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To Cure English Bacon

A method for curing a hog into bacon using salt, saltpetre, and sugar, then smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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To Cure English Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the hog

  1. Dress and cool the hog.

  2. Cut the hog into proper pieces.

Cure the meat

  1. For every 100 pounds of meat, mix 4 quarts of coarse sea salt, ¼ pound of saltpetre, and 4 pounds of sugar.

  2. Rub the mixture thoroughly over and into each piece of meat.

  3. Place the pieces into a tight tub or suitable cask.

  4. Baste the meat with the brine that forms from the juices.

  5. Turn each piece each time.

Smoke

  1. Smoke the bacon using black birch chips for the best flavor, or hickory if birch is unavailable.

  2. Smoke for 3 weeks to 1 month.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve the cut.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and keeps its pink color during curing.
Sugar
Balances the salt and adds sweetness while helping the cure stay mild.

The step that matters

Turning each piece each time. Curing relies on the salt mixture and brine reaching every part of the meat evenly. Skipping turns lets some areas cure too little, leaving them unevenly preserved and possibly spoiled.

“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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