Companionable bacon home smoking. The old fashioned way.
The Chicken Lady answered my tom-tom invitation to share our chimney and indulge in a bit of home smoking last night. She arrived with her husband S and a large joint of wet cured belly of pork wrapped in an old red muslin curtain. “I did wash it and loads of red dye came out. Perhaps it will stain the pork pink and get over the problem of not using saltpetre.” I was regretting not using saltpetre on my loin of pork, wanting a good pink colour but had convinced myself that it was good to try different cures. TCL had used a brine...
read moreHow did our first home cured bacon turn out?
This morning we decided to taste some of our bacon. We made it with Boston Baked Beans in mind but there was a bit too much for the recipe so why not test it out for breakfast? This little 600g belly of pork joint had been loved and cherished for three days. It had even hung in the Inglenook chimney, over the warmth and smoke of its very own log fire. When I stood inside the sturdy hood and reached up for it the next morning, the pork had a deep smoky smell. I popped it in the fridge in an airtight container. Slicing my own bacon this morning...
read moreHow to home cure streaky bacon. Making bacon at home
Fred measured the white powder out carefully. “You do know that it’s generally illegal to supply this now?” I didn’t but I nodded anyway as he tried to unglue the furred up spout of the salt carton. Impatient, he sliced the entire top off with his knife. Stunning Three Musketeers swordsmanship. He added the salt to the bag and shook the crystals together. He was mixing sodium nitrate (saltpetre) with salt as I was going to make my own salt pork for the very first time. “You could make salt pork but you could also...
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