Salted pork bellies are a simple substitute for bacon. It lacks bacon's pink color but also the unhealthy chemicals. It's good to know what's in your food.
For people on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet or GAPS, finding bacon that is safe to eat is very difficult. Almost all commercial bacon has sugar and chemicals restricted on the SCD/GAPS. Salted pork bellies are a very simple solution for making a bacon-like substitute. This recipe does not require smoking, just a bit of time in the fridge.
Cut the belly slab into about four inch sections. Put the sections of pork belly in a glass container. For every pound of pork belly, rub on 1-2tsp sea salt. You will have to experiment with the amount of salt to use, but saltier is better. Cover and store in the fridge for at least 24-48 hours.
The salted pork belly will easily last a week or longer in the fridge. When ready to cook, cut the section you want to cook into 1/4 inch slices. Keep the other sections in the brine; liquid will naturally come out of the meat.
Place the slices into a cast iron fry pan and cook until well browned. Salted pork belly will not have bacon’s pink color but will taste almost the same. You can even salt after cooking, if desired. Remember to save the fat to use for frying. Lard from pastured hogs is a good source of vitamin D.
Just a note about the optional cider vinegar. In my experience, adding vinegar to the salted pork reduces how long it will last in the fridge. I have had mold grow after a week, something that doesn’t happen with just sea salt. If you do add cider vinegar, cook the salted pork at a lower temperature to avoid burning.
You might be wondering why I add cider vinegar with all these down sides. I read a Weston A Price Foundation article called How Does Pork Prepared in Various Ways Affect the Blood? This is a very controversial article. Some WAPF members question the science in the article, but if you have trouble digesting pork protein, you could try this technique and see if pork becomes more digestible for you. Also, this technique works on the pork protein, not the pork fat. Marinating overnight cuts of pork with more protein will work better than pork belly, which is mostly fat. Also, short marination avoids potential mold problems.
Here is the salted pork belly after frying. It doesn't look exactly like bacon but it tastes like bacon. Remember to save the fat and use it in frying. Pastured hog lard is a good source of vitamin D.
This recipe is based on Choconot Mousse Pie from Living Cuisine: The Art and Spirit of Raw Foods by Renee Loux Underkoffler. This is a raw vegan cookbook. The Weston A Price Foundation does not consider vegan diets healthy. If you would like to read more about the WAPF views on vegetarianism, please take the Vegetarian Tour.
Nevertheless, this cookbook has some excellent recipes for nut based desserts which is helpful for people on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. My sister got me this book when I first started the SCD/GAPS. I was having problems making desserts for special occasions. Desserts became a breeze after reading this book and learning her technique for raw desserts!
One more note on nuts. Some people find nuts difficult to digest, even when the nuts are properly prepared by soaking and dehydrating. If you are one of these people, be careful with nuts and only eat them for special occasions.
Crust
1c soaked and dried almonds or walnuts
4 softened organic dates, pitted
1T organic vanilla extract
1T organic coconut oil
2tsp organic cinnamon
pinch sea salt
Pre-soak the whole almonds or walnuts in lightly salted water overnight. In the morning drain off the water and dehydrate the nuts until completely dried. (Make a large quantity of nuts and store the soaked and dried nuts in the freezer for quick use.)
Pour boiling water over the dates and let the dates soften. When the dates are cool, remove the pits. (Soak the dates for the filling at the same time.)
In a food processor, grind the nuts into a fine meal. Add the dates and blend into a soft paste with the nuts. Add vanilla extract, coconut oil, cinnamon and sea salt. Continue to blend until a ball of crust is formed. Remove the crust and press into the bottom of a pie pan. I use a beautiful stoneware pie pan for this dessert but any pretty pie pan will work.
In a food processor, blend the dates into a soft paste. Add the avocados, coconut oil, and vanilla extract. Add the maple syrup, if you want a sweeter pie. Add the cocoa powder and blend until very smooth.
Place the rounds of banana over the crust. Pour the filling over the banana rounds and the crust. I like making a swirly pattern for the top. Refrigerate and serve when cooled. Don’t tell the children about the avocados until they have tried the pie first!
With the Paleo Diet, you’ll be restoring the diet you are genetically programmed to eat. You’ll be eating the diet that every single person on the planet ate only 500 generations ago. It is the diet the modern world has completely forgotten. The Paleo Diet is simplicity itself. Here are the ground rules:
All the lean meats, fish and seafood you can eat
All the fruits and non-starchy vegetables you can eat
No cereals
No legumes
No dairy products
No processed foods
The Paleo Diet is not a fat-free diet, it’s a “bad fat” free diet. It has few of the artery-clogging saturated fats found on the low carbohydrate, high fat fad diets, but there is plenty of low fat protein and good fats – such as those found in salmon and other cold water fish, as well as in nuts and olive oil.
