Day 4: BaconCamp qua Chili, the rundown and the recipe

[The whole journey] Nights: 28 Hours Inward

• Night 1: BaconCamp by Moonlight and the Holy Hog's Hell Chili
• Night 2: BaconCamp by Smoke and Lightning
• Night 3: the Dark Night, Early Dawn of BaconCamp
• Night 3.1: the afternoon, and Dark Night
• Night 3.2: Early Dawn and the afternoon  

In the midst of this Freddie Mercury weekend, another chili cookoff, and some amazing stuffed peppers / chiles rellenos I got to getting to the point where I had to wrap up the HHHC whether or not I had final pics or not; so continuing from Night 3.2: Early Dawn and the afternoon...

So particles, waves, whatever; after cooking for 18 straight hours (and only a few incremental doses of sleep), your nerves eventually take over. The morning sun was gentle a calm a few hours before it was time to leave. But once eleven rolled around and the final touches had gotten their executions, it became a race to the finish.

I got all packed up, my cousin and roommate got to try the chili and gave big approving thumbs up. We raced to the Dispatch Kitchen at the North Market where the comp was being held. Unfortunately, I was a bit more than all nerves by the time I got there and didn't have enough mental bandwidth to really get to talk to everyone, or share in our bacon delights. The three that stuck out were the banana-nut muffins with avacado-bacon frosting (there were these mini-dynamos of the subtlest kind of rad), bacon pop tarts (the most amazing shortbread with good bacon and fantastic frosting), and cayenne bacon ice cream (so smooth and then a little burning zing and oh crap I'm chewing a little bit o' bacon!).

I didn't get to try any of the winners, though I saw the one and wasn't compelled by the winning bacon sandwich, mostly because I was vying for an alt. The bacon sandwich that should have won (if a sandwich instead of chili were to have won) had bacon integrated into every facet of its composition, even the bread's fat and the fat the bread was fried in. Granted, I didn't eat either, and the plating by the latter wasn't very good. Oh well.

The winning people were great though. I wanted to win, but was so happy to share in this kind of a competition where it was really just a bacon celebration. Having the judges giving the goody bags to winners was cool, and the lady who won the sweets category was so amazed, but above and beyond the competition aspect, the camp aspect really shone through. I've never seen such satisfied grazing before. There were 200+ people there, in this tiny room, and bacon everywhere. There was a kind of gluttonous, deadly peace that settled on the packed venue.

Sure, we were reveling in clogging our arteries. Yes, the exploitation of animals was clinging to our lips. But you only live once. And if you're going to bother killing yourself, bacon is a great way to go. In terms of myself, I said it before, "no win, but all win." The process and project was epic. I was able to come up with a vision and see it through to completion. There is no trophy or prize that quite competes with that.

If you wish to pursue this vision journey, here is a rough of the steps. You might refer back to the linked posts to find all of the details:

For Meat:

• Make spice base. Begin by toasting anchos, guajillos, and pusillas then processing down (blender, processor, mortar & pestle; whatever works); then combining with your favorite mix of spices. Take half and that's your chili powder. The other half (may need more) you will add some brown sugar to, that will be the rub
• Injection marinade pig butts using orange juice, vinegar, sugar, chili powder, and rub
• Apply glue (honey+mustard), then cover with a thick layer of rub
• Let rest overnight
• Apply a second layer of glue lightly if necessary, then really cover with rub
• Smoke meat for 7 hours (I used a mix of mostly apple, with a bit of hickory)
• Wrap in foil and stick in refrigerator, let rest two days unless you're using quickly

For Chili:

