Lard is a very popular product, it can be given the desired flavor with the right spices, as well as the necessary pungency. Smoked bacon, which can be made at home, is no less tasty.
Preparing lard for smoking
This stage includes ordinary salting, when the bacon is cut into strips of 2-3 centimeters wide and 6-7 centimeters long, which will provide the product with optimal salting. So for about 4 kilograms of raw materials, the following ingredients will be needed: a pound of coarse rock salt, a couple of tablespoons of ground black pepper, a little chopped dill and a couple of heads of garlic. All of them must be thoroughly mixed, and then grate the pieces of bacon with spices.
Then the bacon must be placed in a tray or other container, and only with the skin down and very tightly. Do not put the salt far away, because after laying out the first layer, you need to sprinkle it well again and lay out the second layer, with which you do the same. Then it is necessary to put oppression on the lard of about 3-4 kilograms and leave it for 4-5 days in a dark and cool place.
Suitable for subsequent smoking and preparation of lard in brine, which is prepared in the following way: you need to add a pound of table salt to 5 liters of boiled water, which must then be stirred well, and then put pieces of lard in the liquid. The product is cooked in brine for about two weeks. After that, the fat must be removed from the water and left to ventilate and dry for about two days.
Hot and cold smoking lard
The first method consists in placing sawdust slightly soaked in water at the bottom of the smokehouse, on top of which a grate with salted bacon is placed. Then you need to light the fire and wait for the formation of charcoal from the sawdust, then place the smokehouse on one more coals so that the smoking device warms up outside, and close the smokehouse with a lid. Thus, the product is cooked for about half an hour, after which it must still ripen in a cool place for a couple of days. The ripening process is very important, as with it the bacon will only taste better.
The second smoking method is somewhat slower than the first and lasts about 4-5 days. In this case, the smoker with lard on the grate must be placed on the kindled firewood and the temperature inside must be brought to 30 ° C, at which the lard must be smoked for the specified time.
An important process of smoking lard is the choice of firewood for it: deciduous trees are considered ideal, since conifers can give the product some bitterness due to the large amount of resins. You can use fruit plants as well as beech or hornbeam. You can also sprinkle nutshells on the firewood to communicate the lard with an exquisite taste.
