The Accidental Smallholder Forum

Food & crafts => Food processing => Topic started by: maryg on January 20, 2010, 01:43:02 pm

Title: Making bacon
Post by: maryg on January 20, 2010, 01:43:02 pm
I'm having my first go at making streaky bacon. The butcher has supplied a belly pork joint, but has left the rib bones in. Should I remove them?
Title: Re: Making bacon
Post by: Crofter on January 20, 2010, 08:13:32 pm

It doesn't make any difference to the curing if you leave them in, but you will have to bone it out before you slice it.  Traditionally the ribs were left in the whole sides for bacon which was only "chined" (Backbone removed) before salting.  As a lad my Dad worked in a grocery shop and I remember standing watching him bone out sides of bacon before slicing them on the hand powered bacon machine.
By the way, are you brine curing the pork or dry curing it?

Dave
Title: Re: Making bacon
Post by: maryg on January 21, 2010, 05:36:52 pm
Thank you. I'm dry curing it (salt, a bit of molasses sugar and some black pepper). Actually, it looked as if the cure wasn't penetrating under the rib bones, so  I cut away the ribs from the rest of the meat, but left them attached, and rubbed in more cure underneath them. I'll cut them off entirely at the end and try roasting them - could be interesting!
Title: Re: Making bacon
Post by: Wizard on January 22, 2010, 01:12:41 pm
If you do roast them and I hope you do leave the bones in water over night otherwise you may well not be able to eat them.They will be very salty.In yesteryear the bones were removed at killing time and not to carefully removed so there was a nice portion of meat left on and thenroasted in a hot oven along with the diced kel fat.The bones are most delicious done this way.Just sprinkle a bit of s&p on them and roast.The flitch was put in the salting tub and rubbed and turned every day for a fortnight.Don't forget I am talking of a flitch being from a 40 stone + say 275-300 kg wieght pig and would be some 4" thick.So you will need to adjust the salting time :farmer:
Title: Re: Making bacon
Post by: mr.pitt on April 25, 2010, 12:22:53 am
You can leave the bones in or remove, if you cure with the bones in you will end up with streaky bacon and also bacon ribs.

There is a company based in the bradford  area that supply bacon cures to a very high standard, also sausage seasonings etc...

Google search for the dalesman group.

Hope this helps.
Title: Re: Making bacon
Post by: Snoopy on May 17, 2010, 03:30:49 pm
For those of you in Scotland, Scobies butcher supplies are good, we get our
sausage casings, sausage herbs and spices and all our knives for the
butchery from them, as they also have a branch in Ireland too.