• Do a pseudo-braise in roasting pan in oven (skip this if done and ready to pull to integrate in chili immediately); open top of foil pouch and pour in orange juice, coffee, and beer (I used a white ale), re-seal pouch
• Prepare stock by frying up bacon, pull bacon keep grease
• In the bacon grease, carmelize onions, then add garlic and peppers (the fresh ones I used were jalapenos, anaheims, and habaneros), wait until really good and gooey
• Reduce with a nice quantity of coffee (3-4 cups)
• Once it get low and looks a bit like a yellow-y tar,  add dry spices starting with a quarter of the chili powder you set aside. Now start trying to figure out what you will be missing. Make a note of it but don't act on it.
• Add tomatoes; simmer low for a while with a nice quantity of orange juice (~12oz)
• I like to add the clove and fennel (aids with digestion, cuts down on the impact of chili's acidity and matches any tomato sauce well) sooner than later. Once you have a nice amount of liquid, and a tomato-y vibe it would be a decent time to start adding the spices that need time to distribute themselves and mellow and marry.
• Now is also the time to start gauging the sugar you will be using. I had a few; unrefined cane sugar, brown sugar, and honey (along with orange juice). Don't be shy in the beginning. I learned over the weekend the reality of trying to get on top of it too late in the pot. The point of the sugar is to compensate for bitterness and to buffer capsaicin; so use it. Although chocolate isn't there to work toward the same end as sugar exactly, it also can make its entry now so you can judge the play between sugar and chocolate.
• Now get ready to really just leave your pot alone. Stir it now and then, but your main job will be tasting it from here on out; you're basically committed to the rest.
• Once the meat has braised a bit, you can open the pouches and dispense with the liquid by poking holes in the aluminum foil and fanning it out. The point now is to toughen back up the bark (smoked rub) on the outside, and make sure you have juiced the connective tissues above the 140'F mark for all you can without breaking too far into the mid-160s.
• Pull the pork. Dump it gradually into the chili. Pour in the drippings from the pan with the first pig butt if you have two; then add more beer and orange juice and coffee with the second butt's worth. Add bacon
• Bring pot to a simmer to get rid of some liquid, stirring regularly. By this point you should have a very rich looking and tasting pot. Reduce heat after the color of the chili returns
• You still want to have been tasting the stock itself regularly. Now is a good time to add some more peppers if necessary; these peppers' heat will be dissipated like the ones from early on.
• Sugars are also still able to get some good play. If you added fennel and clove you might want to touch them up a bit more (if you overdose the clove, cinnamon and cardamom will help you take the edge off it).
• Once you can taste that the meat has gotten a good uptake of the flavor of the stock (maybe 30-45 minutes), you can move to crock pot.  This is a nice low maintenance way to get some of the side work (i.e. candying bacon, cooling garnish). So in other words; migrate chili to crocks, make candied bacon, and cooling garnish if you haven't had a chance to yet.
• When you decide the chili is distributed and tasting good, it's time to take the chili to the next level: gravy. Whip up about (what amounted to) 4+ cups of roux.
• Drain off all of the chili liquid from the crock pots into the large pot, tilt to one side and start flopping the roux in there, and incorporate it by stirring it in gradually. Do this too all the liquid of the chili to ensure a smooth, cohesive texture. If you have some bacon grease from candying the bacon use this instead of butter or some other fat.
• Taste the gravy. This is the home stretch and your priorities and options are as follows; pungent spices, peppers' heat, and bite. Depending on how much more time you will be cooking you can also add fresh herbs at this point. I like adding them throughout, but in reality its just to gauge what I want it to taste like later, they don't really persist after hours of cooking. Most of the spices will have a wider distribution and benefit from longer cooking and having time to marry.
• You should not have any bitterness by now. That's what all those sugars were for. If you do have a bitterness, you will need to mask it at this point. I recommend very finely ground coffee, orange rind, lemon/lime zest/juice, and chocolate. I have also used pureed mandarin oranges to compensate for too much heat.
• Add the meat from the crocks and you're done.

That's a lot of steps, and no measurements and no list of ingredients. Mostly it's pork shoulder, peppers, tomatoes, onions, bacon, beer, orange juice, coffee, spices, herbs, bittersweet chocolate, honey, brown sugar, cane sugar, more spices, some herbs.

