Bacon Connoisseurs' Week 2011 - Black Bacon Day 7

So we're finally at the end of the week and the bacon is ready to eat.  Any worries about the not particularly appetising black colour penetrating deep into the meat are unfounded.  As soon as I broke the surface the dark exterior gave way to sweet pink meat.  It's maybe a little darker than normal but in an appealing well aged way, the thin edge adding to this matured feel. 

The sugar in curing has no effect on the curing process itself and is there merely for flavour, to help counteract the heavy levels of salt.  The treacle has the same effect and this is a sweet bacon, the edges almost toffee like once grilled.  I'd have loved for there to be a hint of the ginger too but the teaspoon of ground is lost on my tastebuds.  I'm not too worried though as this is damn good bacon, perfect with a little brown sauce in a home-made potato roll.

Josh's Black Bacon

Per kg of pork, back (loin) or belly is the usual

2.5gr cure #1

25 gr rock salt

1 ts ground ginger, I couldn't taste it but removing it might ruin it, so I won't

3 TB black treacle

Method

Grind the salt, cure #1 and ginger with a pestle and mortar until smooth.  Rub the pork well with this mixture, maing sure ot get it into all the crevises.

Rub the pork with the black treacle (this is a little tricky as it's pretty thick) then place into a zip lock bag.  Try and scrape as much of the cure & treacle mix off your hands into the bag too.

Cure in the fridge for 1 day per cm of thickness plus 2 days, so probably 5 days for a belly and 7 days for a loin/back.

Remove, wash well then dry, uncovered on a rack (or hanging from a hook if you have somewhere suitable) for a day or two.

Slice and eat.

Comments

[Jo]

oh my god! that looks amazing!

[Ed]

Looks great Josh. Enjoyed the daily updates and am very tempted to have a go now you've shown us the (very successful looking) result.

[Paul]

Looks fantastic, well worth the wait!

[Riocaz - Lee]

Looks absolutly delish, the dark edge really sets off the meat.

[Joshua Armstrong]

Thanks all. After showing the process to the world I'm glad the end result was good.

[Mzungu]

Loved the daily updates. Never tried a wet cure with bacon before. Always gone the HFW way of a dry cure. May have to give the wet cure a go ......