The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: caracroft on October 18, 2013, 09:54:44 am
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Our 1st Pig went to the abbatoir last month and we had him chopped up into different pork cuts and made some sausages (see other post!!)
We have 2 girls left, who will be ready soon.
The thing is we've been telling everyone that we were raising 1 porker and 2 baconners - and I have realised that I havent got a clue how to make bacon, :-[ how easy/hard it is, whether the butcher can do it etc?
Anyone made their own and how do you do it?
Appreciate any help
Cara :pig:
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There's 2 kinds of bacon - wet cure and dry cure.
I have one butcher that does wet curing and one that does dry - I personally prefer the dry cured stuff but everyone's different.
If it's your first pigs and you intend on selling the bacon I'd probably recommend getting the butcher to do it for you (he'll charge a higher rate than for pork butchery, but IMHO it's worth it - at least until you perfect your method ;))
Dry cure method - wash and pat dry your pork (boned loin for back bacon, belly for streaky) get your curing salts, rub it all over the meat making sure you get into all the nooks and crannies. Put it in a non metallic dish and stick it in the fridge. Turn it every day for around a week then check it's cured all the way through by slicing a bit. If it's not fully cured pop it back in for another couple of days and check again. Once it's fully cured I like to soak it overnight in a couple of changes of clean water to get rid of the excess saltiness. Then dry it, smoke it (if you want) and slice it.
It's much easier to slice if you let it get to almost frozen - called 'tempering' by the professionals ;) and use either a very sharp knife or bacon slicer. (I wouldn't even think about mixing your own at this stage - too many variables and it's just not economical. You can get enough cure to do 10 kilos of bacon for around a fiver)
Wet sure method - mix up all your ingredients to create your 'brine' place your washed meat in a non-metallic dish, pour in the brine and weight down the pork, it takes about the same length of time as dry curing.
HTH
Karen
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We've done our own before in small batches and it's documented here:
http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/food/food-processing/making-bacon/ (http://www.accidentalsmallholder.net/food/food-processing/making-bacon/)
No we get the butcher to do it, mostly due to lack of time but also because he does a better job. :D
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NB watch out if you use the River Cottage meat book method, we did and it was sooooo salty and apparently theres an error on the salt quantities :-) :farmer:
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Thank you, Great information everyone!!
I don't think my butcher would do bacon, (he doesn't do sausages)
And I dont want to have 3 pigs in the freezer and buy bacon and ham from Tesco lol!!
How do I know it has cured successfully all through? Does it change colour?
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I made my first bacon back in 2010. Is it a fool proof method? Well I made it. :roflanim:
A little premature and this could prove to be a little hard to swallow for the Pru fans amongst you, but in a few short months time, I'll be making bacon out of one of her babes. :innocent: This is how I'll set about doing it.
OK you lot! Gather round. :excited:
I'm a slow developer and I only made my first bacon in 2010. I got this piece of streaky pork belly out of the freezer.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/bacon003.jpg)
Once it was fully defrosted, then my next step was for me to debone the piece of meat.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/bacon.jpg)
Now for the cure. We made this from what we had at hand and used a mix of two parts sea salt to one part brown sugar and also used a few cracked pepper corns. We went with 150 grammes of the mix to every kilogram of meat.
The mix. Not much to look at but it does the job. :fc:
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/bacon004.jpg)
I spend a good few minutes rubbing the mix into every nook and cranny. I even put some on the pork. :shock:
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/bacon005.jpg)
Into a bit of tupperware and on with the airtight lid.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/bacon007.jpg)
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/bacon010.jpg)
I drained the liquid from the container for the next five mornings as the bacon began to dry.
My youngest lad was the first to put an order in for the first rashers.
My bacon.
Before.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/atsea001.jpg)
After.
(http://i104.photobucket.com/albums/m180/kcooper2006/2010/atsea002.jpg)
In truth, this first lot of bacon turned out to be quite salty but after the whole side had been soaked in cold water for an hour or two, it was truly scrumptious.
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Thanks for your blog Bodger, found it very interesting ..
I notice you said the belly was frozen and you thawed it, so how long does it last can you refreeze, when it is cured, in batches? Thanks
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If I'm honest, which I am, then I really don't know.
We make sausages for our own use from frozen meat and then freeze them but most books tell you that you shouldn't.
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We always get it done by butcher who can arrange dry cure. I don't have the time or more importantly the space to do it at home and to be honest I wouldn't want to risk our lovely meat to a bumb ling novice like me. If I remember righht it was about 80 quid a pig additional. Does take some clawing back but blooming gorgeous
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we just get ours made where we get them killed and cut. We have actually just collected ours today and got 19 lbs off half a pig on top of the hams and gammon steaks
If I remember righht it was about 80 quid a pig additional. Does take some clawing back but blooming gorgeous
We only paid £85 for 2 pigs 1 1/2 as joints and chops and a half made into bacon, hams and gammon steaks that's all in including killing
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You should try doing your own, its an exercise that's well worth the effort and is surely part of doing the whole smallholder thing. As I said earlier, if I can do it, then anyone can.
