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- Joined
- 28 Dec 2004
- Posts
- 517
- Location
- Bristol
Have you followed Hfw river cottage recipes by any chance? That recipe uses way too much salt for breakfast Bacon in my opinion.
In terms of the pork I try and get the best I can, buying in bulk from the local butcher, however I decided to experiment with cheap loins from Tesco reasoning that if it was rubbish it wasnt going to cost much. If I'm honest- after the curing and smoking process the difference in quality of meat isn't really too noticeable (no where near as much difference as cooking fresh meat) the trick is to be super choosy about the meat to make sure you get stuff that has a fair amount of fat on it. I find that the stuff from the butcher section is better than the vac packed stuff on the shelfs but you,ll have to get the bloke behind the counter to grab a selection of un cut joints from the fridge. normally costs about 4.50 per kg. I always buy the best quality belly though as it seems to make more difference.
regarding recipes the general rule of thumb is 3% salt and half the amount of brown sugar.
for my normal back Bacon- for a 2kg loin I use 70g fine salt (table salt seems to work fine) 35g soft brown sugar, a few springs of fresh tyme and rosemary, 10 juniper berries some crushed black pepper and quarter a tsp of salt petre (use Prague powder no 1 as per instructions if you are concered) rub the mix all over the meat and then wrap in several layers of clingfilm (ensuring all the cure is with the meat) or a zip lock bag and put in fridge on a tray to catch any leaks. turn daily for 10 days. remove from fridge and rinse and dry, then allow it to air dry in a cool place. I wrap it in Muslim and hang in the attic in the winter for 3 to 7 days but its ok in the fridge. its then ready to smoke or slice for unsmoked Bacon. 2kg makes about 50 slices and costs about 9 quid with supermarket loin.
for streaky- cure for 7 days and I use 60g salt and 30 sugar for 2 kg as it seems to absorb more.
I use a proQ cold smoke generator for cold smoking which costs about 30 and is a brilliant tool- I also use it for smoked salmon and cheese. back Bacon wants something like 20hrs of smoking with something lite like Apple wood maybe less with oak.
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it happily cooks in its own fat under the grill and goes nice and crispy if you let it
that said mostly it would be smoked back bacon though I love nothing more than peeling the crispy streaky off a roasted turkey Mmmmmm