too salty bacon

have some bacon actually rashers which are JUST TOO SALTY. Know I could cook with them otherwise but wanted to fry them like bacon. Could I maybe soak them, dry them a bit and then fry 'em ?

emcsull
  • Posted by: emcsull
  • October 31, 2014
  • 18886 views
  • 9 Comments

9 Comments

Paul G.
Paul G. November 1, 2014
No confusion regarding the focus of the question -- my quibble was only regarding the last step, namely carefully drying the now less salty bacon, as I'd suggest adding water to it. Basically, you start out with a medium high to high temp which renders a lot of the fat out as the water evaporates leaving the slices nice and straight and readily crispable in that condition (often assisted by pouring off and reserving for another use or discarding the liquid; it will be obvious when to do so). Works great or thick artisanal slab bacon, cheap supermarket bacon or any other variant of at least pork bacon I've ever encountered.
 
Susan W.
Susan W. November 1, 2014
I am definitely going to try this.
 
emcsull
emcsull November 1, 2014
Hey folks, remember me ? I confess, I soaked the rashers this morning briefly and then dried them a bit (whoops) and fried 'em, they were not as salty as the last lot. I have read about that technique of bacon-in-water, but would not want to forgo the bacon fat so I will probably continue frying the bacon when I use it. I really did enjoy all the input and am terribly impressed Susan makes her own bacon. If I discover a few more hours in the day I might try that.
 
Susan W.
Susan W. November 1, 2014
Emcsull, I could be wrong, but I don't think the bacon has less fat with the water method. I hope not anyways. Glad you got rid of some of that salt.

My bacon is sort of fake because I don't have a smoker. I do bake it on my Weber with a container of wood chips, so it gets a little smokey. It's fun to make and mostly hands off. You can use any spices that you want.
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 31, 2014
I make my own bacon from raw pork belly and have ended up with too salty bacon a couple of times. You can soak it. I've soaked it in cool water for a couple of hours changing the water twice. I've also read you can soak it in almost boiling water for a few minutes. Change water and soak it again for a minute ir two. In each case, dry it well and cook up as desired.
 
emcsull
emcsull October 31, 2014
thanks so much, this almost felt like a stupid question, but I wanted to see if anybody else had experience with this.
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 31, 2014
I understand. I almost threw my too salty pork belly (about 3 lbs) away, but I checked with chef google first. :)
 
Paul G.
Paul G. October 31, 2014
I agree save for the exclamation point, as i have the following quibble. After reading http://www.thekitchn.com/tip-for-perfect-bacon-add-a-little-water-to-the-pan-191595 (citing America's Test Kitchen), I've chucked all prior modes of bacon preparation* in favor of starting with a fairly well watered pan, and have invariably obtained astonishingly great results.

* in full disclosure, there had only been one prior mode (bacon in a heavy skillet or griddle), as the other techniques I've tried were inferior in terms of outcome or cleaning up efforts or both.
 
Susan W.
Susan W. October 31, 2014
Paul, we actually were just speaking of how to remove excess salt. I'm intrigued by this water method though. I tend to do whatever ATK tells me to do with great success. How does the bacon become at all browned? Does the water evaporate? I cut my bacon from a slab of pork belly, so it's fairly thick. Will this method work with thick slices?

Normally, I bake my bacon on a foil covered baking sheet in my oven or toaster oven depending on amount. No fuss, no mess.
 
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