August 4, 2026 - Homemade Deli Meat

When we lived in Texas, I made most of our bacon and pretty much all of our deli type meat. I don't know why I stopped making it. I've been back in Missouri almost six years and know I haven't made any since we moved here.

We had gone to Sam's Club the other day and Vince picked up several packages of deli meat. After we got home, I told him . . you remember that I can make that and it's better and probably more healthy than buying it at the store. He asked what it would take for me to start making it again. I laughed and said "Another six hours in each day!" I told him if he knew where the meat slicer was, and could get to it, and if he would take the big blade off so I could clean it all, I'd make deli meat and start making bacon again. I have always been afraid of that slicer but after the immersion blender incident, I don't even want to be in the same room with that slicer.

Vince found it and when he was at Sam's again last week, he bought an eye of round roast and I made it into deli meat.

I know what some of you are saying . . it's too rare! That's how I like it and Vince likes to heat his up so with it cooked like this, I get it cooked the way I like it, I heat his up and there's hardly any pink left. I divided into 6 oz. portions, vacuum sealed all but one bag and put it in the freezer. 

Tonight we had roast beef sandwiches and Vince was so happy to have the homemade deli meat. I told him as soon as the garden gives me a break, I'll make more deli meat and promised I would do it before all the roast is gone.

For anyone interested in trying it, I'll share a few links that should give you more info.

Remember that you can add any seasonings you want. The techniques in the links are mostly what I want to share.

For chicken, this is the method I use for making sliced breast meat. I almost always substitute rosemary for the thyme but most any spice that you like would work.

If you want to use a meat press, this is the technique I use. I don't use this recipe as far as ingredients. I cut chicken breasts into chunks and put them in the food processor to "grind" them because I'm kinda picky about chicken meat. I like to use Cajun seasoning (Cajun Redhead is my favorite), which happens to be made in my hometown but I do not know the people. I also like to cut up and saute jalapeno peppers and add that to my ground chicken.

You can really season the beef any way you want to, and season the chicken any way you want to and it will always be perfect!

As far as buckboard bacon, once I start making that again, neither of us will ever want storebought bacon again so . . do I do it or not?  :)

You know I will do it! This is the technique I will use. I like how this guy explains everything and has a calculator so you can get it all perfect for whatever size meat you have. This recipe is a little more straightforward and if you've never done this before, it's probably at least worth reading before starting a bacon project.

One thing I like about the first link is that his formula gives you a minimum number of days for curing. I usually have a pork butt that's in the 5 pound range and the minimum curing time comes out to about 10 days. I don't mind going 11 or 12 days with the cure but no more so I try to pay attention to the weather. Our smoker is outside . . I guess most of us who have smokers use them outside but ours is on a deck without a roof and I have to go out and add wood to it and check on it often enough that I'd prefer not to be doing it on a rainy day so I try to let the weather be my guide on how long to cure it.

The guy in the first link says to cook it to 145-165. The second guy says 160. 

I always cook it to the lower end of "done" (145) because (1) It's going to get cooked in the skillet and (2) If the temp gets much above 145, the fat starts to render and, not only have you lost some of the yummy bacon fat but you can end up with a greasy mess when cutting and wrapping.

That's about it for the buckboard bacon. Cure it, smoke it, refrigerate it, slice it, wrap it and freeze it.

OK . . thanks for reading another episode of "Judy Has Too Many Irons in the Fire!"