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blackgang

Damned if I didn't do it again.
Got up this morning at 0530 and went into the kitchen and took 8 kg of pork bellies out of the fridge, trimmed them and rubbed them with cure [Morton's Tender quick] and brown sugar and put them in bags and back in the fridge for a week.
And forgot all about pix of the process, but I will remember and take some when they come out of the cure and be rinsed and put in the smoker for the final act of Makin Bacon.

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CSFFan

Ya fooking tease!!!! Bastard scum!

Looking forward to it

Jet Gorgon

Made me hungry. Just took out some Canadian back bacon for a sandwich. Geez, you're wrecking my diet and meal times, BG.

blackgang

no back bacon this time, just cured and smoked Pork Bellys, but maybe some canadian bacon soon.

peterpan

I wonder why Thai Bacon is so crap ? its fat to meat ratio is way too high, it doesn't crisp up when its fried and seems to be short on flavour.

melvbot

I think a lot of the Thai/farang produced bacon here is done by injecting the cure into the meat to speed the process up for a quick turnaround. This leaves it heavier as the cure/liquid is still heavily present in the end product. Also a lot of the bacon here gives off a white residue which is also to do with a quicker curing process I think.

I did a quick experiment 6 months back with a piece of pork belly, just salt and sugar as a dry cure, did it for 2 or so days, it didnt taste very bacon like but was still OK to eat as a salty pork dish.

blackgang

It is about the same in the USA as well, some is better than others and at home where I was raised and a few relatives that I have left do get decent slab bacon that is made by some of the shops and the slaughter house.
But most "BACON" is just as Melvbot said, it is injected with cure and smoke flavor and never sees a smokehouse and will turn slick and green in your reefer in a week., but does not come out as salty as real bacon does and people are used to eating it and have never seen any real bacon, so they just do not know.
I will wash this I have in the cure now, maybe even soak in warm water for a little while, but I used a TBL spoon of cure per pound of meat and then a good cup of brown sugar rubbed into it as well, the cure is 5% Nitrate and Nitrite, sugar and salt, and will take a week to cure and it might be to much fat as the hogs here are not a bacon breed but meat hogs from what I have seen.

blackgang

blackgang

Don't look like to much fat in this end shot.. hope it is good,, now I put it back in the fridge.

sabang

Helluva Issue their BG.

Texpat

Ummmm pork and bacon sandwich, on Jewish rye.

Yum.

blackgang

Yea, that be kosher alright, and wash it down with some Maddog 20/20..

spiff

Same as the Danish bacon they have in the UK: added liquid for weight.
Just gotta fry it longer, but it shrinks to less than half the size.

melvbot

The local butcher in the UK has been making a comeback over the last few years in the smaller towns. Farmers markets have also been a success as more people buy locally produced food. The bacon/steaks/pies in our local butchers are far superior to anything from the supermarkets.

Ive always preferred home made or locally produced food but back in the early 90's all the butchers in our village/town closed down due to the rash of big supermarkets that opened. Slowly but surely theyre making a comeback with farm shops and the like.

Im a big advocate of making your own stuff wherever you can, you control what goes in and the quality to a certain extent.

Happyman

Intermission

Not co I'm bored but thought you might like bacon memories from rural and industrial UK!

Bacon memories!

No 1

When I was a kid grandmother used to rub a side of pig with salt and mashed up wild strawberries!!- (don't know if it was for the sugar or acid content) - cover it with damp cheesecloth and leave in on a stone slab in the larder for a few days .

It would then be taken out and hung inside the chimney !!
We had a peat fire burning 24/7/365 and the chimney was about 8 ft wide with a smoking niche in the back. After a few days it was taken out and put back in the larder . No fridge but the house was solid granite blocks about 3 ft thick and always cool.
At Breakfast time she would go in with a HUGE knife ( well it seemed to me [at] age 4!) and come out with a lump that she proceeded to slice up .

No.2

When I was married I had a 150 year old house in Wolverhampton that I completely renovated .
Big problem was there was a patch on the wall in the walk-in cupboard under the stairs that just would not keep paint on it !

Talking to my elderly neighbour about it all was revealed !!!

All the houses in the street had a range of outbuildings including mine and one was a pig sty ( my workshop) and everyone kept a pig .
Every Autumn the "pig man" used to come around and slaughter the pigs ( blood was saved for black pudding).
The head was left - to make brawn - the intestines for chitlings - the offal for a fry-up and the front legs for roasting .
A week or so later he would return and each house would get two sides of salted and smoked bacon which were hung on a nail inside the cupboard!

The salt had leached out over the years into the bricks and that was the problem.
The old lady next door had a patch the same on her living room wall exactly in line with my cupboard - the salt had gone through the width of two bricks !

Dry Lined the wall and problem solved !

Reading the thread brought memories to the surface and I thought I would share them !!

Cheers

Jet Gorgon

Get alot like that in Canada, too. Maple cured is best, but the cheaper Thai-like rashers are the same. Shrink into curled toes just to get them crispy.

Have a butcher not far who has the best meat. His fam has been there for years. Hope they don't shut down. I guess I'm Thai conditioned -- wet market for fruit, veg, meat, super for dry stuff. I never minded shopping around, mostly coz I hate full-on air-con and the food at Tesco was shite, IMO.

Happyman

This thread got me thinking BACON ( not had any for months) so went and got some from TOPS- big thick back rashers !!

Tasted ok but, as noted in a previous post, there was a layer of snotty white slime in the pan afterwards!! It must have been pumped full of chemicals and 'flavour enhancers' !
When I went to wash up - pan was cold by then - the muck had set like Chinese lacquer and was a bugger to get off !!

Don't know what the stuff was but waiting for tonight to see if I glow in the dark !!!

melvbot

Mass produced bacon is wet cured in a solution which is usually injected and leaves the bacon heavier per slice so you get less for your money. Its full of water which is why it shrinks to about half its size after cooking and leaves the residue which is the salts etc from the wet cure.

Dry cured bacon on the other hand is made like BG does, covered in a dry cure of salt/sugar/nitrites to leech the fluid out of the meat to cure it. It takes longer but tastes better.

blackgang

Yep, bags got a lot of liguid in them when I turned them this morning, so it is working.
But right now I have a piece of my home made dry rubbed corned beef in the water cooking, so will have corned beef and cabbage for supper.

Had kick ass good Argentine Angus 21 day aged Striploin steaks last night,, wish had bought 6 strips instead of 3.

Happyman

^^^^^

In case you wondered what happened to the back legs the 'pig man ' kept them and turned them into ham for sale in his shop which was his 'fee' for killing the pigs and baconising the sides he brought back !