Excellent Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hog
Divide the hog and remove the chine.
Leave the spare ribs on for better preservation.
Cure
Salt the bacon for six days.
Drain the bacon from the first pickle.
Mix the salt, saltpetre, and sugar together.
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
- Hog
- The pork belly and back cuts that become the bacon once cured.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while seasoning it throughout.
- Saltpetre
- Acts as a curing agent that preserves the meat and helps it keep a pink colour.
- Sugar
- Balances the harshness of the salt and mellows the flavour of the cured meat.
The step that matters
Salt the bacon for six days. The salt and cure must penetrate evenly. Salt draws out moisture and slows bacterial growth, so uneven coverage can leave spoilage-prone areas and an inconsistent 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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