Bacon

Move over Oscar Mayer and Ekrich, there's a new king of the smokehouse and it's Scott Hams.

I received a shipment from Scott Hams last night that included slab bacon, ham hocks, dried beans, dried apples, and summer sausage. Opening the box released the most wonderful smoky smell into my kitchen and I quickly cut off a small slab of the bacon to give Dan for his birthday. The rest (9-11 pounds of bacon) went into the refrigerator even though the meat is shelf stable and could be stored on the counter.

See, Scott Hams cures their bacon the old way. They use a salt cure and follow that with hickory smoking. There are no Nitrates, Nitrites, or MSG. And the flavor...

I had to try some today. I sliced off about an inch-thick piece and cut it into smaller bits. This I added to a cast iron skillet and brought the temperature up. At first the fat turned from opaque to transparent and now the bacon is sizzling and popping and the meat is beginning to brown and crisp up. The smell now is just amazing--even more than the original smoky smell that came out of the box.

I whipped up a couple of simple flatbreads with some flour, salt, and just enough water to make the flour stick together and those have been added to the rendered bacon fat. Whoah.

It's official, Scott Hams is the Official Smokehouse of the American Bushman. I'm putting an enormous stamp of approval on their product and they've been wonderful to deal with on the phone and via email. You can just tell that they like their stuff as much as I do.

Check them out on the web or give them a call at 1-800-318-1353 and ask them for a catalog. It looks like they do a whole heck of a lot more than just what I ordered. I'll be getting a whole Scott Ham for Thanksgiving this year.

Thanks for reading,

B