Like most Englishmen, I do enjoy a few rashers of good bacon for my breakfast. It constitutes a major part of what has become known as a 'Full English'.
Here in France bacon comes in many guises; my favourite being this one below.
It can come 'vacuumed' into packs of four thick slices. It can also come in the form of packaged thin slices of 'ham', but given the name 'bacon'. And it can come as a lump of smoked belly pork (poitrine fumée) which is how I tend to buy it; in slices. However it comes, I always try to buy it 'smoked'. Look at that lovely smoky colour.
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Bacon is child's play to make. I have made it myself many times (see below), and it involves just a lump of thin-end belly pork, salt pepper and sugar; I have never smoked it myself. It is ready to eat, or leave to dry, after just four days. There is no need for any chemicals, or injections of water; just basic ingredients and a short amount of time.
Like good sausages, bacon should be simple, not produce 'goo' when fried, and it should taste like an old fashioned country kitchen.
Incidentally; my home-made bacon above is just as good eaten raw (like Parma Ham) as it is fried for breakfast.
p.s. If you are interested, my detailed recipe for bacon can be found by typing 'home cured bacon' in the white search strip, top left.
Bacon here produces fat in the pan when frying, but I've never seen any other kind of "goo". I remember my mother always saving the rendered fat in a tin separate from the other "dripping" tin, and the bacon flavoured fat was used to fry eggs.
ReplyDeleteYou'd be amazed by some of the white goo that comes from some bacon as it's being fried, it really puts you off.
DeleteI hope to never see it.
DeleteI just read about your home cured bacon and am curious about the "cold" smoke method, how is this done?
ReplyDeleteWith cold smoking the fire that creates the smoke needs to be away from what it being smoked, with the smoke travelling along a pipe of some sort. The idea is that no heat gets into the smoke house; just the smoke.
DeleteThe smell of bacon cooking always leaves me feeling ravenous, even if I have only just eaten.
ReplyDeleteIt tempts even the strictest of Rabbis.
DeleteI have never heard of home cured bacon. Here we have an old fashioned butcher who cures his hams and bacon the old fashioned way though, and it cannot be denied that a Coffaro slab of bacon, hands down, beats anything in the grocery store.
ReplyDeleteI used to do my own whole Hams. We'd buy half a Pig from a neighbour and make everything imaginable. I still do Paté every year, but the rest I now buy (apart from the occasional slab of Bacon).
DeleteOh that bacon looks good. It's all very thin here. None of that thick fatty stuff.
ReplyDeleteAnd it tastes just like you'd hope it would taste. Really delicious.
DeleteMy favourite bacon is smoked streaky so your photo looks ideal.
ReplyDeleteThat's exactly what it is. Smoked streaky.
DeleteOur bacon is mostly thin and greasy. It's often cooked in the frying pan, grease drained and cooked some more until it is crispy. The only way I enjoy crispy bacon is on a bacon, lettuce and tomato (BLT) sandwich toasted with mayo. Your thick bacon looks very good. If I look around, I can find Canadian Bacon and it is thicker. I'm not a big fan of bacon and only eat BLT when fresh toms are available.
ReplyDeleteI really like Bacon sandwiches; in fact I think that's what I'll have for my breakfast.
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