Can the bacon in homemade "Bacon Salt" be made shelf stable?
After success making several fancy salts including Sriracha, smoked, and green chili I've decided to try to move in to stranger and tastier territories. As such I want to make a bacon salt. The commercial products don't use real bacon (or at least the ones I've seen) and all the do-it-yourself recipes claim it not to be shelf stable.
My hope was that cooking the bacon crisp would remove a majority of the moisture, preserving something akin to jerky. Once cooked it would be pulverized and adding have a large amount of kosher salt added to it, many times that than the weight of bacon used. I would hope that these preservation techniques being used two-fold would help make said meat candy shelf-stable.
However I worry that there is risk of some of the greases in the pulverized bacon going rancid. Is there anything I can do short of keeping it in the fridge or heat preserving the entire concoction, or is my plan likely to work?
Best Answer
Remember that the whole reason we cure bacon is to make it shelf stable over time, a process developed before refrigeration was as it is today. Now we do it more for taste, but the salt and curing process make bacon pretty shelf stable. If you are cooking the bacon as well, before you put it in the salt, I don't see any reason not to leave the bacon salt on the counter.
I'd try leaving it on the shelf until you noticed any issues. But I'm willing to live a little more dangerously than some others. :)
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How do you make bacon shelf stable?
Freeze Raw BaconStore in airtight freezer-safe containers. I happen to use freezer zip-top bags for short term storage (that I know we'll be getting into in the next month or so) and vacuum-sealed bags for long-term storage.Does bacon salt need to be refrigerated?
Bacon Salt can also be stored in your refrigerator for up to three weeks.How long does homemade bacon bits last?
Store: Keep bacon bits in a sealed container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months.How long is Bacon Salt good for?
How long does bacon salt last? When stored in the refrigerator in a sealed container, bacon salt will keep its amazing flavor for at least 4 weeks.How we do stuff: Making Authentic, non-refrigerated, long-term storage bacon
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Answer 2
So you'd be making cooked, dryed, salted pork, nearly powdered, with extra salt. You can reduce rancidity problems by storing in an airtight container with an Oxygen Absorber (example ony). Long term, I'd freeze the bacon salt, but the common, steel wool based, O2 scavengers generally seem to work well at preventing rancidity in grains, flours and oils.
Answer 3
Beef jerky is shelf stable, so you could try something similar with the bacon, but you're going to have a harder time getting the fatty parts shelf stable.
You could try replicating the flavors with things like liquid smoke.
Answer 4
I would think that dehydrating a less fatty but similar tasting meat like prosciutto or even turkey bacon (to make a jerky) then using the standard recipe would take out the risk of the fat going rancid.
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