French Bacon for Larding
Ingredients
Directions
Cut the bacon from the pig with as little lean to it as possible.
Rub it well in every part with salt which has been dried, reduced to powder, and sifted.
Put the layers of bacon close against and upon each other, in a shallow wooden trough, and set in a cool, but not a damp cellar.
Add more salt all round the bacon, and lay a board, with a very heavy weight upon it.
Let it remain for six weeks, then hang it up in a dry and airy place.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Salt
- Draws moisture out of the bacon and preserves it during the long cure.
The step that matters
Rubbing and layering the salt. Salt must reach every part of the bacon and be packed evenly, because uneven coverage leaves spots that spoil. Salt draws out moisture and slows bacterial growth, so thorough coverage matters over the six-week 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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