Help - bacon ends???

[BasketLady]

One of DS's best friends came to visit and brought me a cooler full of fresh meat straight from the processing plant!

 

I've already re-packed the roasts (15 lbs of top quality beef ) and bacon (5lbs) for freezer storage.

 

Also included was a 6lb bag of 'bacon ends'. They aren't really strips, more like chunks of bacon that were cut off before the bacon was sliced for packaging. Each piece is about the size of a really big walnut, with both fat and lean meat.

 

Baked beans and green bean casserole come immediately to mind, but what else would you do with these pieces?

Also, how would you break it down for freezing - 1 pound pack or 1/2 pound?? Thank goodness for the Foodsaver!!!

 

Thanks!!!

[cookiejar]

Baked beans and the casserole sound great.

what about black beans and rice?

Cobb salad?

Quiche pie! (I'll be right over! LOL)

Slow cooker cabbage?

 

Could you dice it down for omelettes?

Or is the whole idea to avoid the dicing thing? LOL

 

I can't help with the portioning part..OoOOoooh Darlene? Nana?

[Cat]

These would be great in any kind of bean or potato soups.

 

I'd probably be picky enough to chop them up first, though.

[cookiejar]

HOMEMADE VENISON SAUSAGE

Venison

Smoked Bacon Ends

Garlic or Sage

Sausage Casings

Cube venison and smoked bacon ends in equal parts. Smoked bacon ends may be found at just about any butcher shop). Grind, alternating venison and bacon ends. After grinding, spread out meat and add seasoning. You may season with garlic, sage, or any sausage seasoning you desire. Most butcher shops sell packages of sausage seasonings. After seasoning, knead the meat. Then, with stuffing attachment on grinder, stuff into casing in desired lengths. You may also make sausage patties. Wrap in butcher paper and freeze until ready to smoke. When ready to smoke, place sausage in smoker at 200F and smoke 2-3 hours until done.

K.W. Baker

 

Bean and Bacon Soup

Serving Size: 6 oz

Yield 20 portions

Preparation Time: 2:00

 

Ingredients

1 lb. beans dried and soaked -- see note

 

1/2 lb. bacon, ends and pieces -- chopped fine

4 medium onions -- chopped

4 stalks celery -- chopped

4 lg. carrots -- peel and diced

1 lb. plum tomatoes -- diced

 

1 gallon stock or water

1 each ham hock smoked

1 each bay leaf

1 tsp. thyme, leaf

salt and pepper -- to taste

 

1 lb. smoked sausage sliced (optional)

 

Preparation

Check the beans for stones. Pour boiling water over beans and let stand 1 hour or soak overnight and drain. Scarlet Runner beans were chosen for this recipe because they cook up nice and big and meaty, but any dried beans will do, with Great Northern beans being the most popular. Be sure to use soft water or the beans will be tough.

 

Finely chop the bacon ends and pieces, or fat saved from a smoked ham, and cook it on a medium fire in a big pot to render the fat. Be sure the crumbs of fat are nicely browned, like crisp bacon.

 

Add the cut up veggies (you can change the amounts to suit yourself, and add others too, ad lib) and saute in the fat. Add a few cloves of mashed garlic if you like it.

 

Drain the beans and rinse them.

 

Add the water or stock, beans and ham hock and herbs and spices.

 

Bring to the boil, simmer for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, maybe even more depending on beans, until they are very tender. New crop, (this years) beans will get tender faster and taste best. Cut the fat and skin from the ham hock and dice it and return to the soup. I often cook a couple of extra ones and have beans and hocks as a meal. Season with salt and pepper.

You can skim the fat, but in the cold winter, it tastes good. The colder it is, the better you will like fatty soups. If you cook it long enough, the beans and everything will break down and puree, combining with the fat to make a "creamy" consistency, that is much admired by "beanies."

 

I like to finish the soup with sliced kielbasi, but that is gilding the lily. If you have a wood fireplace, grow some fresh parsley where you dump the ashes, and garnish this soup with deep green parsley pluches. I used to dump the ashes when I got up in the early AM, and chew on some parsley. Nothing in this world gives a cleaner tasting mouth. Parsley loses fragrance and flavor quickly when picked. You'd never know that unless you had fresh. Grow it in a sunny window box. If I were designing a house, I'd have the big kitchen window get the morning sun, and face the garden, with my table set so I could look out while I was having breakfast, and watch the rabbits fatten on the extra I'd planted for them.

 

I borrowed these recipes from online

the soup sounds great and I'd never heard of parsley grown by ashes. hope these help.

[Darlene]

Personally, as far as the sized packages to break it down to, it would depend on the size cooking you do and how much you think you'd do at one time.

 

1lb of *bacon* is alot of bacon. I personally would probably break it down into 1/2lb or even 1/4lb packages.

[BasketLady]

Oh yum...

 

Thanks Cat & Cookiejar. The bean & bacon soup sounds so good right now. And I love quiche.

 

Mincing the pieces is OK, I've just never used bacon ends before. I figured it's like salt pork, which my mother put in beans and a lot of soups. Of course, Mom was from the northeast, so it may have been a regional thing.

 

Thanks for the ideas!!!

[BasketLady]

Thanks Darlene -

 

That's a good idea. After looking at Cookiejar's recipes, I can see that a little goes a long way.

 

I think I'll go with a few 1/2lb packages and the rest in 1/4lb increments.

 

How long do you think they would last in the freezer? I'd rather give some away now than have an excess go bad cause I couldn't use it in time.

-Elaine

[MommyofSeven]

BL, Bacon keeps quite awhile in the freezer...but if you're having a hard time finding a home for it send it my way LOL.

 

Also you can cook it up and dice it and then keep it in the freezer-makes great bacon bits for salads and baked potatoes. I buy these all the time if I can't find bacon on sale.

 

Mo7

[cookiejar]

My best friend suggests:

Bacon kabobs! Serve with the baked potatoes! Fully load the baked potato and lay the skewer on top?

 

I love bacon and am QUITE willing to take any of that off your hands...LOL