom and the top.

Beef Navel 

Place Bacon in large enough container to hold. It's gonna get messy. 

Combine Salt, Cure #1 and Bacon Booster and rub into meat. Get the cure into every nook and cranny.

Combine in a large bowl Brown Sugar, Maple Sugar, Dextrose and Coffee and as much Jalapeno powder as you want Note: The addition of jalapeno powder to the rub is a change.  Rub into every nook and cranny of the Navel.  

Place Navel inside a very large vacuum bag or what ever you have and toss in the Maple sauce (note: in this one there is (Note: There is no fresh jalapenos added to the maple syrup like version one). Make sure to distribute it all around the Navel. Vacuum seal and place in refrigerator. It will cure for a total of 21 days. Over the course of the 21 day cure you will turn bag over everyday. I sometimes do it every 12 hours making sure I massage the meat too. 

Well it's been 21 days exactly and the bacon is ready for the next step. Bacon removed from Vac Seal home and rinsed thoroughly under cold water and paper toweled dried.
"Before cured foods are smoked, they should be allowed to air-dry long enough to form a tacky skin, known as a pellicle. The pellicle plays a key role in producing excellent smoked items. It acts as a kind of protective barrier for the food, and also plays an important role in capturing the smoke’s flavor and color."

HELLO JALAPENO!!!! GREAT STUFF!!!  

Bacon covered in Coarse Ground Coffee, Jalapeno Powder, Black Pepper, and Maple Sugar. How much is up to you. I wanted to create a drier skin/pellicle before the smoke so I place a little fan off to the side for 90 minutes. 

Cold smoked for 16 hours exactly. Since I did not use Smoked black pepper I went a little longer. 

Gratuitous Pictures and review at bottom.  

Review- Very tasty!!! Another exceptional Bacon. So question before us is whether or not the injection made a difference. Yes injecting the bacon with coffee and jalapeno made a difference but not a huge one. Yes the bacon tasted outstanding and there was a little heat and a very mild coffee taste but was it significant? You had to know there was coffee in the dang thing to know it was there. Contrasting the first one with the second one I prefer the second one but the taste difference was not significant. If you really want heat and a coffee taste in the bacon you will have to coat each bacon strip. If you drink a cup of coffee while eating the bacon it will help too. It was a waste of good coffee if you ask me. Coffee did not play a significant role in this bacon.

TOP OF THE BACON