Lamb-Belly-Baconesque (Bacon)

Here we go again.......another fabulous bacon but this time made from Lamb. Yea.. Lamb-Baconesque meaning Esque- in the manner of style. I was making some Beef and Lamb Sausage and I had left over Belly. Hmmm...as always I was thinking outside of the box and came up with the idea of Lamb Bacon. The belly is extremely thin and would ordinarily be poor choice for bacon but I had an idea. How about rolling two of them together with TG? Transglutaminase RM to the rescue aka Meat Glue. If you haven't played around with TG you must take the culinary plunge and glue something together. Here is a list of my Experiments.

Just the other side of the picture. Heres the other side of the Lamb.

Using a very sharp boning knife remove the meat from the bones. Work slowly keep knife very close to the bones that way you can remove the majority of the meat.  

Place meat in container and prep the Cure.

In a separate bowl combine the salt with the Cure # 1 and the optional Bacon-Booster (this is an Eq cure). Mix the rest of the dry ingredients and set aside. The Orange Peel (from Penzeys) and the Mustard Powder act as an Antioxidant which will reduce the gaminess that is always associated with Lamb. Lamb contains a lot of unsaturated fat and when cooks will oxidize and give a pronounced flavor. Using Antioxidants such as Orange Peel and Mustard will give a subtle lamb flavor instead of a punch in the gut.

 

First coat Lamb with Salt and Cure Mixture. Than add other dry ingredients. Make sure it gets into every nook and cranny. Add the syrup and massage into the Lamb. 

After seven days this is what it looks like. Make sure to rinse very well and dry off. 

Place Belly between plastic wrap and pound until all even in thickness. 

I forgot to take a picture of the next step but this link HERE will help you understand what I did.  Place Lamb on plastic wrap (24 inches) overlapping the lamb slightly by a few inches.  Sprinkle on Transglutaminase aka Meat Glue getting it into every nook and cranny. I mean cover every square inch of that Lamb and roll very tight creating a cylinder. You will need to tie the ends with string but only after pinching and ensuring the ends are extremely tight. It will sit in the refrigerator for a minimum of 24 hours for the proteins to bond. After the proteins bond I will cold smoke for 6-10 hours.

All bonded and ready for the next step.  

Paint on just a little pure maple syrup which will be the glue for the pepper and maple sugar coating. 

Coat with Black Pepper and Maple Sugar. Cold smoked... 8 hours only. 





 This is what it looks like after a long cold smoke. Don't forget it's still raw!!!! Anyone that tells you that you need to cook it or hot smoke until 150 f is full of...S*** . If you were to cook this at a higher temp all that beautiful fat would render away. 

Review will be at the bottom of the pictures. 

Review- Absolutely amazing!!!!! I hit a double Grand-Slam!!! If it's at all possible this is better than my beef bacon. Although you cannot taste it the addition of the mustard and the Orange peel mellowed out the lamb that put it way over the top. I may in the future glue 3 bellies together. 

TOP OF THE LAMB PAGE...

Rib-Eye-Cap-Quasi-Salumi

My torrid love affair with the Rib-Eye-Cap began at Costco. Up on till then I had very little experience with Rib-eye-caps. I think I had a couple over the years but never purchased one until now. In the NW they're not common. In my opinion the Rib-Eye-Caps are unequivocally the most tender most flavorful piece of meat on the animal. They encompass the tenderness of a fillet and the flavor of a rib-eye; the perfect package. An exquisite piece of meat. Dang my mouth is watering just talking about it... well typing anyway. 

This is the typical way Costco sells the Rib-Eye-Caps. They roll them up and make Pinwheels out of them. If you ask me the Pinwheel is a terrible way to prepare the caps. Yea, they look cool but that's about it. Cooking them shaped like this does not yield great results.

After a brief conversation with the meat manager at Costco he was willing to butcher me two of them. Here they are in all their glory. 

I love everything about the Rib-Eye-Cap and after eating them both rolled up and flat I decided to do something different. Since this meat; at least to me; is so amazing I thought how cool it would be to make a cured version similar to a pastrami. Anyhow that is what I am going to do. The recipe below is similar to my other whole muscle salumi's. The Cap will be cured and rolled tightly into a cylinder using Transglutminase. 

NOTES ON CURING.....

Combine the salt and Cure #1. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl. If the coriander and white pepper are whole make sure to grind them using a spice mill. 

Sprinkle the salt and cure on the meat getting it into every nook and cranny. Now cover the meat with the remaining ingredients.

Vacuum seal in separate bags making sure to include all the spices that might have fallen off the meat. Turn every day for 12-14 days. 

It's been 13 days since I started this process and I believe the cap is cured. 

Cap was rinsed under cold water. The removal of the cure, herbs and spices is an important step. It's now ready for the next step. 

The Cap has a thick end and a thin end similar to a chicken breast. I inverted them on to each other creating an even thickness. Creating an even thickness makes it easier to roll into a cylinder. 

The trick here is to apply the Transglutaminase (meat gloo) in all the right places. You need apply the TG to every nook and cranny. And more specifically to all the places that will be glue together. Even the ends need to covered. I use a powdered sugar shaker to distribute the TG. 

All rolled up tight!!!! Get a good grip and use some wrist action. You need to get this very tight!!!

The secret of this TG project is the plastic wrap. I used 24 inch plastic wrap laid over a very large cutting board. I roll and roll until the cylinder is extremely tight. I never cut the plastic wrap until I have at least 12 revolutions. I twisted the ends extremely tight and tied off the ends with butchers twine. 

Double vacuumed sealed!!! The TG will take at least 24 hours for the protein to bond to each other. After the elapsed time I will Sous-Vide for 6 hours at 131 degrees. After the thermal bath the Cap will be Ice-Shocked and refrigerated until ready for the next step.

All SV and and ready for the next step. 

Pictures of ends. Notice how tight the ends are. Plastic wrap and strong hands is the only way to accomplish this. 
"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."







Toss the Coriander, Pepper and Fennel in a spice grinder and give it a whirl. Combine all the ingredient in a bowl and set aside until ready to use. 

I sprayed a little oil spray on the Cap and coated it with the above rub. 

Cold Smoked with apple and cherry for about 3 hours and Hot smoked at about 200 degrees for about 2 hours. I wanted to set the bark. 

All done!!! A thing of beauty. The Cap will be refrigerated until I am ready to slice. 

All done. This was the bomb. The color, texture and taste were off the charts. I will not change a thing. I may use this recipe for a whole Rib-eye!!!

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