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Bacon

Grumpy Old Lemons Like You
Mike4
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Bacon

#437465

Postby Mike4 » August 26th, 2021, 12:20 am

Right, this has been winding me up for DECADES. When I fry some bacon WHY does each rasher shrink to 25% of its uncooked size?

Ok I know the technical reason, that it is pumped full of 75% water or some such proportion, but WHY?

Why not just sell bacon that stays the same size as it will end up, like we did when I was a brat? Why try to con us all?

Rant over.....

Itsallaguess
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Re: Bacon

#437481

Postby Itsallaguess » August 26th, 2021, 6:45 am

Mike4 wrote:
Right, this has been winding me up for DECADES. When I fry some bacon WHY does each rasher shrink to 25% of its uncooked size?

Ok I know the technical reason, that it is pumped full of 75% water or some such proportion, but WHY?

Why not just sell bacon that stays the same size as it will end up, like we did when I was a brat?

Why try to con us all?


It's pound-shop economics, and it's done for the simple reason that selling you some weight in water is cheaper for the manufacturer than selling you the same weight in actual bacon...

Like pound-shop economics, you're buying bacon on price, and not quality, and the only way to solve your problem is to avoid doing that, and to buy better bacon...

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

Gersemi
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Re: Bacon

#437504

Postby Gersemi » August 26th, 2021, 9:04 am

Mike4 wrote:Right, this has been winding me up for DECADES. When I fry some bacon WHY does each rasher shrink to 25% of its uncooked size?

Ok I know the technical reason, that it is pumped full of 75% water or some such proportion, but WHY?

Why not just sell bacon that stays the same size as it will end up, like we did when I was a brat? Why try to con us all?

Rant over.....


This doesn't happen (or not nearly to the same extent) when I buy bacon from my local butchers.

pje16
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Re: Bacon

#437507

Postby pje16 » August 26th, 2021, 9:19 am


Dod101
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Re: Bacon

#437510

Postby Dod101 » August 26th, 2021, 9:29 am

Gersemi wrote:
Mike4 wrote:Right, this has been winding me up for DECADES. When I fry some bacon WHY does each rasher shrink to 25% of its uncooked size?

Ok I know the technical reason, that it is pumped full of 75% water or some such proportion, but WHY?

Why not just sell bacon that stays the same size as it will end up, like we did when I was a brat? Why try to con us all?

Rant over.....


This doesn't happen (or not nearly to the same extent) when I buy bacon from my local butchers.


I was about to say the same but now remember that his is 'dry cured' which I guess explains why it has little or no water in it. I do not understand how bacon is cured anyway and dry cured bacon has an entirely different flavour.

Can someone explain?

Dod

pje16
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Re: Bacon

#437517

Postby pje16 » August 26th, 2021, 9:43 am

Cured bacon is treated with salt and nitrites to preserve flavor and color
After 7 days, inspect your bacon. It should be firm to the touch all over, like touching a cooked steak - a sign that it has been cured
Last edited by pje16 on August 26th, 2021, 9:44 am, edited 1 time in total.

mc2fool
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Re: Bacon

#437518

Postby mc2fool » August 26th, 2021, 9:43 am


Dod101
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Re: Bacon

#437539

Postby Dod101 » August 26th, 2021, 10:32 am



Thanks. Now I know why when I buy bacon from the Co op I end up with it 'frying' in a pan of water. The butcher (next door) does his dry cured, and is a great old style butcher.

I guess Mike4 also has his answer.

Dod

fisher
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Re: Bacon

#437542

Postby fisher » August 26th, 2021, 10:48 am

I always buy dry cured bacon now for that reason. It's not that much more expensive and it is much more pleasant to fry imho. You can get it easily in the big supermarkets as well as your local butcher.

didds
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Re: Bacon

#438701

Postby didds » August 31st, 2021, 4:10 pm

Dod101 wrote:I was about to say the same but now remember that his is 'dry cured' which I guess explains why it has little or no water in it. I do not understand how bacon is cured anyway and dry cured bacon has an entirely different flavour.


its really very simple as it happens.

All this my expereince and opinion. Other's MMV.

Dry cure:
a mix of rock/sea salt (not table salt - it allegedlyhas iodine in it which doesnt work properly etc), sugar and saltpetre. Contrary to popular belief saltpetre is purchasable though probely noty ina supermarket :-) The saltpetre just retains the bacon's pinkness when cooked (doesnt go grey) so ifcan be omitted

take a slab of belly pork (ie not sliced into "chops" though that would still work, its just not easily slcieable when cured.) Rub slab all over with mixture, lay in a non reactive container, put in the fridge. Drain the "juice!" off regularly, and rerub every couple of days. Proceed until no more "juice" is extracted.

Run the slab very lightly under a tap to wash the excess rub off.

Return to fridge for a week, to dry out fully - it will become "rubbery".

Slice and eat!

Wet cure
Create a brine of sea/rock salt, sugar, saltpetre and anything else you fancy - honey, molasses, etc if yiou wish.
Sink slab of belly pork into the brine so its covered. Leave for a week or so.
Hang slab to drip and dry in a cool, fly free area.

Slice and eat.

IME the wet cure can create sweeter falvours because if the includion of honey or whatever, but the saltiness may be very strong - mmuch stronger salty flavour than dry cure. If that the case you may wish to soak your slices overnight before eating etc.

Enjoy!

kempiejon
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Re: Bacon

#438716

Postby kempiejon » August 31st, 2021, 5:18 pm

A few years back I was a keen curer of meats. I think this is the cure I used for belly pork https://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/bacon-c ... bacon.html
I've a variation of the more usual methods as didds explained. I'd take my cut of pork belly and trim the skin off but leave as much fat as possible, weigh the joint and calculate the cure mix needed then rub the cure and any extras I added - like juniper berries and brown sugar - into the pork. I have a vacuum sealer so I'd then add my meat and cure into a plastic sleeve and seal. About a week take out the fridge, cut the sealed bag, pour away the juice and rinse off any cure, I used to dry for about a week hanging in a camping larder in the garage.

I tried curing duck breast and pork loin but as the process takes out moisture and so shrinks the joint and both of those ended up a bit small, pork belly was easy.

didds
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Re: Bacon

#438725

Postby didds » August 31st, 2021, 6:18 pm

kempiejon wrote:I tried curing duck breast and pork loin but as the process takes out moisture and so shrinks the joint and both of those ended up a bit small, pork belly was easy.



Pork belly is also cheaper :-)

didds
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Re: Bacon

#438726

Postby didds » August 31st, 2021, 6:22 pm

slight derail here maybe... back in the day we used tio travel to France a lot, and one could easily get huge bags of sea salt (5kgs?) really cjeaply.

Id get a leg of pork, butterflied by the butcher and bone removed, and sit in on a bed of salt in a suitable container. Then cover the leg in more salt so it was encased.

Leave for a couple or more weeks until the moisture had been drawn out, then hang it in an airy, fly free place for a while. It ended up like "parma ham" - dried, cured, ham.

Slive thinly and eat. Its a LOT of ham - it took me months to get through one :-)

didds

Rhyd6
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Re: Bacon

#442271

Postby Rhyd6 » September 14th, 2021, 6:25 pm

Mike4 may I suggest that you try to lay your hands on Secrets of a Bacon Curer and Confessions of a Bacon Curer both by Maynard Davies who used to have a shop near Whitchurch selling the most wonderful bacon. We have been curing/smoking our own bacon for years now following his advice and recispes. When we first started doing this Maynard was still in business and we used to take samples down to him for his opinion. The greatest accolade was when he announced "that's a grand piece of bacon I'd be proud to calim that".

R6


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