It's all about the pork and a slicer.

in homesteading •  7 years ago  (edited)

I've cured bacon once before and it turned out to be the best bacon we've ever had so the last time we went to the butcher we got about 5 kilograms of pork belly. I've been curing two pieces for 9 days and it's almost done.

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This is from the first batch that I did before christmas, I just never got around to share it here on steemit.

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I cure bacon like Guildbrook Farm does in this video with Grass-fed Homestead.
Curing bacon with Grass-Fed Homestead

I also boiled some pieces of the pork like my mum does it. It's traditionally called "syltefläsk" and includes letting boiled pork sit in a brine for about three days under pressure. I read in one recipe that the amount of salt in the brine should be high enough to make a raw potato float.
I've learned to do the easy version. (Thank you, mum!)
I simply cover the pork with water, skim it when it starts to boil and then I add lots of salt, bay leaves and some crushed white pepper corns. I boil it for about 1,5 hour and let it cool off in a bowl.
We slice it and eat on sandwiches, it's so good. I don't think half of it ever got near the sandwiches, we just ate it as it is!

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So I boiled another batch and used all the pork I had left in the freezer. Now it's almost gone! We ate a lot! On the other hand, I haven't bought any sandwich meat for a very long time. I don't think we miss it.

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I've had an old slicer tucked away in our other house for about 5 years now so I thought it was about time I put it to use. So this is the latest addition to my kitchen. It needed to be cleaned up and it took some adjustments to make it run straight, but it'll probably never break down and it runs without electricity.

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A lot of the old items I own have a name. Let me introduce you to Nils-Johan. I hope that he will be staying with us for a very long time.

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Until next time, be well.
//S


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I've got an appointment with the slaughterhouse on the 15th of next month for 5 Hogs. They don't do bacon there so I've been looking for a place that does bacon or thinking about doing it myself.

5 hogs! That's a lot of meat to care for. Most important, what kind of bacon do you like to eat and can you get it like you want it if you get someone to do it? We can get it salted, but it wouldn't be cured like the one I've done. I know I'd do it myself, but that's me. I'd freeze it in managable sizes and work my way through it, but with a different method for curing. Lumnah Acres did some videos on youtube on curing bacon and I like how they did it with different flavours. It gets really salty when it's cured like I've done it now. It's almost to salty for me, but my hubby could probably eat a whole pig like that!