I'm on a bit of a diet at the moment; no wine (almost), and hardly any pukka breakfasts. Thankfully my son, Kimbo, joins me every Friday morning for a 'sorting-out-the-world-full-English'. And it always gets me dreaming about proper BACON.
Bacon is a thorny subject in England; much as Haggis is in Scotland.
Generally, and I mean GENERALLY, English Bacon isn't as good as it could be. The taste is good, but when you see it frying, you understand at once how it's been made; the QUICK way!
Rather than being salted in the traditional manner, it is injected with a salt/water solution, which cures quickly, then seeps out as 'white gunge' when cooking. OK, it's only salty water (with a few inoffensive chemicals), but it looks horrible.
This bacon below is of my own making, and as long as you have a good supply of Belly Pork, Preserving Coarse Sea Salt, and Sugar, you can have a permanent supply of un-sullied home-made Bacon, that you will never forget.
The process couldn't be simpler. Take a large lump of Belly Pork, preferably from the thin end (no bones), and rub into it a mixture of coarse Sea Salt and Brown Sugar (2 parts Salt, to 1 part Sugar), and plenty of coarse ground Pepper, then lay the whole thing on a layer of the same mix, and cover with yet more. A large clean washing-up bowl is an ideal container.
After 4 days, rub off all the Salt mixture, and dry thoroughly with paper towels. Then hang somewhere 'airy' in a muslin bag (below) for a while (a large French inglenook fireplace is ideal), until you can wait no longer.
You are now ready to taste the flavour of Real Bacon; Bacon how it always was. The Bacon of our ancestors. The first thing you notice is that no gunge comes from the meat when cooking, the second thing is the taste; delicious. This is the un-smoked Streaky Bacon that the Italians call Pancetta.
Once you have made your first lot, and you see how easy it is, you will also see where you might change things to suit your own taste. The above is the BASIC recipe; added herbs and spices are optional.
2 comments:
We can get pancetta here, uncured, at a very reasonable price. You've mentioned it before and I've thought of making our own. But I probably won't. Bacon here is very thin but we don't eat it very much. It smells the same when I cook it. Delicious! I'll keep your recipe in mind.
In France we buy huge bags of preserving salt. Something unheard of here in the UK.
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