Choucroute Garnie
Choucroute Garnie A deep dive in the freezer yielded a one-pound piece of pork belly. This was left over from a demo, on making bacon. Definitely, this was not enough to cure for bacon. Normally, making bacon is what I do with pork belly. A one-pound piece of pork belly is not enough to justify the time involved in making bacon. So, I decided to smoke it without it being cured. This decision was facilitated by my having recently finished a new batch of sauerkraut. Choucroute Garnie came to mind. Normally Choucroute Garnie contains sausages with other cured and smoked meats. In this case, I did not have any sausage on hand. But I did have some house made Canadian Bacon. The pork belly was seasoned with my pork rub. I used apple and mesquite pellets for flavor and lump mesquite charcoal for heat. The result was delightful! To make the dish, I simmered some of the fresh sauerkraut with white wine and juniper berries. After about thirty minutes, I added the