The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: manian on April 21, 2012, 04:45:29 pm

Title: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: manian on April 21, 2012, 04:45:29 pm
just got our bacon back
1st time of having bacon and the butcher has done the girls proud, very tasty
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.204343226349198.44492.100003205651558&type=1# (https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.204343226349198.44492.100003205651558&type=1#)!/media/set/?set=a.204343226349198.44492.100003205651558&type=1&notif_t=photo_album_comment
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: nelson on April 21, 2012, 05:17:35 pm
 :wave: Can taste that bacon :P - what breed where you girls?
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: manian on April 21, 2012, 06:59:44 pm
a mixture of GOS, large white and pietrien
Mx
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: MAK on April 21, 2012, 07:41:07 pm
mmmm - great stuff.
My OH has yet to taste ours as she been with her daughter for 3 weeks waiting on a baby -it  was our first cure and I luv it -
Do you find that you are enjoying it more rather than serving it up with all the trimmings or extras. Simple bacon and egg for me - no sauce- no beans etc  just want to enjoy the taste of the bacon.
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: nelson on April 22, 2012, 07:35:20 am
Morning

Just fed the pigs and about to tuck into a bacon and egg sandwich - it is going to me my last for a while - I am going to cut back ....well until tomorrow  ;D ;D

We have some GOS and Berkshire bacon at the moment. Looking forward to seeing what our Berkshire/Tam will produce.

No sauce for us either ;D

Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: suziequeue on April 22, 2012, 07:46:09 am
Quote
just got our bacon back
1st time of having bacon and the butcher has done the girls proud, very tasty

Does your butcher do your bacon for you? How much does he/she charge for making it?
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: manian on April 22, 2012, 08:23:30 am


Does your butcher do your bacon for you? How much does he/she charge for making it?

he charges £1.20 a kilo on top of the kill/cut charges
its dry cured and vaccum packed, with weights
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: Sylvia on April 22, 2012, 08:46:09 am
The abbatoir I go to charges me £8 for  a middle of bacon. Can't remember the weight but it was lovely. Have also tried Lill's recipe :yum: :yum: :yum:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: lill on April 22, 2012, 09:57:16 am
Sylvia, glad to be of assistace  :wave:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: HappyHippy on April 22, 2012, 10:49:29 am
Looking forward to seeing what our Berkshire/Tam will produce.
I know they say Berkshires are great pork pigs, we got the loins from ours cured and it was FANTASTIC  :yum:
Home grown's always best  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: MAK on April 22, 2012, 11:17:00 am
Looking at the costs ( above) the the cost of keeping our pigs then I guess the bacon should be good. I never used to buy bacon in the UK so I have no idea how much a very good bacon ( say from waitrose butcher dept or a traditional butcher) would cost. We can't buy it here.
Any ideas?
Its just that the OH is trying to calculate how much our pork is worth. She has collected local prices of the different cuts and she has recorded the cut weights of of all we butchered and curred, We killed at home and I butchered and - chris made the sausages,bacon and hams - so no cost there.
Maybe I'll post the breakdown when she finishes her sums.
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: manian on April 22, 2012, 12:47:29 pm
our bacon had the butchers prices on it
£8.50/kilo
not sure if that is for his ordinary or free range etc
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: redborneschoolfarm on April 22, 2012, 04:44:18 pm
Have you ever tried making your own bacon. Once you start it gets addictive plus you can really experiment with teh flavours. If its of any interest to you we posted a blog of our first attempt at curing and smoking our own its a sort of mini how to guide its at http://redbornefarm.blogspot.com (http://redbornefarm.blogspot.com)
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: suziequeue on April 22, 2012, 05:14:43 pm
We make our own bacon using a dry cure which we get from the butcher as it's a cure I particularly like and you can only get it in bulk (SOOOOOO typical that that's the one I want  ::) ::)) and we don't make enough to justify a big tub.

I think I need to break with that and make my own dry cure........ but where do I get that smokey flavour from???

