Is it Ham or is it Bacon?
- Thread starter Lawrence
- Start date
Whats all the fuss about bacon? (AND I am being serious)
Sausage I'll eat, pork steak, pork roast, pulled pork I'll willingly eat, but bacon... nope, I dont even like the smell of it cooking.
You must be one in a million (To the rest of the GUYS on here: She'll probably love that.
) I don't think I have ever met someone who doesn't like the smell of bacon.I even have a vegetarian friend who says it is the one smell of cooking meat that makes his mouth water.
Horoscope Fish
Senior Member
We can't help it. It's been scientifically proven there's a large portion of the male brain dedicated solely to processing everything bacon-related.
....
I made both Ham and Bacon at home.
Ham is from the hind leg. You salt and spice it for at least a couple of weeks. I keep it in the fridge as the temperature here is rarely below 20 degrees centigrade. After curing, it is smoked to partially cook it. I just keep it for a few hours in our oven at minimum temperature. In cold countries you just smoke for a few days it and then hang it to cure through the winter. The meat is ready to eat.
Bacon is either belly or the shoulder, depends where you are from. You just cure it in salt & spices - same as ham and smoke it lightly. The meat is still uncooked and needs cooking. I like bacon with a lot of salt, so that when eggs are fried in bacon fat (after the bacon, of course), no salt is needed.
These are traditional recipes. What is done at industrial scale is different.
. Meat is injected with salt solution, so there is a lot of water in it. To impart the "smokey" taste, "Liquid Smoke" is added.
. After a day, the meat is cured.
. Excess water is drained and the meat is sliced and packed.
If the leg was used it is ham. If the belly or shoulder was used it is bacon!
Ham is from the hind leg. You salt and spice it for at least a couple of weeks. I keep it in the fridge as the temperature here is rarely below 20 degrees centigrade. After curing, it is smoked to partially cook it. I just keep it for a few hours in our oven at minimum temperature. In cold countries you just smoke for a few days it and then hang it to cure through the winter. The meat is ready to eat.
Bacon is either belly or the shoulder, depends where you are from. You just cure it in salt & spices - same as ham and smoke it lightly. The meat is still uncooked and needs cooking. I like bacon with a lot of salt, so that when eggs are fried in bacon fat (after the bacon, of course), no salt is needed.
These are traditional recipes. What is done at industrial scale is different.
. Meat is injected with salt solution, so there is a lot of water in it. To impart the "smokey" taste, "Liquid Smoke" is added.
. After a day, the meat is cured.
. Excess water is drained and the meat is sliced and packed.
If the leg was used it is ham. If the belly or shoulder was used it is bacon!
wreckdiver1321
Senior Member
After having traveled in Europe, I am now much more fond of English style bacon than I am the American stuff. Similar flavor but more meaty. Like a cross between bacon and Canadian bacon. I like putting it on a bun with some HP Sauce (I have completely lost the Americans now...).
That being said, I also drink black tea everyday, can cook fish and chips and shepherds pie from scratch, and I once owned a beautiful Land Rover Discovery with a union jack spare tire cover. My favorite TV shows are Doctor Who and TopGear. I use words like "bugger" on a daily basis. I can tell a Yorkshire accent from a Welsh accent. Hell, I can tell a South London accent from a North London accent.
I am a closet Englishman.
That being said, I also drink black tea everyday, can cook fish and chips and shepherds pie from scratch, and I once owned a beautiful Land Rover Discovery with a union jack spare tire cover. My favorite TV shows are Doctor Who and TopGear. I use words like "bugger" on a daily basis. I can tell a Yorkshire accent from a Welsh accent. Hell, I can tell a South London accent from a North London accent.
I am a closet Englishman.
jazzjunkie
Senior Member
I no longer eat bacon, but when i did, american bacon was terrible.... all hard and thin and greasy.... thickly cut, grilled Danish bacon with HP sauce was the sunday breakfast of choice..
now it all smells like an electrical fire when cooking, yuk.
now it all smells like an electrical fire when cooking, yuk.
jazzjunkie
Senior Member
I'm a fabulous cook, just not of stinky bacon
I'm a fabulous cook, just not of stinky bacon
Try making Bacon at home, and you will revise your opinion. Most of the bacon sold today is mass produced stuff full of water and artificial flavour.
Just clean the belly/shoulder piece, coat it with salt, pepper and a bit of sugar. Let it cure in either a plastic packet or a container. If is warmer than 10 degrees centigrade, cure it in a refrigerator. After a couple of weeks check if it has shriveled and released a lot of water. If so it is done. Now you can either smoke it, or just keep it in a warm oven for a few hours (ideal 60 degrees, but upto 120 will do). Your bacon is ready. Slice it, fry it and revel in the aroma and taste of your home made bacon.
For those who are interested here are step by stem images (taken with cell phone) of making Ham. I do not have those for bacon, but most of the steps are same.
Raw HAM - Thigh
Deboned
Squared
Dry Spices
Ground Spices, salt, garlic, ginger
My brass mortar
Liquid smoke
Meat mixed with spices and but in a bag
Tied tight, so that no liquid spills out
After cure
I put the ham in a container to give it a round shape
Fully in, with a lid of one size smaller container
Lid on
Static press to compress and shape the ham
Into the oven
After cooking at extremely low temperature for 4 hours
This is what all the trouble was for
Absolutely brilliant and fascinating - thanks for sharing.
Any chance of what spices exactly you use?
This thread seems to have died out. So here is what I made for breakfast
I normally buy a big slab of Bacon, and then slice it to the thickness that is appropriate at that time - thin if you want it crisp, thick if you want to feel the meat.
In the frying pan
with flash
without flash, looks more appetizing
I normally buy a big slab of Bacon, and then slice it to the thickness that is appropriate at that time - thin if you want it crisp, thick if you want to feel the meat.
In the frying pan
with flash
without flash, looks more appetizing
wreckdiver1321
Senior Member
I like the lighting more with the flash. Could it be the bacon dried out while you were setting up the flash? A common trick with food photographers is to spritz a little bit of oil on the food to keep it shiny.
Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
I have lived in Rhodesia, South Africa and New Zealand - all countries that are big meat consumers and have never found bacon available as a "big slab". I would be interested to hear what you mean and maybe see a photo of the whole chunk.
Here in India, you can get a "Slab" of bacon. It is either the full length of a pork belly or a full length of a pork shoulder, that has been processed into bacon. The shop will slice it to your required thickness or you have the option of buying a big chunk. My favourite shop sell the shoulder slab which is around 5kg for the whole piece.
On our vacation coming up soon, we will be visiting this bacon specialist: Black Bacon to get some stocks.
We have to get bacon for breakfast - it's the law! Yum!
We have to get bacon for breakfast - it's the law!
Yum!