Pellet Smoker Cooking: Cider Braised Bacon Sandwich W/Pickled Red Onions

Nov. 02 2012

I saw a post from a blog that was a sandwich made from pork belly. It was braised in apple cider then sliced and fried. It was topped with pickled red onions, and it sure looked delicious. I had a piece of bacon about 4 X 5 inches, left from my beer braised bacon. I tried to find the blog post again but never could; I know I need to book mark anything interesting.

I made up my own recipe for braising; one cup of apple cider, 2 Tbs. of apple cider vinegar, 3 Tbs. of raw honey, about a Tbs. of dried garlic flakes and some fresh ground pepper. I placed the bacon in a sauce pan with the braising mix and enough water to cover. I brought it to a boil then put it in a 215 deg. Oven for two hours. It went in the fridge overnight. The next day I took the bacon out, dried and back in the fridge.

I found a recipe for pickled red onions; 2 red onions sliced thin, blanch in boiling water for one minute, drain and back in the pan. Then you add a cup of cider vinegar, a teaspoon of salt and enough water to barely cover the onions; bring to a boil for one minute then cool some. Place it in a quart jar, seal and in the fridge after cooling at least overnight.

I decided to do the bacon on the smoker along with some corn meal mush. I needed a good healthy salad to go along; that would make me feel better about eating the bacon! I found one on food net by Guy Fieri, Spinach Pear and Pomegranate Salad with Gorgonzola and Champagne Vinaigrette. It called for champagne vinegar for the dressing; I can never find it around here so I used red wine vinegar infused with pomegranate.

Today I sliced the bacon ¼ inch thick; I just had enough for two sandwiches. In the meantime my wife’s sister called and said her & her husband was stopping in on their way to Port Clinton from Cincinnati. I said I could give them some of my left over creamy chicken tortilla soup and had enough salad for them. I baked two take home & bake sandwich buns, one cut in half was big enough for our sandwiches and served the other to my guests.

I put the mush on the smoker, preheated to 300 deg. After a half hour I put the bacon on. I did them for another hour. In between this I made up the salad, my wife’s sister and husband got here at 4:45. By 5:00 I reheated the soup and served them the soup and salad with bread. At 5:30 the bacon and mush were done so we had our sandwiches topped with the pickled red onions, the mush, salad and bread.

My bacon really got black but didn’t taste burnt. I am not sure why the bacon I saw in the blog looked normal color but they used pork belly and I think they fried it. I have cooked thick sliced bacon before at that temp for an hour and looked good. I was not going to post this but it was good and I would do it again but maybe try frying it.

The pickled red onions would be good on most sandwiches. The salad was really good and would complement most any meal.

Bacon after overnight in the fridge