The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain
Recently, I have had a number of people ask my opinion about the Paleo Diet. If you put the three programs on a continuum from least restrictive to most restrictive, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) would be first, followed by Gut And Psychology Syndrome (GAPS), then the Paleo Diet (PD). The only area that the PD is less restrictive then the SCD and GAPS is the PD allows starches. All these diets are very healing and can cure the incurable. All these dietary programs want you to get off industrial processed foods which may be the major reason why these dietary programs work so well. These dietary programs restrict many of the same foods but the diets have some major philosophical differences. The saying, “the devil is in the details,” is true for these diets.
Here is a tongue-in-cheek book review by Sally Fallon written in 2002 about The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain. I found Sally Fallon’s humorous description of the PD very enlightening. In the past, I used to eat a low fat diet and was very worried about all fats, especially saturated fat. I used to skin my chicken, chop off all signs of fat from my steak, and ate only egg whites. The Paleo Diet by Loren Cordain would have agreed with my saturated fat phobia. When I read Sally Fallon’s description of “Peter Paleolith”, I laughed and laughed. After that description I knew the truth was our ancestors would have done anything for fat including cracking bones and skulls for marrow and brains! Sometimes, humor is the only way to break through closely held beliefs.
Loren Condain also does some interesting mental gymnastics in The Paleo Diet. He states, “lean meat is brain food” and follows up this statement with: “At first, humans were not terribly good hunters. They started out as scavengers who trailed behind predators such as lions and ate the leftovers remaining on abandoned carcasses. The pickings were slim: ravenous lions don’t leave much behind, except for bones. But with their handy tools (stone anvils and hammers), our early ancestors could crack the skulls and bones and still find something to eat – brains and fatty marrow. Marrow fat was the main concentrated energy source that enabled the early human gut to shrink, while the scavenged brains contained a specific type of omega 3 fat called “docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which allowed the [human] brain to expand.”
So which is it? Does lean meat build brains or does fat build brains? Loren Condain likely believed the low fat dogma of his day like many other intelligent people. But he becomes disingenuous when he states the PD is a return to our ancestral diet while manipulating the diet to fit modern tastes and quoting current dietary dogma. I would image it was an easier sell to base a diet book on lean meat and vegetables rather than bone marrow and brains.
When I started eatkamloops.org, I had to decide which dietary program best illustrated my dietary approach. The SCD/GAPS program was the best fit but I always used some elements of the PD. I used many PD recipes and found PD resources to be very helpful. I just ignored the fat and salt phobia. I did not eat starches that are restricted on the SCD/GAPS program. At the time, a large segment of the Paleo movement were thinking some strange thoughts, like believing our ancestors ate skinned chicken breasts, didn’t use salt, and ignored the use of raw dairy in numerous traditional cultures.
The PD condemns all grains, legumes and beans. Grains, legumes, and beans are “poisons” for me, but I know many people do very well on these foods if properly prepared. Even though I do well on a low carbohydrate diet, low carbohydrate diets do not work well for all people. Some people need more carbohydrates to function optimally. Micro-nutrient needs are very individual and can change for the individual if activity levels change or as we age. The PD allows starches but both the SCD/GAPS restrict these foods because the people that are helped by the SCD/GAPS cannot digest complex starches.? Finally, the PD had many views that counter the opinions of the Weston A Price Foundation, an organization I have great respect for. The WAPF got me on a high fat diet, a change I will forever be grateful for.
All three dietary programs completely restrict all grains and their products. The SCD/GAPS does allow a limited amount of beans and legumes. Since I do not eat either of these food groups, I am more of a PD follower in this one area. In the past, I avoided all dairy which is one of the restrictions of the PD and the extreme version of GAPS. Since I found a source of raw milk, I have been able to re-introduce raw cheese, fermented dairy products, and even liquid raw milk. Liquid milk is restricted on all three dietary programs.
I was still scared about eating more fat. It was this book review and other WAPF articles about traditional diets that made me brave enough to take the chance and go high fat with my diet. My experience going high fat was very positive. I “cured” my health problems which included: asthma, allergies, chronic sinus infections, yeast infections, osteoarthritis and epilepsy. For more details please read: Specific Carbohydrate Diet: A Personal Story.