We vac pack it and freeze it and it's GREAT
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: Dan on April 22, 2012, 05:42:45 pm
Have you ever tried making your own bacon. Once you start it gets addictive plus you can really experiment with teh flavours. If its of any interest to you we posted a blog of our first attempt at curing and smoking our own its a sort of mini how to guide its at http://redbornefarm.blogspot.com (http://redbornefarm.blogspot.com)

There's a guide to making bacon on TAS:

http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/food/food-processing/making-bacon/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/food/food-processing/making-bacon/)

It covers the basics and needs to be extended to include smoking (found our old Bradley smoke generator today in the workshop!).

Quote from: suziequeue
but where do I get that smokey flavour from???

Cold smoking!  :) :)
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: robert waddell on April 22, 2012, 06:04:55 pm
liquid smoke :farmer:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: HappyHippy on April 22, 2012, 06:19:21 pm
I'm playing with 'black' cures for my Large Black bacon and ham - going to have the results of the first couple of trial receipes tomorrow, will report back.
I've seen smoked salt on sale (Maldon's do it) would this be a possible way to bypass the smoking do you think?
Karen
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: suziequeue on April 22, 2012, 06:26:26 pm
Here's Hilary's Mum's recipe for a dry cure so I might try that with the Maldon smoked salt next time.

http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=10230.msg100975#msg100975 (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/forum/index.php?topic=10230.msg100975#msg100975)

Here's what Wiki says about smoked salt:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoked_salt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoked_salt)

.......and I see you can get in on eBay so I might give that a go.

We are due to cure some more bacon anyway.

Look forward to hearing about your  black cures Karen. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: robert waddell on April 22, 2012, 06:30:02 pm
just tasted the latest batch of Lillian's bacon     this was hot smoked in the Bradley smoker  a few differences
she is getting better     a hamlop pig   mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :farmer:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: MAK on April 22, 2012, 06:39:10 pm
I am going to need this thread in six months time.
Will it be accessible then or do they get "trashed" after a few months?
Can't wait to build and try a cold smoker.
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: robert waddell on April 22, 2012, 06:53:01 pm
i think you can bookmark it    if not just ask methods will have improved in that time ;) :farmer:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: suziequeue on April 22, 2012, 07:07:47 pm
 If you search for "cure" or "Bacon" and restrict the searches to food processing or pigs board it's bound to come up.

Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: manian on April 22, 2012, 07:22:59 pm
would love to hae a go at curing and doing hams and bacon
bit scared tho' ???
expensive mistake if it doesn't work :(
but I must get braver!!! :D :D
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: robert waddell on April 22, 2012, 08:22:34 pm
just try small batches first   you are at an advantage you have a warmer dryer climate than Scotland for airdrying :farmer:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: MAK on April 22, 2012, 08:23:05 pm
we cheated and had a practice with some bought some cubed pork ( shoulder) a pork belly and a slab of fat - ruddy cheap too. We made some sausages and lardons with a bacon cure. We were not that happy with the sausages and dropped the rusk. Chris made her own but cut down on the rusk - The little bit of cured pork belly was too small to slice but chopped was fine.
It gave us confidence to kill, butcher our 2 pigs then cure 3 hams and 3 sides of bacon ( collar cut too).
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: MAK on April 22, 2012, 08:26:36 pm
Its the cold smoke I want to try.
We wet cured bacon and hams and have 6 large dry cure saucisson hanging up in the spare bedroom ! Ready to try this week.
I have a couple of wooden wine barrels that I want to convert into a smoke chamber. One day I may try hot smoke but cold smoke is next.
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: Dan on April 22, 2012, 08:32:09 pm
I am going to need this thread in six months time.
Will it be accessible then or do they get "trashed" after a few months?

Nothing gets trashed automatically, so it should be here. We've got a bookmarking widget coming soon so you can maintain a library of useful TAS pages on the site itself.  :thumbsup:
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: lill on April 24, 2012, 07:32:53 am
made smoked bacon last week, first time for ages delic  :P :P :P
Title: Re: bacon...... mmmmm
Post by: redborneschoolfarm on May 03, 2012, 07:07:29 pm
I am going to need this thread in six months time.
Will it be accessible then or do they get "trashed" after a few months?
Can't wait to build and try a cold smoker.

You can see our cold smoker on the blog, we built our own and it works like a charm http://redbornefarm.blogspot.com (http://redbornefarm.blogspot.com)