![]() Place the meat in the curing container(s). Mix this curing blend until it is uniform. Prepare, calculate, and measure the required amount of curing mixture for each container. (Any plastic food container with a tight-fitting lid - or a strong plastic bag - will work as a curing container.) Refrigerate the meat while preparing the cure mix. If you are using more than one curing container, calculate separately the total weight of the meat you will place in each container. If the meat is more than about 2 inches (5 cm) thick, the curing time will be excessive Blending and applying the curing blend: The width and length are not important, but the hunks or slabs of pork need to be small enough to fit in the curing containers and smoker. In all cases, however, the meat should not be more than about 2 inches (5 cm) thick. If you wish to make British-style back bacon, use the same cut of meat that is used for ham, or use sirloin or loin. ![]() There are many good reasons why making your own bacon is worth doing and the latest health advice just adds to them.For the kind of bacon popular in the United States, use pork belly. Top-quality pork loin can be bought for £6 a kilo - even when you factor in the cost of salt, maple syrup and a bit of moisture loss, it's much cheaper. Lastly, good-quality dry-cured bacon can cost up to £24 per kilo. They are thicker than any pre-sliced bacon and the result is a salty sweet tingle to the gums. Even though each bowl of chowder contains just five batons of bacon, they make a big impact. Although the boneless loin used in this recipe is not unusual, it's part of this whole process.Ī second reason for reviving small production techniques is that they produce ingredients that taste better than anything made in a factory, where additives to lengthen the shelf life as well as the quality of produce affects the flavour. The third reason I chose to go down this path was because it meant I was cooking with different - and I think better - ingredients than other restaurants. When you're dealing with an entire carcass, you've got to grapple with some of the more unusual cuts: the cheeks are great in a long, slow braise, the hands and knuckles make gelatinous terrines, and even the blood is used for black pudding. It all springs from the fact we are surrounded by good farms - as a result, we started to buy whole animals, including pigs. This week, I tried to think back to why we started making a lot of our own products and so developed a reputation for reviving artisan food techniques. All I can say is that it's so delicious that if it's wrong then I don't want to be right. I don't like to make health claims about food as I think good eating is common sense. The texture is firm, with none of the wetness you find in factory-made bacon. My home-cured bacon can be thick sliced or thin, and it tastes of pork but with a perfect sweet-salty balance. People sometimes ask why I bother to make my own bacon: once they taste it, they understand. Our turnover means it never hangs around for long, so we don't use any preservatives apart from salt and syrup. I have been making bacon at The Sportsman for about 12 years and I have never used nitrates. ![]() ![]() The purpose of the salt is to extend shelf life, to give the meat a rosy-pink hue and to prevent bacterial growth. This is a bright pink slat added to the brine in the case of a wet cure and added dry in the process of making dry cured bacon. As far as I can make out, the problem comes with the addition of nitrate salt in the curing process. ![]() Formula for the perfect bacon sandwich revealedīut don't banish bacon too hastily.Crisp rashers between two slices of heavily buttered bread and a smear of ketchup is our real contribution to gastronomy. The idea of not eating bacon is unthinkable - many a vegetarian has turned back to the dark side by the smell of a bacon sandwich, which I would also argue is Britain's true national dish. These are worrying times for lovers of green back, smoked and streaky. Last month, the World Health Organisation published a report classifying processed meat (which includes bacon, sausages and ham) as "carcinogenic to humans" - the highest ranking, shared with alcohol, asbestos, arsenic and cigarettes. Bacon has been all over the news lately and I defy anyone not to be a little concerned. ![]()
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