Over the last number of years more research has come to light about the importance of fat in the diet. If you read the link above you will know I identify with the SCD/GAPS but really I am on a combination of all three dietary approaches. In the past, I could not identify with the PD movement because of the Paleo dogma around low fat/high protein, salt, and dairy. Well now I can identify with the PD movement, because the PD movement is realizing that raw dairy, especially fermented dairy, high fat cream, and butter, can be good for many people. Of course, even the best quality dairy is not for everyone.
This is a modified paleo burger. Loren Cordain would be horrified to see raw cheese on this burger. Many paleo diet followers are now including raw dairy, if they consume dairy at all. In the Paleo Community the term "Swiss Paleo" is used to describe people consuming raw dairy.
The dogma about low fat diets being better is finally being seen as erroneous. I just found a great website about the “modified” PD called Paleo Diet Lifestyle. I have read most of the website and I agree with everything I have read. I also really like Mark’s Daily Apple for great PD recipes and “Paleo lifestyle” information. He has free ebooks for PD recipes and body weight exercises that can be done anywhere without any equipment. Even though I really like Mark’s Daily Apple, I do not endorse his use of supplements. These are not real foods but industrial nutraceuticals.Guidelines from the Weston A Price Foundation recommend eating real foods from a quality source first, and then the use of superfoods, if necessary. Here is my use of superfoods.
Finally, what I like about SCD/GAPS philosophy is that after the person heals their gut the person may be able to go back to eating ?some? of the restricted foods. For those people that can tolerate these foods, the WAPF gives good advice on how to properly prepare these sometime troublesome foods. Of course, many of us do not go back to eating these foods because if we do, we get sick again.
The PD would state that these foods are bad for everyone and if we value our health and longevity we should never eat these foods again. The WAPF states many traditional cultures used ?properly? prepared dairy, grains, legumes and beans. For many of us, we are too damaged to consume these foods. The question each of us must answer for ourselves is, which of these foods made us sick? My great-grandfather used to say: ?If the food doesn?t agree with you, leave it alone.? Good advice for all of us.
One last word about the PD. What I really like about the PD philosophy is trying to image the food and lifestyle of our ancestors. No one can doubt the vitality of these primate people nor that our modern food and lifestyle is not working for many of us. The PD has come a long way from its original form and the lifestyle of our ancestors might hold the key to functional longevity and a sane habitation of our planet.
Sorry, but the 55 Theses are a total grind, but if you live a longer functional life, you will have the time! The author of the 55 Theses is Rob Paterson who maintains a website called Missing Human Manual. Give yourself a few days to read the material. It will be a wild ride. I guarantee it!
The secret of a tasty custard is fresh spices. I really like the organic spices from Mountain Rose Herbs. I always tried to use whole spices and grind them with a mortar and pestle just before use. I keep fresh ginger in the freezer and grate as needed. Since I am using organic ginger I grate skin and all. Sweet potatoes and yams are naturally very sweet and need very little sweetener to make a delicious dessert. This recipe is NOT safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. This might be a good recipe to try during the reintroduction phase or replace the sweet potato with fresh whole pumpkin.
3c organic sweet potato or yam, pre-cooked by baking, and skinned
4-5 pastured eggs
1/4-1/3 raw local honey, adjust to sweetness of the sweet potato or yam
pinch of sea salt
2tsp organic ground cinnamon
2tsp organic ginger, freshly grated
1tsp organic allspice, freshly ground
1tsp organic cloves, freshly ground
1/2c whole organic cream (optional)
In a food processor, smooth out the sweet potato or yam into a paste. Add eggs, honey, sea salt and spices and taste for sweetness. Add extra honey if needed, but remember the custard will become sweeter after cooking. Add cream to smooth out the paste. It should be thick and creamy. Fill 6-8 oven safe glass custard cups and place into a large glass baking dish filled with warm water. Cook at 325F for 45 minutes until custard is slightly browned. Cool in the fridge and serve with fresh whipping cream.
This Pumpkin Custard is topped with an obscene amount of whipped cream, drizzled with bitter chocolate.
I wanted to share the menu I used for Christmas Dinner, but the menu would be good for any holiday dinner. All the ingredients came from organic sources. I have found a new source for organic herbs and spices, mountainroseherbs.com. I was very impressed with the freshness and quality.
This meal was fairly easy to prepare and took about four hours. I usually bake my desserts the day before a special dinner. If I do not have time, I will complete the desserts in the morning so the desserts have time to cool in the fridge before serving. I make the stuffing well in advance, so the flavors can meld together. I cut up all of my vegetables well in advance and set the vegetables aside for later use. I let the roast sit on the counter, seasoned, until I am ready to start my final preparations.
The meal was delicious. We made it to the first dessert with the ice wine but could not get down another bite. This meal served six but could easily have served eight people.
