Yum is makin’ the bacon
Why bring home the bacon when you can make it yourself? Cooking is a pretty do it yourself endeavor. Everyone has a busy schedule and kitchen shortcuts have always been popular. Grocery stores have huge sections devoted to microwavable meals and processed foods. Most folks involved with good food, be it local or slow, like to take time to prepare and savor food. This approach to eating has all kinds of benefits including nutritive health and positive social aspects.
For these reasons, along with sheer curiosity, yum learned how to make bacon and other salt cured meats today at the PASA conference. This makes a lot of sense if you raise beef or pork for family or market. Like baking bread, or making pasta, growing tomatoes to make sauce, tracing a food back to its root is interesting and informative.
In days gone by and in many parts of the world, storing meat in a freezer or fridge wasn’t or isn’t an option. How did our ancestors keep it fresh and healthy? One was was to keep it on the hoof, slaughtering at mealtime in community mealtimes was one way, drying is another way as is salt curing.
Yum thinks a lot, maybe too much about food safety, and is a recovered vegetarian, so despite the historical proof that salt-cured meat is a viable techniques, fears of bactertia and parasites lurk.And also about that kid from “Into the Wild”. Yikes!
So, how does it work? Simple enough, rub some salt on meat and let it sit, or hang for a while.
Pretty straightforward, and simple, and effective. Thinking about food traditions around the world, many cultures boast delicious examples of dry cured meats. In America we have bacon and hams. Italy has prociutti, Spain has jamon. Ask any Italian or Spaniard to talk about these morsels and be prepared be wooed as the speakers waxed poetic. The salty taste you might expect isn’t there. What is there is an almost sensual mouthfeel as the fat melts at body temperature, much like chocolate.
Since yum is an urban gardener, chances of making these meats are small. However, it is good to know that these old charcuterie techniques are back in vogue, in PA and as chefs and eaters we should celebrate these fine products. As Homer Simpson says, ‘pigs are delicious!’.
