Bacon makin'

One thing I would like to be forgiven for griping about, as far as North American food choices are concerned, is the lack of availability of un-smoked bacon. Yes, that's right, I said UN-smoked. It exists and it offers an endless array of culinary possibilities that smoked bacon destroys.

I love smoked bacon as much as the next person, but when making a dish such as Spaghetti Carbonara or Coq Au Vin, smoked bacon tends to permeate the whole dish, so that all the carefully balanced nuances of wine, garlic or egg are lost.

"So what?" I imagine a whole nation crying out, "What's wrong with that lovely smoky bacon flavour"? Nothing, if that's all you want to taste.

In Europe and the UK we have choice when it comes to bacon. Packets of unsmoked sit happily side by side with their smoky counterpart, often the same brand and often outnumbering the smoked varieties. Pancetta in cubes or thinly sliced, Prosciutto and many other varieties are available to the cook who wants a subtle bacon flavour. Also, bacon in the UK has a decent amount of meat on it. Called back bacon, the loin has been used and the streaky bacon more commonly available here is largely ignored. In Canada lately, I am finding that there is far more choice coming to the market. My local supermarket now sells 'Wiltshire bacon', which is cut from the loin, but it is still only available smoked.

In Vancouver and the surrounding areas it is possible to get unsmoked through speciality food shops and British shops, but it comes at a price.

Therefore, when I bought Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's fantastic book, 'The River Cottage Family Cookbook', I was overjoyed to find a recipe for home-made bacon, (no smoke required).

I immediately set about tackling this task with a large pork loin, which I lovingly 'cured' for several days, as specified in the recipe. The result was OK, the main problem being the inability to slice it as thinly as required without an expensive and large meat slicer sitting on my counter top. The taste, however, was good. Sweet from the sugar, herbal and zingy from the juniper berries, salty and most importantly, unsmoked.

So, when shopping the other day, I became excited when I found something rarely available in supermarkets; fresh side pork. Thinking it looked a little like bacon, I snapped it up. Web based research revealed that this cut of meat is indeed bacon, just uncured. So, here was another opportunity to try the same recipe with a different result; creating  the much loved 'streaky' bacon. As a bonus, the piece of meat still had the skin attached which I hastily took off to fry up as one of the most delicious things you can eat - crackling. Unfortunately, health conscious bodies in this city scorn such fatty luxuries, so it's usually criminally removed. What do they do with it all?

Recipe : Home made bacon (Adapted from 'The River Cottage Family Cookbook').

1 piece of side pork or a pork loin with the thinner edge still intact (about 1 kg)

1 bay leaf, crumbled

5 juniper berries, crushed lightly

250g coarse salt

50g brown sugar

5g ground black pepper

Mix the salt, sugar and black peppercorns with the bay leaf and berries in a non-metal bowl.

Rub a small handful of the curing mix all over the pork. Place in a plastic tub with a lid and seal. (Keep the rest of the rub for the next stages).

Refrigerate the pork and remove from the fridge after 24 hours. The pork will be sitting in a pool of liquid drawn out by the salt. Drain the liquid away and rub another handful of the rub all over the pork. Cover and refrigerate again. 

repeat every day for 4 days, remove and cut as thinly as possible. Use this in a carbonara or stew and you will find that it doesn't overpower all the other tastes.

This bacon is also good fried in rashers and either sandwiched between two pieces of bread or sitting alongside some sausages, eggs and home fries.