Some Notes:

• Cooling garnish - made with sour cream and cream cheese (with powdered candied bacon, ground orange rind, and chocolate). Incorporate bacon fat as a thickening agent. P
• Candied Bacon - go with the brown sugar on cookie rack over cookie sheet method with foil underneath. Use foil to create a spigot for pouring off and reserving grease. Try to engineer a way of creating bacon brittle.
• Chili - try adding 4 pounds of bacon to the 15 pounds pork shoulder; try with a thicker cut of the bacon and chop into bigger chunks
• Magic Dust - grind some orange peel, mix with into a bunch of nutritional yeast and a little coffee grinds; sprinkle on top instead of cheese

Side-Note:

The music was essential. Woods, some Bon Iver, but really the majority of the work was done by good 'ol Basia Bulat and Gillian Welch. It's an emotional experience. It's a low, low burning and you need whatever goes deep, deep for you. The twists in the emotional narratives kept my brain limber. I was looking for cracking open and I needed repetition and repetition. Make sure you've got headphones too. The idea of me bip-bopping around the kitchen at four am listening to depressing girl music makes me assume my roommate would have killed me. Headphones help you go deeper anyway.

went through four of those chafing dishes, plus the judges' samplesSo there were a lot of gratifying comments and shocked faces (when shock turns to smile is most gratifying of all) at my sampling table. I overheard one say he'd pay fifty bucks for the recipe. I know that is a paltry sum relative to my own idea of its worth, but it was something kind of tangible in terms of one person's appreciation. Granted, he could basically have as good a recipe as I could write up for free reading it here, but it's the thought that counts.

I was super pleased with the outcome. I wish I'd had more time where I was decompressed. Helping out in the back washing dishes with people was a ton of fun somehow, mostly the camaraderie was high and the stress was done.

The first layer of winning that came out of this really was having a vision and implementing it with precision.

The real winning that came out of this was the journey. It wasn't work, it wasn't 'the doing'; there were 28 hours spent cooking a single dish and its components. 34 hours invested counting other preparations, but 28 hours inward (18 of which were synchronous and basically alone). 'The doing' ends after the four or five hour mark. It's a journey when you are on a stretch of road, and you know intuitively n the right direction, but it is comepletely alien and seems to have no apparent bearing on where you're headed.

I like the adjective epic. Consequently I don't want to throw it around or abuse it. So with all due respect and knowing full well just how much I sound like I have my head up my own ass; this chili recipe is epic. The results are epic. The journey an epic.

There are things we toss around as, 'do this, it will change your life.' We might start accessibly with a dish at a restaurant, a movie, or an album or something consumerist like that. I don't mean consumerist in a negative slant, but these are passive experiences; they appeal to our self that doesn't like to put itself on the line but enjoys consuming what other people put on the line. You move on to the next level which are experiential things; climb a mountain, jump out of a plane, bike a century. These experiences put us in touch with a part of ourselves that is getting put on the line - the emotions in exertion, life and limb, and our idea of physical boundaries.

I can't fit this experience into the latter category as I would have assumed. There was too much of me in it. It was more than overcoming a fear or an obstacle. Beyond barriers, there was a ferocity to pursuing this road. Mostly, what I would say is, if you feel burdened; in your heart, if you are feeling knotted and crippled, but filled and ready to scream; come to this chili recipe and make your peace. I am sure the timing could be condensed by at least 8 hours, but for every minute, hour, that your pour into it, the deeper you go. At first you can let yourself get trapped /in it/. So wrapped up in your own head and bullshit and rationalizations and judgments and fears and egotisms and the ligatures you use to suspend your sense of self. For every minute, hour that you plod the road your head will begin to loosen and eventually it can crack open if you let it.  

Anyway, for an epic chili recipe that will render bacon fat and connective tissues and souls alike, go down the Rabbit Hole with the Holy Hog's Hell Chili.

 Nights: 28 hours inward

• Night 1: BaconCamp by Moonlight and the Holy Hog's Hell Chili
• Night 2: BaconCamp by Smoke and Lightning
• Night 3: the Dark Night, Early Dawn of BaconCamp
• Night 3.1: the afternoon, and Dark Night
• Night 3.2: Early Dawn and the afternoon

p.s. It's not the Droid Bionic, buuuut I did get an HTC Evo 3D recently, and the picture quality surpasses the Droid 1 from Motorola by far. You can look forward to newer food porn being ever so slightly prettier. YAY APPETITE PORN!