Main Course
Roasted Grass-fed Lamb with sea salt, fresh rosemary and whole garlic heads
Spicy Yam and Sweet Potato Fries Savory Nut Stuffing
Vegetable Medley with Raw Cheese
Homemade Red Wine
Roasted Grass-fed Lamb
Our lamb came from Jocko Creek Ranch. Shaen and Joe slaughtered and wrapped the lamb earlier in December. We used the leg for Christmas dinner.
5 pound grass-fed lamb leg
2 cloves garlic, sliced thin
1tsp unrefined sea salt
1 sprig fresh rosemary, from my indoor herb garden
1-2 garlic heads, in their skins
Allow the grass-fed meat to sit in the fridge for a few days before cooking for best results. The morning of the meal, remove the lamb leg from the fridge and place on the counter to warm to room temperature. Make small incisions into the leg to place the slices of garlic. Place the sprig of fresh rosemary under the leg of lamb. Sprinkle the unrefined sea salt on top. When ready to cook, place the meat thermometer into the leg. Cook at 325F until the meat gets to 120F. Remove from oven and let rest for 5-10 minutes. The meat will continue to cook and the temperature will rise. Peel the garlic cloves and serve with the meat. Slice the meat and serve immediately.
Spicy Yam and Sweet Potato Fries
This recipe is based on a recipe from mountainroseherbs.com. This recipe is NOT safe for someone on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, but might be a good recipe to try during the reintroduction phase.
1 large organic sweet potato
1 large organic yam
1tsp cumin seeds, freshly ground
1tsp paprika
1tsp sea salt
1T organic extra virgin olive oil (optional)
3T pastured pork fat
Heat oven to 325F. Cut sweet potato and yam into French fries or wedges. In a large bowl mix the spices, sea salt and fat together. Add the cut tubers to the spice mixture and toss well. If you are using fats you may have to use your hand to get the mixture to cover the tubers evenly. Spread evenly over a glass oven pan and bake for 30 minutes until tender and lightly browned.
Vegetable Medley with Raw Cheese
1/8c organic butter
1c organic onion, cut into rings
1c fresh organic mushrooms, whole
1/2c dried morels, crumbled (optional)
1c organic Brussel sprouts, cut in half
1c organic carrots, cut into wedges and julienned
1c organic broccoli flowers, cut into small pieces
some bone broth, juice from roasted meat or red wine
2c raw organic cheese, grated
1/2c organic parsley, chopped finely
This should be the last dish prepared before serving dinner. Have all the vegetables cut and ready for cooking. When the roast is ready, heat the butter in a large cast iron frying pan. Saute the onions and mushrooms until soft. Use a bit of bone broth or the juice from the roasted meat to avoid sticking. Add the Brussel sprouts, carrots, and broccoli. Cook until vegetables are just tender. Stir well and top with raw cheese and parsley. I used Gort’s Gouda for the raw cheese. Slightly heat the cheese and serve.
Pumpkin Custard
I remember the first time I had pumpkin “pie” using whole pumpkin instead of canned pumpkin. I was surprised at the flavor of real pumpkin. The canned pumpkin I used to buy, had “pumpkin” as the only ingredient, but the canned pumpkin had a sweet and slightly spicy flavor. It was then I realized labeling laws are deceptive and allow for the addition of sugar and spices to some given percentage without having to include this information in the ingredient list. I started distrusting labeling. Nevertheless, I would never go back to making pumpkin-based desserts with anything but whole pumpkin. The end product tastes so delicious.
The secret of great pumpkin pie is fresh spices and using a sweet “pie” pumpkin. I always use whole spices and grind them with a mortar and pestle just before use. I keep fresh ginger in the freezer and grate as needed. Since I am using organic ginger I grate skin and all.
1 small organic sweet pumpkin, pre-cooked by baking or steaming, skinned
1/4-1/3 raw local honey, adjust to sweetness of pumpkin
pinch of sea salt
1tsp organic cinnamon
1tsp organic ginger, freshly grated
1/2tsp organic allspice, freshly ground
1/2tsp organic cloves, freshly ground
1/2c whole organic cream, or more
1T Brandy (optional)
In a food processor, smooth out the pumpkin into a paste. Add honey, sea salt and spices and taste for sweetness. Add extra honey if needed, but remember the pie will become sweeter after cooking. Add cream to smooth out the paste. It should be thick but not stiff. Fill 6-8 oven safe glass custard cups and place into a large glass baking dish filled with warm water. Cook at 325F for 30-45 minutes until custard is slightly browned. Cool in the fridge and serve with fresh whipping cream.
