The Lemon Fool

I probably don't even need to write this post as you'll all know what I'm going to say. But here goes anyway.

What is it with bacon these days? It looks like normal bacon in the packet but after frying it, it turns into a teenee weenie leetle thing about 4" x 1", about 25% of the area of the rasher you started off with. When I was a kid a bacon butty needed one rasher of bacon per slice of bread, nowadays we need at least four, possibly five.

I know they pump it full of water but its getting out of hand these days. Should I write a tersely worded letter to someone about this?

Have you tried dry cured bacon?
Dod

Dod101 wrote:Have you tried dry cured bacon?
Dod

Yep. Much the same problem, although not as severe.

I've found butchers bacon (in fact any meat) much better than supermarket stuff

I thought bacon wasn't very good for you. Causing cancers and processed food. The vegans don't like you eating either.

So it's probably a good thing there is less of it

It's just a pity it tastes so good and onik is pig for eat me

Gerry557 wrote:I thought bacon wasn't very good for you. Causing cancers and processed food. The vegans don't like you eating either.

So it's probably a good thing there is less of it

It's just a pity it tastes so good and onik is pig for eat me

Nothing is very good for you but I think more or less anything is OK in moderation.

Dod

Dod101 wrote:

Gerry557 wrote:I thought bacon wasn't very good for you. Causing cancers and processed food. The vegans don't like you eating either.

So it's probably a good thing there is less of it

It's just a pity it tastes so good and onik is pig for eat me

Nothing is very good for you but I think more or less anything is OK in moderation.

Dod

Surely bacon = fat + salt. Fat and salt are good for you in moderation, but not in the quantities some people eat.

Buy some bottled water. With luck it will also contain a few small bits of bacon.

Gerry557 wrote:The vegans don't like you eating either.

How can you tell if someone is a vegan
Wait, within five minutes they will tell you

Look up Maynard Davies Bacon Curer and buy his book on how to cure your own bacon. It's easy, peasy especially if you have a good proper butcher who will provide you with the correct cut of pork. We used to go to Maynatd's shop near Whitchutch and he always had a pan full of bacon cooking, the smell was so, so good. He'd always hand you a rasher to try and it would melt in the mouth. We always bought a full flitch and sliced our own at home, When he retired I could have wept but thankfully his instructions for curing and smoking your own were very clear and we're lucky enough to have a superb farm shop with excellent butcher nearby.

R6

Mike4 wrote:

Dod101 wrote:Have you tried dry cured bacon?
Dod

Yep. Much the same problem, although not as severe.

make your own. Its very easy.

here's one of what id imagine are a million recipes on the web.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cure ... elly_72074

Personally i wouldn't bother with the bay, coriander and juniper.
the recipe omits to pour off the liquid that the salt/sugar mix will eek from the meat especially in the first few days.
I don't bother muslin either - just leave it in the fridge in its plastic/ceramic container to dry out (so to speak)

the cured bacon will in all likelihood last longer than 2 weeks - if you don't eat it all anyway in that time.

Gerry557 wrote:I thought bacon wasn't very good for you. Causing cancers and processed food. T

nothing is any good for you if taken to excess.

excess being "other than a balanced diet. eat bacon/cured meats three meals a day every day - its probably not good for you. eat them twice a week only - mostly fine for most people.

An excess of salt is not good for you. have a diet devoid of any salt whatsoever and you'll have problems.
You need Vitamin A. eat too much of it though and you'll poisen yourself and die. Check out Antarctic explorer Morse's experience of easting huskie liver./...

I've made my own cured meats many times, a few years back I was curing a batch every few months but I've fallen out of practice and not cured for several years. I regularly meet up with a chum and we spend an afternoon doing batches of sausages.
Pork is fairly easy to cure, only takes about week or so and is more about waiting for water to pull out and the cure to permeate into the meat rather than being labour intensive. What is more difficult is to cut the slices as thin as most butchers and supermarkets sell.
When I was curing regularly I did consider buying a meat slicer but the prices were far too much to justify and there's nothing wrong with a thicker cut in a sarnie anyhow.

