French Bacon for Larding
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Cut the bacon from the pig, leaving as little lean as possible.
Rub the bacon thoroughly with dried, powdered, and sifted salt.
Layer the bacon in a shallow wooden trough and set it in a cool, dry cellar.
Add more salt around the bacon and place a board with a heavy weight on top.
Let it cure for six weeks.
Dry
After six weeks, hang the bacon in a dry, 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.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Pork
- Forms the bacon cut that is cured and later used for larding.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat during the long cure.
The step that matters
Rubbing in the salt thoroughly. Salt must reach every part of the meat to cure it evenly. Missed areas can spoil or stay unpreserved during the long cure, while the heavy weight keeps the layers pressed so brine and salt stay in contact with the meat.
“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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