The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: lill on November 15, 2011, 05:44:35 pm
-
After a long time waiting for a chance at Hampshire back bacon, i am delighted with the results as there is no wastage and the amount of fat is perfect for me. Pictures of the bacon will be displayed below.
(http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i426/DonnaMarieXD/DSCF7114.jpg)
(http://i1093.photobucket.com/albums/i426/DonnaMarieXD/DSCF7119.jpg)
-
That has made my mouth water :yum: :yum: Did you cure it yourself, Lil?
-
Yes cured by myself and it was made up with the help of my daughter. It was cured in a sweet brine.
-
Looks braw. Tasted it yet?
-
Can we have your recipe? :) :)
-
Can we have your recipe? :) :)
Take one pig... ;D ;D ;D
-
Can we have your recipe? :) :)
Take one pig... ;D ;D ;D
Add some salt, salt peter and sugar :D :D :D
It really is that easy though ;) I'll see if I can dig out the mix for a standard wet cure and post it, then it's just a case of increasing sugar or adding flavourings and having a 'play' as I like to call it - lots of pots with smaller bits to see what's best ;D
:yum: :yum: :yum:
From your January Hampshires Lillian ? Go on, tell me what the deadweight was - not that I'll be adding Hampshires to my herd, (well, not for the foreseeable) no matter how much Bruce wants to ;)
And save me some :yum: :thumbsup:
-
This brine mix was made of 1 can treacle, 1 can syrup, half kilo salt, 1pound sugar, 8 ltr of boiling water, and of course the salt petre 6 oz. Then cured in it for 4 days, take out, dry off freeze, it down to slice it, job well done.
This was hazel, ah yes and she does taste lovely, she was 160 live weight and got 100 dead weight back. Robert and I took her to Wishaw on thursday and we got her back on friday last week and I started on the loins.
My main concern was if my pig would my pig get lost (as happened to Karen) and was reassured that Karen's pig was a one off mistake and it would never happen again, I did get my Hampshire back and there was very little fat on the carcase.
Looking forward to cooking and eating back bacon that has no boar taint.
-
Looks fantastic Lillian. Was just comparing it to some I made from my 13 month old GOS last week.
I sent her sister off last month at just 12 months old, and the bacon was fantastic....Just right (All gone now, so must have been OK!). I thought I'd leave this girl the extra month to see how much better/worse it was for the extra time. This month's was 108kg deadweight.
With my GOS I would say last month's was a lot better, not so much back fat. But here's a picture of this month's and I'm still pretty pleased, but not worth taking them over the 12 months I would say.
I make my own dry cure, and with this I added some maple syrup.
-
To Julie S - I should be very curious to know what the deadweight was of the 12 month old pig, as a comparison with the 13 month old returning 108 kg deadweight. Was there less fat on the 12 month old pig? Right now I am trying to decide which week to send off our much younger porkers (6.5 months today) for slaughter, but as one cannot kill them twice, it is very difficult knowing just when is the optimum time to do it. They are Tamworths and neither fat or thin, but I have to make a decision as to whether an extra 2 weeks at 5lbs/nuts/pig/day costing £5.20 a week will turn into a worthwhile quantity of pork or not. So real life figures, albeit from GOSs, would be most interesting - thanks Tamsaddle
-
The 12 month old, last month, came in at 92kg deadweight and I would say the difference in the size of meat on the bacon isn't significant enough to justify me keeping them the extra month.
For pork I usually send my boars off at 7 months and they weigh in at around 65 - 70kg deadweight. My gilts I usually send off at around 9 - 10 months and they are around 80 - 85kg deadweight.
-
Great thread and great results. I'm a bit confused about slaughter for Pork Vs Bacon - is it an age thing or is it just they way you cut and process the carcass?
I had it in my head that we would send some at around 6 months (if live weight estimates agree)
for pork and 8ish months for bacon, but reading some of the threads, I think I may have that wrong - certainly here, 12 months seems to give fantastic bacon. We have saddlebacks and I'm very carefully checking rib and backbones daily to make sure they dont put on too much fat!
-
We take bacon from pigs of all sizes. It just means the smaller the pig the smaller the slice of bacon, and in younger pigs you may just get the 'eye' of the back bacon and not much meat on the 'tail' end of the slice......Not sure that makes perfect sense, I'll try and take a picture of some smaller/younger bacon later.
I get really nice bacon from my 9-10 month old gilts, I was just experimenting a little this time to see just how much more meaty the bacon would be from the older girls.....And I've got some cracking hams from them to cure for Christmas :) :) :)
-
Being or will be a complete newbie to pig keeping (haven't got them yet - coming in the spring)
I'm reading with interest the bacon threads, I remember when the bacon my mum cooked the fat was always crisp and crunchy leaving some fat in the pan (which we mopped up with bread :yum:) - not the watery stuff you get now with the bacon sticking to the pan...
This was way back in the 50's with five of us to feed money was tight so we only had streaky bacon.
Would this have been 'dry cured' and if so HOW do you do that?
-
We have saddlebacks and I'm very carefully checking rib and backbones daily to make sure they dont put on too much fat!
