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Westphalia Bacon

A cured pork product preserved in a salt and sugar solution, then dried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Westphalia Bacon

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pickle

  1. Boil all ingredients together until well mixed.

  2. Let the mixture cool completely.

Cure and dry

  1. Submerge the pork in the cooled pickle for 14 days.

  2. After 14 days, remove the pork and dry it over sawdust.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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

Coarse sea salt
Draws water out of the pork and seasons it, helping preserve the meat.
Saltpetre
Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and gives it a rosy colour.
Coarse sugar
Balances the sharpness of the salt and adds mild sweetness to the cure.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool completely before submerging the pork. Adding the pork to a hot pickle can partly cook its surface and cure it unevenly, while a cool brine penetrates gradually and keeps the meat safer during the long 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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