Simple Curing of Bacon Sides
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the area
Ensure the bacon is fresh and chilled.
Freshen the air in the curing area and ensure the floor is clean.
Soak the floor with brine and cover it with a layer of dry salt.
Pump and dust
Pump the bacon sides with the pickle made from salt, saltpetre, dry antiseptic, sugar, and water.
Pump the pickle into the sides at fourteen different places.
Dust the sides with a mixture of dry antiseptic and saltpetre, then cover with salt.
Cure and finish
Allow the bacon to cure for 12 to 14 days, or up to 21 days for long-term storage.
After curing, wash the bacon and prepare it as desired (pale-dried or smoked).
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 out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Curing agent that helps give cured bacon its pink color and characteristic flavor.
- Pure cane sugar
- Balances the sharpness of the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cured meat.
The step that matters
Pumping the pickle at fourteen places. Brine must reach evenly throughout the sides. Spreading injection points distributes the cure so no pocket of meat is left under-salted, which is where spoilage can start 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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