Cobbett's Recipe for Curing Bacon
Ingredients
Directions
Salt
Rub the inside of the pork flitches with coarse sea salt.
Stack the flitches flesh sides together in a salting trough with a gutter to drain brine.
Cure
Change the salt every four to five days to ensure the meat is not sitting in brine.
Rotate the flitches, placing the one that was on top to the bottom.
Continue this process for about six weeks, depending on the thickness of the flitches and the weather.
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
- Flitches of pork
- The main cut being cured; its thickness sets how long the curing takes.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat while it cures.
The step that matters
Changing the salt every four to five days. Salt draws water out of the meat and mixes it into brine. If the meat sits in that brine, it can become waterlogged and cure unevenly, so fresh dry salt keeps the curing even.
“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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