Noah: We're always looking for alternatives to pork at Mile End, and this dry-cured lamb breast was an amazing meat discovery for me. You can use lamb bacon in pretty much any dish you'd use standard bacon or pancetta for: Italian peasant soups, potato salads, meat braises, pasta dishes, whatever. We finish our lamb bacon in a smoker, though at home I've cooked it in the oven and gotten great results; it just has a milder flavor. You can store the bacon in the fridge for many weeks.
If you'd prefer to use an oven, preheat to 200°F and cook for 3 hours.
Recipe information
Yield
Makes 1 to 1 1/2 pounds
Ingredients
Preparation
Step 1
Make the rub: Combine the salts, brown sugar, bay leaves, and pepper in a bowl and transfer to a large plate or a baking dish. Dredge the lamb breast in the rub and massage it into the surface of the lamb. (You'll probably have some rub left over.) Shake off any excess rub and let the meat sit, covered, in the refrigerator for 5 days, turning the lamb over once a day.
Step 2
Rinse the lamb breast thoroughly, pat it dry with paper towels, and allow it to sit uncovered in the refrigerator overnight.
Step 3
Cook the lamb bacon: Soak the wood chips in water for 30 minutes, then drain and them pat dry. Prepare your smoker. When the temperature inside the smoker has reached 200°F and the wood chips are smoking steadily, add the lamb, and let smoke. Maintain the temperature at 200°F at least until a thermometer inserted into the center of the meat reads 160°F. This will take about 2 hours, but we recommend smoking for 3, as longer cooking enhances the quality of the bacon. Allow the bacon to cool completely in the fridge and store, wrapped, for up to 1 month.
Step 4
Tip: The size of lamb breasts can vary quite a bit, so be sure to buy yours deboned or boneless. A bone-in breast will lose 30 to 35 percent of its weight upon deboning.
