To Fait Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pig
Cut off the head and hara of the pig.
If the pig is large, cut out the chine but leave the spare ribs.
Rub the pig with common salt and a little saltpetre.
Cure
Let it lie for 10 days on a table to drain brine.
Salt it again for 10-12 days.
Turn it daily after the second salting.
Finish and dry
Scrape it clean.
Rub it with a little dry salt.
Hang it up to dry.
Scrape off any white froth caused by the salt.
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
- Pig
- Provides the meat and fat that become the bacon.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives it a characteristic pink colour.
The step that matters
Turning the pig daily during the second salting. Salt and brine must reach all parts of the meat evenly. Turning it each day keeps the cure distributed, so no area is left under-salted, which would allow spoilage.
“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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