To Cure Bacon for Larding
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the bacon
Rub the bacon well with the coarse sea salt.
If the bacon is in one piece, lay it on a board and place another board on top.
If in multiple pieces, place each piece on a board with a weight on top.
Keep it in a cool place for 4 to 5 weeks.
Dry the bacon
After curing, hang the bacon to dry, but do not smoke it.
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
- Fat and meat that become the larding strips, flavored and firmed by the curing process.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, firming it and helping preserve it during curing.
The step that matters
Keeping the bacon weighted during curing. Pressing the bacon flat with boards or weights keeps it even and dense, and helps the salt penetrate and draw out moisture uniformly, so the cure is consistent.
“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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