Smoking Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Before hanging, cover the flesh side with bran or sawdust to create a crust.
Hang the flitch in a dry place, away from rain.
Smoke
Ensure the smoke comes from wood, not peat or coal.
Smoke for about a month with a constant fire.
In a box or chest, layer wood ashes and place the flitch inside, covering it with more ashes.
Keep the box in a dry place and dry any damp ashes before replacing.
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
- Bacon flitch
- Provides the meat that the smoke and crust act on, becoming cured and flavoured through the month of smoking.
- Bran or sawdust
- Forms a dry coating on the flesh side that helps create a crust during smoking.
- Wood ashes
- Packs around the flitch in the box so it is held and kept in contact with the smoke.
The step that matters
Keeping the ashes dry. Damp ashes can let moisture reach the meat and encourage spoilage, so any damp ashes should be dried before they are replaced around the flitch during the long smoking period.
“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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