Bacon and Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Feed the pig with surplus milk and barley meal to fatten it.
Cut the pig differently from a regular porker, removing the chine or backbone.
Salt the sides for bacon and decide whether to leave the spare rib attached.
Cut off the hind leg for ham and cure it separately.
Put aside inner fat for lard and trim pieces for sausages or pork pies.
Sprinkle a little salt over the cut meat and hang it in a cool place for 1-2 days to drain blood before curing.
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, fat and cuts for bacon, ham, lard and sausages.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and blood and preserves the cut meat before curing.
- Barley meal
- Feed that fattens the pig, adding richness to its fat.
The step that matters
Draining blood before curing. Hanging the salted meat in a cool place for 1-2 days lets blood drain out before curing. Leftover blood can spoil the meat and affect how evenly the cure penetrates.
“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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