In today’s recipe, we are making Homemade Turkey Bacon. Let me know if you have any questions regarding this recipe. I am currently recovering from major surgery so the “Easy” version of this recipe hasn’t been posted yet. As soon as I can move around a little I’ll be sure to update the post to include a more user friendly version.
I want to go on record to say that I’m not a fan of Turkey Bacon but a few weeks ago I was challenged to see if I could make it in our kitchen so while I don’t particularly like the texture or the taste of store bought Turkey bacon I do love a good challenge.. Can we not only make Turkey bacon but can we make it better? Let’s find out..
Here are a few things you might find useful when making this recipe
- SavorYe (flavor enhancer)
- Thermapen
- Bowl Chopper
- Deli Meat Slicer
- Accurate Scale
- Potato Starch
2 Guys & A Cooler Amazon Storefront
I hope you enjoy this week’s video and recipe. If you give this a go be sure to let me know how you came out and if you have any questions, ask away in the comment section below.
Homemade Turkey Bacon
This method is a more complex method but produces a result very similar to actual bacon
How much do you want to make? 1000 grams
Ingredients
Dark Meat Portion
- 690 g turkey dark meat can use chicken as well
- 170 g fat this can be any fat you choose. Turkey skin, pork fat, or butter. If you choose a liquid fat (like butter or olive oil) then you need to make an emulsion with it first.
- 140 g unseasoned turkey stock frozen into ice cubes and crushed or crushed ice
- 15 g salt
- 7 g savorye
- 10 g dark brown sugar
- 7 g smoked paprika
- 3g g garlic powder
- 2 g onion powder
- 2.5 g white pepper
- 30 g potato starch
White Meat Portion
- 690 g turkey white meat can use chicken as well
- 170 g fat this can be any fat you choose. Turkey skin, pork fat, or butter. If you choose a liquid fat (like butter or olive oil) then you need to make an emulsion with it first.
- 140 g unseasoned turkey stock frozen into ice cubes and crushed or crushed ice
- 15 g salt
- 7 g savorye
- 10 g dark brown sugar
- 3 g garlic powder
- 2 g onion powder
- 2.5 g white pepper
- 30 g potato starch
Instructions
Prepare your meat
- process the white meat and dark meat separately and place each one in their respective bowl. Chill the meat till it's partially frozen then grind it on a course plate and then again on the same plate or for better results on a finer plate. Make sure the meat is partially frozen each time. Keep them separate.
Prepare the fat
- You can use just about any fat you want. Turkey skin, chicken skin, beef fat, or pork back fat all work great. If you plan on using a soft fat as in butter or a liquid fat like olive oil then you will need to create an emulsion with the fat first otherwise your fat addition will leak out (fat out) during the cooking process. If you do create an emulsion then the water and binder that you use to make your stable fat emulsion need to be taken into consideration with the other ingredients in this recipe. If you are using turkey skin, chicken skin, or even pork fat (which I would recommend to do at first) then chill the fat and grind them using a course plate first then regrinding on a finer plate. This helps the process along later.
Prepare your Stock
- This step is very easy. Take the carcass of your turkey or chicken and sprinkle a little non-fat milk powder all over it. Place it into your oven to roast at 400f (200c) for 60-90 minutes till the carcass starts to brown all over. Once this happens take it out of the oven and place everything into a pressure cooker with enough water to cover the bones. Pressure cook at 15psi for 90 minutes. Strain and set to the side to cool. Once cooled fill several ice trays up with your stock and freeze. Take the frozen "stock" cubes, place them in a zip lock bag and crush them up with a mallet. Pour crushed "stock" ice into a container and keep it in the freezer for later use.
Prepare the spices
- Get all of your spices together for both emulsions. For both dark meat and white meat emulsions you will have 2 containers. One will have the salty ingredients and the other will have the binder and the rest of the spices. So you will have 4 containers in total (2 for dark meat and 2 for white meat). In the recipe above the salty ingredients are Salt and SavorYe.
Make the emulsions (dark meat and white meat) separately
- Chill the meat before beginning. Place the chilled meat (32f or 0c) into a bowl chopper or food processor. Add the salty ingredients and begin to chop. We are looking to keep the temperature below 38f or 4c. As you notice the temperature start to rise add 1/3 of your crushed ice to the bowl and continue chopping. Once the temp starts to rise again add another 1/3 of crushed ice and keep chopping. You want this to end up like a paste. Once this happens and the temp should be around 40f or 4c add the semi frozen fat, the spices, and the binder. Continue chopping. During this final stage we don't want the temperature to exceed 55f or 13c. Add the remaining 1/3 crushed ice to your farce and chop till you get to the 55f (13c) threshold. Once this happens you are finished.
- Take the dark meat farce and make a layer in a tin. Next come back with the white meat farce, and repeat the process till you make a 1.5 inch thick meat mass with dark meat and white meat layers. Place this into your chamber vacuum sealer and vacuum for 60 seconds to get rid of any air pockets. Finally place the container in a vacuum seal bag and sous vide for 2 hours at 145f (62.7c). Once cooked, chill and refrigerate overnight. The next day slice the loaf to create your bacon strips.. Enjoy
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