Many of you are probably wondering what the heck Charcutepalooza is. I’ll start at the beginning.
When I put together my 2011 food goals, one of my goals was to experiment with charcuterie (sausages, ham, pâtés, and other cooked or processed meat foods). Not necessarily just eating them but making them as well. I had already started back in 2010 when I made bacon from scratch.
About a month or so ago I saw my friend of Eat. Live. Travel. Write. tweeting about Charcutepalooza. Charcutepalooza is the brainchild of Mrs. Wheelbarrow and The Yummy Mummy and involves tackling a different aspect of charcuterie every month of 2011 using Michael Ruhlman’s book . Pretty cool. January was all about duck prosciutto (which I missed) but February is all about the Salt Cure!
The apprentice challenge was to make bacon, while the charcuterie challenge was about making pancetta. I was all set to make pancetta but ended up jumping ship when I realized that I didn’t have a spot to hang it in my apartment 
Then I was going to make some lamb bacon but the farm I was working with wasn’t too speedy on the replies. So in the end I decided to make a Honey-Garlic bacon.
As part of Charcutepalooza you aren’t supposed to blog the recipes so I will just say that I took Ruhlman’s basic bacon recipe and added some honey, smashed garlic cloves and crushed peppercorns to the mix. Honestly, as I’ve said before, making your own bacon is beyond easy and SO MUCH BETTER than the supermarket stuff. And you can experiment and make your own unique flavours.
Because Charcutepalooza is supposed to be a challenge and I had already made bacon before I decided to turn things up by smoking my bacon. But wait, you say. You live in an apartment. Yes, and on the 25th floor with no backyard and I’m not allowed to cook on my balcony. So, I did what any intrepid bacon-lover would do and built an indoor smoker.
A few months ago I thought about doing this and was cautioned about it since I live in an apartment. I dropped the idea but have always wanted some smoky goodness. So after some internet searching I came across this NY Times article and this Chow.com video that made the whole indoor smoker thing seem pretty easy so I decided to set forth.
Essentially you use a wok as a smoker. You line it with foil. Put your wood chips in the bottom and cover them with foil.
Place a rack on top of it. Put your meat on top of the rack.
Tent the whole thing in foil (making sure to seal the edges).
Turn up the heat to get the wood smoking and then lower the heat and let your meat smoke. Oh yeah, and open your windows. All of them. At first things were getting quite smokey so I sealed the edges even more and that stopped the smokiness. Interestingly enough my super sensitive smoke detector didn’t go off so it couldn’t have been that smokey. You definitely want the windows open because while there wasn’t a lot of smoke in the air, the smell of smoke does seep out. While the scent of smoking meat is lovely it is less lovely two days later.
Easy, right? You generally have to finish your meat in the oven but it does impart a nice, smokey taste. The one thing I found lacking from my first round of bacon was that it wasn’t smokey so I’m thrilled to have found a solution. The honey lent the bacon a ham-like air which was pretty neat. The garlic flavour didn’t come through all that much but there’s a nice smokiness that really takes the bacon up a level.
I can’t wait to tackle some ribs in my wok smoker!
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LOVE LOVE LOVE your wok smoker! And your bacon looks scrumptious! So glad you joined us this year!!! Will def need to try that wok thing here – I made Neil go out in the cold 😉
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Tonya, Mackenzie Chiu. Mackenzie Chiu said: RT @wonTONfm: {new blog post} #charcutepalooza ! Making honey-garlic bacon AND an indoor somker http://bit.ly/etoJvj <– smoke = love […]
I’m a big fan of your wok smoker, which I’ve used for tea-smoking various yummy dishes. Your bacon looks like it must taste so delicious!
That is commitment. I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe it didn’t involve a call to the local fire department.
[…] the tomatoes contributed that much, the bacon on the other hand was fabulous. I of course used my homemade bacon so it imparted a really great smoky flavour to the stew. Smoke coupled with the red wine was […]
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