? for bacon makers

[morkdach]

was wanten to get some bellies and try this & after looken at sebokes 1st bacon thread he took the skin off. if i can find this with skin on does this have to be removed. i rember when you could purchase slab bacon & when the bacon was gone you used the skin slab to lube your cast iron skillets befor frying?

[Richtee]

You don't have to remove it, but most do. Kinda makes a "pork rind" edge on the fried up bacon. Don't recall the skillet thing. Never had too much cast iron.

[morkdach]

Richtee when you slice the bacon off of slab you leave the skin itact.
cut bacon thickness you want then slice across bottom when all bacon is used you are left with a full skin slab that has a lot of flavor just rub on hot skillet to lube and put back in fridge will last for a month or so if i rember right.

[Richtee]

Ahhh Well, I have a slicer, and guess I'd just as soon slice and freeze. But OK..I understand now. Never seen that.

[lcruzen]

You can also deep fry some pork rinds with the skin.

[Bob's World Famous]

I've made pancetta (Italian Bacon) several times and found it easier to have the butcher remove the skin for me. The butchers gives me the skin that he removed from the bellies. I found you get better flavor penatration without the skin...

[curious aardvark]

the belly skin is very fine and - yep the main reason for removing is to get the cure to work though a little quicker.
But belly skin is so thin anyway that to be honest it'll make very little difference.
I've just bought some belly to cure up for streaky bacon (it's all those pics of bacon wrapped shrimp that's done it. Streaky is just the right size and width for the job - the normal bacon I make is ill suited for it lol)

It's very easy to just cut it off with a sharp knife. But quite often over here you buy strips of belly pork and the skins left on - cooks up nice and crisp if you fry and I admit I'll chew on a bit of cooked skin any chance I get :-)

[Gunslinger]

It's obviously a personal preference. I don't care for the skin on approach. It's too chewy for me. And I also like it thick sliced, and there's nothing worse than seeing a pig nipple on what is otherwise a scrumptious looking slab of bacon.

[morkdach]

there's nothing worse than seeing a pig nipple on what is otherwise a scrumptious looking slab of bacon.
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well that bout sums it up