I’m not sure exactly how it happened, but about 3 weeks ago, I revisited a few threads here about pork belly burnt ends. This led me to doing some research on making my own bacon, which then led me to a Steven Raichlen recipe for Pastrami Bacon. You can read more about it HERE.
I was intrigued and fascinated. A few days later, The Missus and I agreed we’d give it a try, so she went on an excursion to Costco to pick up some pork belly. I was expecting something in the range of 5 lbs, but all they had were 10 pounders, so that’s what jumped in her cart. It was quite the whopper.
We decided to cut the belly in 3 equal parts, and froze the other two for later use. One of them will certainly wind up as pork belly burnt ends. The 3 and some pound belly portion that wasn’t frozen was brined 5 days, according to the recipe, though we skipped the second brine injection after the 3 day mark in the brine.
I departed from the rub ingredients and went with Katz’s Pastrami Rub, which I’ve been using for years.
Katz's Pastrami Rub Recipe
The brined and rubbed pork belly went into the offset for 5 hours, using only oak as my fuel source. I pulled the belly out when the IT reached 150 degrees, though the recipe advised a 160 internal pulling temp.
It was then refrigerated overnight.
The next day, the pastrami bacon was pulled out of the fridge. Here’s what it looked like:
We sliced the bacon into thirds lengthwise, so it could be easily fed into the electric slicer for uniform thick slices:
All sliced up:
At this point, we had to try some, so The Missus cooked up 4 test slices in the oven. (Oven cooking produces flatter, more evenly cooked bacon than griddle or pan cooking.)
The verdict?
It tasted like bacon. And…it tasted like pastrami. More pronounced bacon flavor, though, which I liked. It was delicious, especially the flavor and texture from the outer edges which were encrusted with rub, which cooked up into nice little crispy bits
The rest of the pastrami bacon was used in a BLaT(Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato) Sammich.
Would I make pastrami bacon again?
In a heartbeat.
I was intrigued and fascinated. A few days later, The Missus and I agreed we’d give it a try, so she went on an excursion to Costco to pick up some pork belly. I was expecting something in the range of 5 lbs, but all they had were 10 pounders, so that’s what jumped in her cart. It was quite the whopper.
We decided to cut the belly in 3 equal parts, and froze the other two for later use. One of them will certainly wind up as pork belly burnt ends. The 3 and some pound belly portion that wasn’t frozen was brined 5 days, according to the recipe, though we skipped the second brine injection after the 3 day mark in the brine.
I departed from the rub ingredients and went with Katz’s Pastrami Rub, which I’ve been using for years.
Katz's Pastrami Rub Recipe
The brined and rubbed pork belly went into the offset for 5 hours, using only oak as my fuel source. I pulled the belly out when the IT reached 150 degrees, though the recipe advised a 160 internal pulling temp.
It was then refrigerated overnight.
The next day, the pastrami bacon was pulled out of the fridge. Here’s what it looked like:
We sliced the bacon into thirds lengthwise, so it could be easily fed into the electric slicer for uniform thick slices:
All sliced up:
At this point, we had to try some, so The Missus cooked up 4 test slices in the oven. (Oven cooking produces flatter, more evenly cooked bacon than griddle or pan cooking.)
The verdict?
It tasted like bacon. And…it tasted like pastrami. More pronounced bacon flavor, though, which I liked. It was delicious, especially the flavor and texture from the outer edges which were encrusted with rub, which cooked up into nice little crispy bits
The rest of the pastrami bacon was used in a BLaT(Bacon, Lettuce, Avocado, Tomato) Sammich.
Would I make pastrami bacon again?
In a heartbeat.
