In this installment
Bacon bits
About Gunthorp’s
Bacon Cheddar Scones Recipe
Bacon bits
Made near La Grange, Indiana
Cure: Dry Cured for a week in a mixture of sugar and salt
Smoke: Smoked over Hickory for twelve hours
Taste: Complex, smoky, slightly sweet, salty.
About Gunthorp’s
Greg Gunthorp put it succinctly: “working with Gunthorp farms means you’re working with someone that’s devoting a large portion of their efforts into changing the food supply.” Greg and his family have a small pasture based livestock farm in northeastern Indiana. “We raise pigs, chickens, ducks and turkeys.” Greg explained. “All pasture raised on our 200 acre farm. We never use antibiotics, hormones, growth promotants or animal by-products in our feed.” And that’s how they’ve been doing it for the last four generations.
That’s one of the ways Gunthorp Farms stands out: it’s a unique blend of old and new.
They have a state of the art processing plant on the farm that’s regularly inspected by the USDA. For their needs, it’s just necessary. Why put all those efforts into raising an animal humanely to just send it off to a non-descript processing facility that might not agree with your views on sanitation and the use of chemicals? “We slaughter and process without all the harsh chemicals.” Greg continues. “And we utilize all the butchering waste into our compost. It either goes on our crops or my parents crops next door.” They’ve built a wetland area that treats all their waste water. “That water is better than 70% of the world’s drinking water. I’m even designing one for an orphanage.” Greg continued.
Greg is seriously one of the busiest people I’ve ever met in the food world. “I’ve spoken at virtually every small farm, organic, or sustainable conference in the United States on pastured pigs, pastured poultry or small scale processing.” He said. But he doesn’t stop there. He served on USDA Secretary Glickman’s Small Farm Commission. He was a small farm advisor to President Clinton. He’s on the board of the American Pastured Poultry Producers Association and is one of the driving forces in sustainable farming in the US – Greg is one busy man.
Oh, and he makes some pretty tasty bacon.
“A few years back we built a smokehouse based on the design my great-grandfather had.” Greg ex- plains. “It’s a masonry-smokehouse with everything being made from poured concrete. It’s got two wood burning stoves on the outside with fans that control the smoke and heat. It’s really sweet.”
This bacon is dry cured for a week with a simple dry rub in a mixture of salt and brown sugar. It’s smoked over hickory logs (not chips) for twelve hours. It’s lightly smoky, just a little sweet and all the way delicious. “Our yield is terrible. It takes a long time to make, but man is it worth it.” Greg says. Greg raises Duroc hogs; an old breed that originated in the states back in the 1800s. They produce some strong flavored meat. A friend of mine once described it as a powerful meat that resulted from the transgression of a pig and a cow. That makes for a strange sort of hybrid, but I think he’s nailed the flavor on the head. Although you might use it on a BLT or in some other dish, I urge you to try it as is, cooked till just crispy, warm from the skillet.
Bacon Cheddar Scones Recipe
We make these at Zingerman’s Bakehouse and now you can make them and share in the adulation too.
8 ounces sliced bacon (about 4-6 slices)
21⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon fine sea salt
3⁄4 cup unsalted butter, cut into 1⁄2-inch pieces, cold
2 large eggs, beaten, cold
1⁄2 cup plus 2 tablespoons heavy cream, cold
4 oz Vermont cheddar (1 year old is good, but 2 is even better), crumbled & cold
3 scallions, chopped
Fry the bacon over medium heat until crisp. Drain, chop and place in refrigerator to cool.
Heat oven to 375°F.
Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. Cut in the butter with a knife or pastry cutter until the mixture forms 1⁄2-inch pieces. Add the eggs, 1⁄2 cup of the cream and the cheddar. Mix by hand until just combined. Fold in the scallions and cooled bacon.
Transfer the dough to a well-floured board. Form two 7-inch rounds. Cut each into 6 wedges.
Transfer the wedges to a baking sheet lined with parchment. Brush with the remaining cream and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the scones are golden brown on the top and bottom (you’ll have to lift them off the baking sheet a bit to check under- neath).
Allow to cool and firm up for about 10 minutes before removing from sheet. Serve the same day.
Makes 12 small scones