We raised 2 saddlebacks this year for bacon and sent them off at 9 months (both were gilts). We are really happy with the bacon - enough fat but not too much on the back bacon, and plenty of meat in the streaky bacon.
Personally I wouldn't get too paranoid about their levels of fat unless you need to sell it on - if you are feeding the correct amount of nuts/pellets then they should be fine.
:pig: :pig:
-
Being or will be a complete newbie to pig keeping (haven't got them yet - coming in the spring)
I'm reading with interest the bacon threads, I remember when the bacon my mum cooked the fat was always crisp and crunchy leaving some fat in the pan (which we mopped up with bread :yum:) - not the watery stuff you get now with the bacon sticking to the pan...
This was way back in the 50's with five of us to feed money was tight so we only had streaky bacon.
Would this have been 'dry cured' and if so HOW do you do that?
Yup, I'd bet it was dry cured stuff :yum:
The easiest way to make it is buy a pack of ready mixed cure (you can always have a go at mixing your own later, but for first attempts & to save getting it wrong play safe with the ready mixed stuff - check ebay ;)) then you get your piece of loin or belly, rub the cure into it - really get into all the nooks and crannies. Then either pop it in a big tuperware box (or large size ziplock bags work really well) and turn it every day, opinion differs as to whether to drain off the juices or leave them - I've tried both ways and not noticed much difference to be honest. After about 2 weeks (depending on the mix and the size of the piece of meat) all you need to do is soak it in clean water then 'temper' (put in the freezer til it's almost frozen) and slice (makes cutting much easier) :yum:
There's bound to be lots of other ways of doing it too - but that's my (ever so technical) method ;) :thumbsup:
HTH
Karen :wave:
-
Great instructions from Karen.
Dry curing is definitely my preferred way to cure bacon. But then that's the great thing about curing. You start off trying different ways of doing things and then 'tweak' the recipe each time until you find what you like the best.
My mouth is watering just thinking about bacon and ham........I think I'll have a bacon sandwich when I get back from milking this morning :) :) :) :) :) :)
-
can u cure a belly that has been frozen?
is dry cure better than wet cure?
btw lillian, they look amazing!!!
-
Looks fab Lillian :yum:
If it's half as good as your sausage it will be fantastic :thumbsup:
-
what did ur ham-lops taste like lillian? :wave:
-
princess i don't think it cures the same after being frozen
Lillian thinks wet cure is the best just her opinion
have not tasted them yet should do just before Xmas if you are eating them you are not selling them
feed back from buyers they could not detect any difference either live or dead betwean there commercial pigs and our hamlops just on conformation and looks the taste never came into it
another says the Hampshire tastes better than the hamlops but the Hampshire was a bigger carcase 160 kilos liveweight as opposed to 120-130 kilos see what they say when they get hamlops the next time :farmer:
-
Hi, just discovered this site which I love! Thanks for the inspiration! Am feeling excited about early successes selling "non-shrinking" bacon here in Cebu Philippines and learning a lot from you all.
I love the look of your fine bacon. Being quite new to all this am curious about the quantities of "saltpetre" people are using, 6 oz saltpetre to a half kilo of salt in one recipe, sounds a lot. Research on internet suggests in a number of places that excessive saltpetre can be a health threat. Personally I use pink salt (prague salt) which is mainly salt and only 5% sodium nitrite and I use just a teaspoon per cup of salt and am happy with the result.. Can any of you more experienced curers offer any more information on this topic?
-
thanks for the comment jodie, are you going the the bpa agm? ;) :wave:
-
thanks princess
-
thanks for the comment jodie, are you going the the bpa agm? ;) :wave:
No we're not going, let us know what happens though ;)
-
Hi, just discovered this site which I love! Thanks for the inspiration! Am feeling excited about early successes selling "non-shrinking" bacon here in Cebu Philippines and learning a lot from you all.
I love the look of your fine bacon. Being quite new to all this am curious about the quantities of "saltpetre" people are using, 6 oz saltpetre to a half kilo of salt in one recipe, sounds a lot. Research on internet suggests in a number of places that excessive saltpetre can be a health threat. Personally I use pink salt (prague salt) which is mainly salt and only 5% sodium nitrite and I use just a teaspoon per cup of salt and am happy with the result.. Can any of you more experienced curers offer any more information on this topic?
Sorry artburr1 I can't shed any light at all as I have not used saltpetre in my cures, either. Hopefully someone will be along soon to tell you something more informative! :wave: Sally
-
Like Sally I don't use saltpetre either.
-
will do jodie :wave:
-
Talking to my nephew concerning saltpetre or not he says yes, use a little every time. It inhibits the developement of botulism.
Lil, we will be using your recipe on Friday when we get the girls back. Meanwhile, black pudding every meal :o :o ;D
-
Hi Sylvia,
Remember it needs to be left for 4 days in the brine maybe longer depending on how much saltpetre you have used, turn once a day, after the 4th day take a bit out and cut in the middle to see if the saltpetre has penetrated into the middle, you will see how pink it has become once cooked. It can be left for longer but please remember to look at it once a day.
Happy back baconing, let us have some pics in due course. :pig: :pig: