All things are better with bacon....

[moose eater]

Yeah, I've found that most of the snack sticks form Jack Links are about 90% fat, by all appearances. Doing home-made sausages that are 60-75% clean lean meat from wild game, with the remainder in 60:40 pork trim, provides an opportunity to make some premium sausages.

But the concept of cured sausages in general, historically, was a matter of both meat preservation in times preceding refrigeration as we know it today, and a matter of not wasting the scraps and other parts that might otherwise be discarded.

I'll see if the local stores carry the jerky product you referenced.

Our home-made jerky takes the majority of 2 days, and there's times I'm hitting the road or (???), would like to make some to take along, but have lost the window of opportunity to make such things, time-wise.

ive tried jack links bacon jerky and its garbage.but this other brand i got was some of the best bacon ive ever had.ill see if i can find it.it was really expensive.like 7 bucks for a small bag.ok i think i found it.its called pork barrel bbq and its expensive. 62 bucks for a case of 12 packets online.im pretty sure thats it.

 

[Betterhaff]

Many of the old time dry-cured, cold smoked sausages would often be hung to age in a basement, from the upper floor joists, until they sprouted a nice white mold all over the casing, with the sausage becoming progressively tastier, drier, more dense, as time passed.

Now'days when picking up a roll of what's supposed to be a summer sausage, it's obviously packed wet, not aged, and compromised in terms of flavor.

My grandfather was a great cook and was very particular about the ingredients he used. I think that trip to the meat market was a teaching moment.

I hear you about the cured sausage, all covered with mold. One time in Italy we were at this farm house for dinner and before dinner we went to the cellar to sample some wine. All over, hanging from the ceiling, were sausages at various stages of cure. The farmer gave me one to take with and I set it on the dresser in the hotel room. The next morning I grabbed it when leaving and it had totally blistered the varnish. So I moved the lamp over to cover it up, lol. I thought, my god what does this stuff do to your insides. It sure was good though.

 

[moose eater]

Many of the traditional hard, cold-smoked, dry-cured Italian salamis and Swiss/German sausages are naturally cased in that white mold. We often had a half dozen or a dozen of them hanging in our basement when I was about 1-1/2 to 2 years old, outside a small town in Wisconsin.

The old woman next door was of direct German descent; her name was (pardon my guess at spelling) Grandma Glinke. (pronounced: Glin-key) I'm certain she was passed on to where ever we go to after this life numerous decades ago, as she was about as old as time when I was tiny.

We'd go to her home, my older sister and I, and she always had German sweets, sausages, cheeses, etc., on hand. And she loved having young children visit.

Problem was her winding narrow driveway was always seemingly lined with these large pincher beetles that terrified me as a kid. So getting to the rewards at her house included making your way through a nightmarish encounter with the beetles.

Any time I've gone back through those places, Northern Michigan/Upper Peninsula, Minnesota's ethnic communities, Wisconsin, rural Ontario and Manitoba, etc. whether traveling by thumb as a young man, or by motorcycle, car, what ever, I would make a point to stop in at the rural farms and country stores, many of which advertised their home-spun wares via hand-made signs at the road-end of their driveways, and procure tasty bits and reminders of childhood, including maple sugar candy and maple butter/cream. Mmmm.

Places one could get stranded for a while, and between the vendors and the wild berries on the side of the road, it was OK to be going no place fast.

My grandfather was a great cook and was very particular about the ingredients he used. I think that trip to the meat market was a teaching moment.

I hear you about the cured sausage, all covered with mold. One time in Italy we were at this farm house for dinner and before dinner we went to the cellar to sample some wine. All over, hanging from the ceiling, were sausages at various stages of cure. The farmer gave me one to take with and I set it on the dresser in the hotel room. The next morning I grabbed it when leaving and it had totally blistered the varnish. So I moved the lamp over to cover it up, lol. I thought, my god what does this stuff do to your insides. It sure was good though.

 

[kaochiu]

There's a step further into how to make magic out of a pig's leg, and that is Jamón Ibérico de Bellota, Joselito Cinco Jotas, Guijuelo, Salamanca, Spain. Patanegra. Yeah, that much. To spaniards, next to a religion, and to visitors, a reason to believe.
I've just read that someone flew 2000 patanegra iberico pigs to somewhere in Texas last year, with a part for reproduction and the rest for meat and, of course, cured hams.
They are recreating all the process in a similar clima with similar fields full of holm oaks with plenty acorns (main diet), fresh water streams and all those things that makes a pig's paradise. They're curing the first batch of hams now (it takes a minimum of two years) and they'll be delivered by the end of 2018, at 2000 (two thousand) bucks a piece, and they're taking orders now!
Of course, in Spain we get it for a fraction of that, but still is not that cheap, maybe 600€. It should last a winter, and when you cannot extract anymore meat with the jamonero knife, you make gourmet stock with the bones. Cutting it is an art in itself. There are cheaper hams too, but... you know... Most people or families that cannot afford a whole ham still buy a half a pound every now and then, enough for a blissful evening washed down with red wino. Satisfaction.
It also is the quintessential bribe. In spanish bussiness lobbies plenty jamones change hands. True as the truth. Sorry for the length.

 

[moose eater]

Never heard of it.

I know as kids we tried eating acorns ourselves. I recall them being an astringent, and wickedly harsh on the taste-buds.

And critters' diets affect how they taste, so I'd be curious to try a taste to see what the affect is on their flavor. But at those prices, I suspect I'd try about one small bite. ;^>)

We take our trimmed ham bones and freeze them until there's a small collection, then routinely make either split pea soup, or, more rarely, beans and ham, with either one of the recipes using carrots, celery marjoram, a tiny bit of honey, thyme, salt, black and white ground peppers, garlic, onion, and perhaps a dabble of molasses. Good stuff, especially on a chilly day. Just a bit of Korean red pepper or cayenne pepper (powdered) makes for an extra unconventional bite, though my wife protests things that are too spicy.

There's a step further into how to make magic out of a pig's leg, and that is Jamón Ibérico de Bellota, Joselito Cinco Jotas, Guijuelo, Salamanca, Spain. Patanegra. Yeah, that much. To spaniards, next to a religion, and to visitors, a reason to believe.
I've just read that someone flew 2000 patanegra iberico pigs to somewhere in Texas last year, with a part for reproduction and the rest for meat and, of course, cured hams.
They are recreating all the process in a similar clima with similar fields full of holm oaks with plenty acorns (main diet), fresh water streams and all those things that makes a pig's paradise. They're curing the first batch of hams now (it takes a minimum of two years) and they'll be delivered by the end of 2018, at 2000 (two thousand) bucks a piece, and they're taking orders now!
Of course, in Spain we get it for a fraction of that, but still is not that cheap, maybe 600€. It should last a winter, and when you cannot extract anymore meat with the jamonero knife, you make gourmet stock with the bones. Cutting it is an art in itself. There are cheaper hams too, but... you know... Most people or families that cannot afford a whole ham still buy a half a pound every now and then, enough for a blissful evening washed down with red wino. Satisfaction.
It also is the quintessential bribe. In spanish bussiness lobbies plenty jamones change hands. True as the truth. Sorry for the length.

 

[armedoldhippy]

Patanegra ham...oooooh. if it could be bought around here, i would be out the door now. have heard/read about it nearly my entire life. sliced thin, it supposedly dissolves in your mouth. i WILL dine on some one glorious day...