Preparation of Bacon

You may get better information from a site like the Food Network, but hey, folks on this site have a lot of varied interests. There are probably curing fanatics around.

Hi ichecked the site but didn't get what i need,

I want the basics of preparing bacon from pork meat on samll scale, how to freeze, cut and then treat it for long lasting storage

Check out Alton Brown's "Good Eats" episode Scrap Iron Chef

Here's Alton's Recipe

Well the ones in the market I can't tell you. As a youngster remember the bacon and hams being smoked in a smoke house for hours. When it was done and cooled some what they where then place in a barrel and covered with course salt. Each piece was layer with salt no two pieces touched and a lot of salt between layers. What you see in stores is considered fresh bacon. Not as salty and will not store for long unless frozen. The salt cured bacon and hams would keep with out being frozen or refrigerated for a long while. Extra preparation was take for the table. The bacon or ham was soaked in water for days to taste to remove the salt. The bacon not as long because its a thin cut. Was a pain every morning carrying water from the spring house so my grandmother could change the water out. Was glad when my great uncle had the well dug. Still had to pump it but it was just out side the house. The spring house was about the distance of four city blocks across the field.

Pretty nice in this modern age. Don,t have slop the hog, kill and butcher it. Cut down the hickory tree, cut and split it. Tend the smoke house for hours. Prep the barrels. Or carry water from the spring house. Just go to the market to get your bacon.

If you really want to know how to live off the land then I would suggest that you purchase a copy of Carla Emery's, Old Fashioned Recipe Book.From how to plant the corn, to scapin' the hog, to curring the bacon, this is a volume of information. Even though I was raised on a small farm where we supplied ourselves for the year; I find that referring to the suggested text is always a very good idea. I checked Amazon.com and there are several variants of the book available. If this does not help, then maybe nothing will. GOOD LUCK!!!.