MAKING BACON

O.K so firstly I should say that the bacon here in Spain is rubbish to put it mildly. It is virtually impossible to find raw bacon in a supermarket or butchers shop as it all appears to be boiled. If you think the worst kind of supermarket reconstituted boiled ham, and then imagine a bacon version then you are getting somewhere close.

With this in mind along with the fact that people are going a bit organic artisan crazy I decided to have a go at curing my own bacon.

Baring in mind that a whole pork belly will come in at a much cheaper price per kilo than the equivalent quality bacon I can’t work out why freshly made products are so much more expensive. Put a piece of homemade bacon on a restaurant menu and people are going to love it especially as there is no need to put up the price.

So I started out by scanning a few methods on line to get the general gist as I had never had a go at making bacon before.

It struck me that the most difficult thing about making bacon at home was smoking it. Smoking is not essential but will change the flavour considerably.

I decided to crack on in absence of a smoker and just try plain old unsmoked streaky bacon.

Advice told me that if you plan on smoking your bacon little else is needed apart from salt as the flavors of all other ingredients tend to be lost after smoking. As I was not smoking it I decided to add some brown sugar and black pepper to the salt for curing.

I made no measurements of my ingredients because, well I’m a chef and generally we don’t like to measure. I poured out about three quarters of a kilo bag of salt, added a few big spoonfuls of brown sugar and ground in some fresh black pepper until I was tired and bored of turning the grinder. All of the articles and recipes said to add saltpeter but this was optional. As I didn’t have any or have any idea where to get hold of any here in Spain I opted to ignore that part.

So first thing I needed was a big old slab of belly pork. Once an unfashionable cheap cut of poor man’s meat, pork belly has risen to dizzying heights of stardom to become one of the most popular menu items in the U.K of recent times, and it deserves every moment of the spotlight. Pound for pound it is about the most flavorsome cut of pork. Pork being the most flavorsome animal that there is means it’s just about the best thing you can put in your mouth. Get hold of a Duroc or Iberic acorn fed pig and your really cooking.

Once I procured my belly I got straight down to it. It’s easy. All you need to do is rub a load of that salty mix you prepared earlier in to every nook and cranny of the belly, lay the belly in a big Tupperware container and pop it in the fridge.

The next day I found quite a bit of water had leaked from the pork into the tub. I drained off this water, dried the tub and rubbed in a load more salty mix, and then back in the fridge.

Somewhere I read you should cure the bacon for a minimum of five days and a maximum of two weeks, though two weeks produces really salty bacon.

Based on nothing I decided seven days sounded like about the right amount of time so every day for seven day’s I just poured off the liquid and rubbed more mix. I told you it was easy.

On day seven I washed off any cure from the belly and patted it dry, wrapped it in a piece of muslin and hung it in an outside storage area for twenty four hours.

That’s it, I had bacon. I stuck it in the freezer for an hour or so to firm it up for slicing and as you can see by the photo it looks like real bacon. Obviously the truth was always going to be in the tasting so I was a little nervous the first time I threw a couple of rashers in a pan.

The first thing I noticed was a slightly pungent smell, not off putting but a clear difference than of shop bought bacon. I fried it up until nice and crispy and popped it between a couple of slices of buttered bread.

I gotta tell you I was pleasantly surprised. The final result gives you a much porkier taste than anything shop bought. It’s kind of like a cross between the two, bacon and belly pork. I ate it with fried eggs and sliced it up to make sauces and creamy mustardy potato salad and when all results were in I definitely branded it a winner.

Final message- Go forth and make bacon, it’s easy.

Now I have to work out how to make a smoker.