Here's where we're at...
The jowls were in the brine for about 11 days. The sample I fried up had a nice favor. The extra time in the lower salt brine let the juniper berry flavor come through a little better.
Drying off under a fan.
A light coating of pepper (this pepper is kind of warm. I hope this doesn't overwhelm the pallet).
I don't have a dry cure cabinet yet, but I want to dry this out some and get a lighter smoke profile, so I'm skipping the cold smoke and going straight for a hot smoke using Sugar Maple (I wish I could get beechwood pellets here to keep in more authentic). This will loose more water weight than just cold smoking.
Not too dark and definitely a lighter smoke profile (oh, you bet I sneaked a sample
). This will now go into the fridge in paper bags to continue drying slowly until they reach the density I want. I'll most likely add a tray of rock salt with some water to keep the humidity at a good level.
I'll post more as it ages...
