Rick Cohen likes Horowitz Bacon!

Horowitz Bacon made its New Hampshire debut this weekend, to be tasted by Rick Cohen, CEO of C&S Wholesale Grocers (the country's second largest wholesale food distributer), general expert on food, and according to Jewish tradition, a direct male descendent of Aaron, Moses's brother. We slow cooked the bacon in a cast iron skillet for an hour and fifteen minutes. Rick compared the results favorably to Neuske's and Niman Ranch, making ours a contender for the country's best bacon. Thanks Rick!

Horowitz Bacon t-shits

Tim Gambell has turned our logo into a t-shirt. Next week, you'll be able to order one by sending an email here. They'll make great Hannukah presents!

horowitz bacon: "good enough to eat"

After three months of talking, three days of brining, and seven hours of smoking, we finally got to eat our bacon. Initial thoughts: the flavor is excellent. The apple cider and hickory taste delicious. The texture, however, leaves something to be desired. Maybe our cut of pork belly isn't quite right, or perhaps we just didn't slice the meat thin enough tonight, but the bacon is too thick and chewy to be called perfect. Still, I'd be lying if I didn't say how proud I am. To my HB partners, and all the friends and fans of the project, I thank you, and present to you the first batch of Horowitz Bacon.

BLTs, anyone?

hickory dickory dock

the pork ran out the clock. Just turned off the smoke and started taking out the bacon. Smells good.

what the hickory

We decided a little extra smoke couldn't hurt, and we were just getting comfortable, so we decided to give our bacon another hour in the smoker. Nine more minutes to go.

more guests

Frank Mitchell took a look, approved, and suggested we try smoked fish next time. Sounds good-- even bacon needs a side dish.

crisis! and resolution

The alarm on our thermometer we wired into the smoker started going off, meaning we had crossed the 80 degree threshold. We're cold smoking the pork, not trying to cook it, so it's important that the meat stay cool. At first we thought it was our burner, but quickly realized it was just the sun beating down on the smoker (I'm prepared to take it as a sign that despite the forecast, the sun came out for us). We made our own shade with an old door that was lying in Kam's garage.

Only four and a half hours to go.

guests

Friends and fans of Horowitz Bacon have been stopping by to monitor our progress. Clauda Merson dropped off a punching rabbi puppet that seemed in the spirit of the endeavor, and there's dad examing our handiwork. Mom came too, muttering something about how we should be making pastrami instead, and refused to be photographed.

smokin!

At 1:08pm, just three hours and eight minutes behind schedule, the pork brined, dried, and hung, the smoker constructed, and the woodchips soaked, we commenced smoking.

insert pork here

We hung the bellies on copper wire, so we could hook them to a rack at the top of the smoker.

taste test

In the spirit of quality control, we fried up a couple slices of pre-smoked bacon. Nothing too exciting. It tasted like short ribs.

the smoker

While the pork dries, we put the finishing touches on the smoker, which we built out of an old file cabinet covered in Pokeman stickers (it was Kam's). We got a little electric burner that sits in the bottom drawer, to heat the pan of the hickory chips that provide the smoke. A series of holes in the drawers allow the smoke to pass up through the cabinet. A larger hole in the back at the top is where the smoke will exit, through a vent.

drying

We set out the bellies on racks and turned on the fans to dry them off. When the brine is all dry, a sticky pellicle should form, to which the smoke will adhere.

We are an hour and a half behind schedule, but in good spirits (see Kate's impartial observations.

b day

The big day has arrived. Loaded the pork into the car and am driving it over to Kam's.

only 8 and a half hours to go!

The big day approaches. We welcome all the friends, fans, and supporters of Horowitz Pork Products to stop by Kam's place on State Street to monitor our progress as we cold smoke the pork. We'll be there all day, and plan on cooking up some Lasater Grassland Beef burgers around 12:30 to get us through. Give us a call and we'll give you directions. Otherwise, you'll of course be able to monitor the progress online.

Here's the schedule:

9:00 bacon onto racks to dry (turn on fan)
fire up the smoker for final "dry" run
9:30 flip the bacon on the racks
10:00 Hang bacon and start the clock, make sure temp below 80 degrees
(refresh wood chips every 30 mins)
4:00 Pull bacon toss in freezer to prep for slicing
Stow smoker
5:00 Slice bacon

slogan?

Emerson Hilton has suggested an alternative slogan to "Grandma Doesn't Have To Know." He likes, "Our Pork Will Make You Plotz!" What do you think?

horowitz bacon logo!

Tim Gambell made a Horowitz Bacon logo, securing us a brand identity and himself a complimentary pound of Horowitz Bacon. Thank you, Tim!

brining 2

Now the pork sits in the brine in the produce drawers of my refrigerator for the next three days, in anticipation of smoking on Sunday. And we wait...

brining

We figured that we'd skin the pork last night and start the brining process, but we forgot to factor in the time it would take for the brine to cool off enough. So Christine came back first thing this morning to help me pour.

We mixed up four gallons of the stuff. Here's the recipe:

2 gallons apple cider
2 gallons water
4 cups sugar
4 cups kosher (of course) salt
8 tablespoons pepper
32 fl ounces molasses

Mix it all together and bring to a boil!

skinning the pork

Tonight we skinned the pork! Actually, Kam and Christine skinned the pork while I mixed up the brine.

43.6lbs

Picked up the pork from Standard Beef this morning. We are now the proud owners of 43.6lbs of pork belly from Hatfield Quality Meats in Hatfield, PA. Brought the box home and opened it up to take a look. I had no idea that our pork belly would have pork nipples!

standard beef

Today I went to Standard Beef at the Long Wharf Food Terminal to put the order in for the pork belly. Had to leave an $80 deposit. No receipt, and cash only, of course.