To Cure a Smaller Quantity of Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Mix the salt and saltpetre together thoroughly.
Rub the mixture into each ham.
Pack the hams skin side down in a clean tub.
Let them cure for 6 weeks.
Smoke
After curing, hang the hams up and smoke for 6 weeks.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Hams
- Provide the meat that is cured, drawing salt in and developing flavour and texture over time.
- Fine salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it by slowing bacterial growth.
- Saltpetre
- Converts to nitrite during curing, helping preserve the meat and giving it a pink colour.
The step that matters
Rub the mixture into each ham. Salt penetrates meat slowly, so the cure must be spread evenly over every surface, including thick areas and near the bone. Missed spots can stay unprotected and spoil during the long cure.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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