Curing of Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pig
Fast the pig for 24 hours before slaughtering.
Hang the pig by the hind legs, singe, scrape, and cleanse it.
Once cool and firm, bone or cut up the carcass.
Cure the pork
Lay each side of pork on the floor of a cool cellar.
Dress each side with 4 ounces of saltpetre and enough salt to cover.
Force brine into the flesh using a pump.
Stack the sides for four days, then turn and sprinkle with more salt.
After 12 days, wash and dry the sides.
Smoke
Hang the sides in a smoking house for three days, continuously smoking them.
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
- Pork sides
- The main meat; curing and smoking transform this fatty cut into bacon.
- Saltpetre (nitrate of potash)
- Helps preserve the meat and gives cured pork its characteristic pink colour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while inhibiting spoilage bacteria.
The step that matters
Dressing and turning the sides in cure. Salt and saltpetre must reach every part of the meat evenly, since the cure draws out moisture and preserves the flesh. Uneven coverage or skipped turning can leave spoiled or unevenly cured spots.
“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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