Make'n Bacon?

[buffcreekforge]

My 80 year old father and I still butcher a hog every January and put it up in the old way. We make salt pork, salt cured hams, and to answer your query, salt cured bacon. It is a labor intensive process, but creates a historically accurate product. You start by cutting the bacon off the hog. It is the lower to middle part of the ribs on down to the stomach region from the shoulder back to the hip. We typically cut the bacon slabs into 3-4 parts (We butcher a 400+ pound sow). To begin the curing process, we lay down a layer of curing salt about 4-6 inches deep on a plank table built by my great-grandfather in the 1880's. You then cover the bacon slabs with another 4-6 inches of salt. For the first week to 10 days, you check the meat every evening, moving the dry salt on top and scraping off the wet salt right next to the bacon slab. In essence, you are dehydrating the bacon. After 10 days, you remove the wet (call it bloody) salt every 2nd or 3rd day. After 3 weeks, you will not have any more moisture coming out of the slabs. You can then smoke the bacon slabs. Low fire, large smokehouse, cool smoke for about 12-18 hours. At the end of this time, wrap the bacon in cheesecloth and hang it up (we put it in the garage). The cheesecloth is to keep the flies off. When you want to eat your finished product, cut off strips with a sharp knife and fry it up in a pan. Be forewarned - salt cured bacon is tough meat! You will need your storebought teeth to eat it, but it does have a wonderful smoky, salty, bacony flavor that can't be beat! Hams are done in a similar fashion, requiring more time to draw moisture out. Salt pork is another story involving cooking a storing in a heavy salt brine.

For your perusal and critique,
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Dave

 

[Hawken12]

Well ,I guess yer rite there cept you are suckin the juice outta the bacon to be ,Instead of putting in a brine .Kinda like lettin it settled in its own juices ,with whatever enhances you have added.
This is directly opposed to industry ...of pumping water into the bacon,30 % .this is what cayses the spitting an hissing ,water an grease meetin .
My bacon don't curl up an spit at me ,first thing I noticed,an don't lose a lotta weight
Peter

 

[Hawken12]

been a while ,but rinsin for 5 minutes did the trick.still with the taste and people can add there own salt to taste