Lamb Bacon II: Reloaded

Today I return to where I started. Lamb Bacon. It makes chilis, stuffings, stews, braised collard greens, hashes, and, and, and, and, and... really delicious. I swear to you, with lamb bacon in your arsenal, you will have no need for pork bacon in your cooking. Keep it around for your lumberjack breakfasts, though, if you're into that sort of thing. Lamb bacon is not seen to frequently for several reasons, practical and economic. It certainly isn't traded on commodities exchanges. Nor is it particularly easy to produce. Except that it is. If you're Wylie Dufresne, and need perfectly consistent slices of lamb bacon, it's certainly a challenge, but for the home user, it's quite simple.

I was pleased with my first attempt at lamb bacon, but it was nothing compared to the second batch. Here's how I improved it:

• I made a stronger cure using more spices, toasting them for added deliciousness

Mustard, black pepper, fennel, coriander, cumin, dried herbs, garlic and onion powders, salt and sugar make up the cure.


Curing the lamb bellies in a dish, stacked together.

• I used Activa TransGlutaminase GS, following the company instructions and making sure to glove up, to seal the meat. TG essentially acts as a meat glue, binding the muscle fibers to each other. This is important because, when removing the bones from the lamb breast, it gets all flappy. TG seals the flaps, making a much more contiguous product.

The meat glue package. Note all the warnings.


The meat glue powder activated with water.


Brushing the meat glue onto the flappy lamb breast to create a cohesive bacon mass.

• I slow smoked the cured lamb breasts over hickory wood. Apple is better, but you take what you can get.

The final product is much more baconey than the previous batch. I think you should try making some lamb bacon and let me know how it came out/how you improved my recipe and method/what you used it for.