Everything you Need to Know About Beef Bacon with Butcher Cody Shintoski
Beef bacon is the latest chef crafted product joining the Marrow line of sausages. We sat down with Cody Shintoski, Head Butcher and Manager, to ask him all about it.
Photography by Taylor Higgins
Q: What is Marrow Detroit Provisions beef bacon?
A: Our beef bacon is made from beef we buy-direct from Moraine Park, a Michigan family farm. It is cured beef navel, or beef belly sourced from the same part of the animal as standard bacon. We cure it like we would our regular belly bacon from a pig, using the dry-cured method.
It is dry-cured for seven days and when it comes out, we rinse it, score it and roll it up nice and tight. During the process of rolling it tight and smoking it, the rolled belly becomes one continuous piece so it looks like a circle.
Q: How is the beef bacon crafted to embody exceptional flavors, textures, and tastes derived from locally and ethically sourced ingredients?
A: The dry-cured method is unique from the typical grocery store curing process where the belly is injected with a brine. It’s a machine that injects the brine which expedites the curing process.
At Marrow, your friendly local butcher shop, we prefer, and think that dry-curing is a better method. It's more of an old-time method where you rub it with a blend of nitrites (pink salt and sugar) and let it sit for an extended period of time.
We score, roll and net it so it keeps its shape during the cooking process. This is the part when the meat is smoked and the roll forms into one solid piece. The openings created by scoring the meat efficiently transforms the beef belly into a single log beef bacon. Lots of little slits are cut throughout the entire beef belly. This allows the proteins in the meat to naturally grab onto each other.
Q: As our friendly local butcher, what is your favorite way to make beef bacon?
A: I’m pretty old school - I just like to fry it up in a pan. I love to be able to fry it up in a pan, render off the fat from the beef. You don’t need to put any oil down or anything, just cook it slowly in a pan, let the fat render and cook it in its own fat. After that, you can cook your eggs or your potatoes in the fat right after, so I prefer it like that.
My kids really like it. They will wait at the stove while it's cooking, sometimes too closely, and eat it right out of the pan: they’re ready to grab it as soon as it’s ready. I’ll sometimes chop it up and add it to their scrambled eggs as well.
It can also be cooked in the oven on a sheet pan. It needs to be cooked through to a temperature of 160 degrees. It will crisp up faster than typical pork bacon so keep an eye on it throughout the cooking process.
Bottom line, beef bacon is a one-for-one replacement for pork bacon and can be used in a variety of preparations. Available in local grocery stores the first week in April, Marrow Detroit Provisions beef bacon is the only chef crafted, artisan beef bacon in the local market. It brings style and quality to your breakfast, lunch, or dinner, it’s delicious and kid-approved. In fact, the Marrow Butcher shop was named one of the best butcher shops in America by Food & Wine Magazine and they follow full animal butchery practices. Try it before it hits the stores at the Marrow Butcher Shop and at Eastern Market on Saturdays.