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Bodger has really made me feel that I could probably give it a go. :thinking: Especially as i cant go down the butcher option.
Might look into a premade cure though? Any thoughts?
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Or you could find a decent butcher. :innocent:
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Why when you can do it yourself ? :innocent:
There's obviously a big difference between producing on a small commercial scale like you do and making bacon for home consumption. Making your own bacon and sausages is very dooable and great fun to boot.
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I know what you're saying bodger and in so many ways I can't disagree. I just have this idea that my skill is in wallowing around in mud in all weathers getting them ready to eat. The thought that all my hard work is then ruined by my experimental efforts appals me and feels like a risk I don't want to take. the sausages and bacon produced for us last time were quite simply fabulous. many have said that the sausages were the best they had ever tasted. I am under no illusion that had I processed the meat it would have been edible but not scrumptious and certainly not something I would have felt able to sell - by the same token I have a pathological hatred of home made bread- I am not a baker, I have not been to bakers school and studied the finest arts of kneading and yeast use- so why on earth should I be able to produce bread anywhere near as good as those who have- years ago my wife started making bread- all went well until she realised I was sneaking out to our local artisan baker to buy gorgeous crusty beautiful bread- thankfully no bread flavoured bricks have appeared in our bread bin recently. that should put the cat amongst the pigeons "" ha ha
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The easiest and least messy way to make bacon involves a vac packer and is very very easy. Basically weigh the meat, rub in the correct amount of cure, vac pack, fridge, turn every day for however long it takes, rinse, dry, slice, bob's your uncle. A small domestic vac packing machine will do the job so long as you can find bags big enough.
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The salt draws the moisture out of the meat, doing it your way, where does the liquid go?
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It stays in the bag until its ready. I used to use a butcher who did it that way and it was quite good. It would stay in the bag for about 6 to 8 weeks.
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Eugh ! (http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Disgusting/vomit-3.gif) Slimey bacon? :o Thanks but no thanks. That's the joy of making your own, you end up with proper bacon. :idea:
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surely its no different to brining it draws the moisture and sits in it yes but then rinsed and dried/smoked is absolutely fine we have wet and dry cured and NEVER had slimey bacon......... :sunshine:
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We sit in the wet cure camp.
we get our mixes from sausagemaking.org - it comes with instructions x amount of mix to y amount of water to every z weight of meat.
Put in plastic bag so it is all covered, turn daily. We normally do a bacon pig in January, so you don't need a fridge just the shed.
Then slice (we use a cheap meat slicer - noisy but works) and freeze into 8 slice portions.
Easily lasts a year (apart from the fact that it's eaten long before then)
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Eugh ! (http://smileys.on-my-web.com/repository/Disgusting/vomit-3.gif) Slimey bacon? :o Thanks but no thanks. That's the joy of making your own, you end up with proper bacon. :idea:
Well we use the vac pack method, as do most butchers that produce their own bacon. It works very well. There is no slime I dunno where that idea comes from. It is proper bacon and it is delicious. We have many regular customers who come back for more week in week out.
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If we can do it anyone can..... BUT make plans well before your pigs come back from the abattoir. As most people say the traditional butchers sausage is twice through the mincer then into the stuffer, we however work 80% meat 20% back fat. We use all parts of the pig for our sausage (not just the cheaper meat) We only ever put our meat/fat through the mincer once using the Eight millimetre disc size. From here it goes into a Hobart industrial mixer where all the ingredients are added, the mix is then returned to the fridge and allowed to rest overnight before the suffer. One thing to remember is that sausage and making bacon is an expensive pastime, You will have spent hundreds of pounds getting your meat to this stage so do as much homework before hand as possible.
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Pasture Farm....is that a TAS t Shirt you're sporting for your pig processing capers...... :eyelashes: :sunshine:
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Of course it is...... You dress me every morning Mrs PF :love: :love:
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Might look into a premade cure though? Any thoughts?
Weschenfelder (http://www.weschenfelder.co.uk) is always a good place to start - then once you get confident with it you can branch out.
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Thank you all again.
I have a vac packer so this is 1 option :thinking:
and thanks for all the pics Pasture Farm :thumbsup:
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Has anyone got a dry cure recipie without the saltpetre..I have half a gos on order and want to make bacon but don't fancy poisoning myself :roflanim: after all were all trying to get away from additives arnt we ?
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Us :pig:
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I'll give it a go... They went to the abattoir this mornin I should get mine Friday. Do you freeze it once its cured and cut up?
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We kept it in the fridge and it got scoffed very quickly. I can't see any reason why you can't freeze it though.
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yes freeze it no problem. :thumbsup:
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Thanx guys :thumbsup:
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Did you do it Carl fk? I made some last year and it was lovely, just used cure from sausagemaking.org and va pac. Just on here for idea for next belly which i still in freezer