I'm quite taken with the idea of making my own, but that turns it into a different food product. The convenience of taking some slices of bacon out of the fridge and frying them is why I buy it.

Except nowadays it takes the whole pack of bacon to end up with enough to make a decent sized bacon butty.

So does making one's own solve the shrinking problem I was having a right ol' moan about?

And what about making smoked bacon which I prefer? I doubt that is so easy! Or maybe it is.

Mike4 wrote:Except nowadays it takes the whole pack of bacon to end up with enough to make a decent sized bacon butty.

So does making one's own solve the shrinking problem I was having a right ol' moan about?

Have you tried an airfryer? I think that evaporates the moisture rather more than a frying pan where I feel sometimes I'm boiling the bacon rather than frying it.

Mike4 wrote:I'm quite taken with the idea of making my own, but that turns it into a different food product. The convenience of taking some slices of bacon out of the fridge and frying them is why I buy it.

Except nowadays it takes the whole pack of bacon to end up with enough to make a decent sized bacon butty.

So does making one's own solve the shrinking problem I was having a right ol' moan about?

And what about making smoked bacon which I prefer? I doubt that is so easy! Or maybe it is.

Once you have made a batch of bacon you can slice it, package it between sheets of paper/film and freeze. It will keep in the fridge for weeks. It's as easy to cure 2kg of pork as 500g. I would try shopping around for better bacon though, internet seems full of traditional cured meat where you should be able t find it made like in the good ol'days. I enjoy Morrisons The Best dry cured old English bacon I'm sure there are others that will be acceptable to you?
https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Bes ... s-wiz-serp

Alaric wrote:

Mike4 wrote:Except nowadays it takes the whole pack of bacon to end up with enough to make a decent sized bacon butty.

So does making one's own solve the shrinking problem I was having a right ol' moan about?

Have you tried an airfryer? I think that evaporates the moisture rather more than a frying pan where I feel sometimes I'm boiling the bacon rather than frying it.

But isn't that the problem I'm moaning about? "The moisture" you mention shouldn't be there in the first place! It gets injected artificially in a factory somewhere specifically to make tiny bacon much bigger in the packet, for resale to mugs like me.

But to answer your question, yes supermarket bacon still shrinks to half its size when cooked in my air fryer.

kempiejon wrote:

Mike4 wrote:I'm quite taken with the idea of making my own, but that turns it into a different food product. The convenience of taking some slices of bacon out of the fridge and frying them is why I buy it.

Except nowadays it takes the whole pack of bacon to end up with enough to make a decent sized bacon butty.

So does making one's own solve the shrinking problem I was having a right ol' moan about?

And what about making smoked bacon which I prefer? I doubt that is so easy! Or maybe it is.

Once you have made a batch of bacon you can slice it, package it between sheets of paper/film and freeze. It will keep in the fridge for weeks. It's as easy to cure 2kg of pork as 500g. I would try shopping around for better bacon though, internet seems full of traditional cured meat where you should be able t find it made like in the good ol'days. I enjoy Morrisons The Best dry cured old English bacon I'm sure there are others that will be acceptable to you?
https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Bes ... s-wiz-serp

Thanks. I'll try the Morrisons one you suggest.

I also note from your link, this one specifically claims not to shrink on cooking. I'll give that a try too!

https://www.ocado.com/products/dukeshil ... &gclsrc=ds

Mike4 wrote:Thanks. I'll try the Morrisons one you suggest.

I had some this morning and I can confirm that it was much bigger than 1" x 4", it does come out smaller than it goes in, but not much. I did use 2 rashers per slice for a sarnie but it comes in packs of 8 and I made 2 sandwiches If you prefer smoked though this isn't for you, it has a subtle sweet, juniper an spice flavour. I generally find smoky bacon tastes mostly of the smoke flavour

If you do make your own bacon you can buy ready smoked cure, it's probably what most bacon curers will do to save the hassle of proper smoking
"

I also suggest getting a smoker for on top of the cooker. We're lucky we have a largish smoker that OH made out of a metal office cupboard again courtesy of Maynard's book. I'm sure that there must be loads of info if you check with Mr. Google.

R6