Five days later and the bacon is cured. Salty and sweet, with a hint of juniper and sage, it was worth it.
Nothing is ever easy for me. Frustrated by the poor quality of filling and pastry in local pork pies it is my mission to make the perfect one. Or at least start wandering down that route.
Where local artisans and manufacturers go wrong is the filling, which should be three types of pig chopped into different sizes and textures rather than one solid glump. The hot water crust pastry needs to be just so yielding with a hint of crisp. And the gap between the pastry and what is basically a terrine-like filling needs to be surrounded with fragrant melt-in-the-mouth jelly.
One of those meats required for a good pork pie is bacon, but the quality available here is poor. I favour streaky bacon. That’s thin slices striped with fat rather than fat flaps of meat sliced thinly. Therefore I start-out on my pie odyssey early with five days to cure my own streaky bacon (basically pancetta).
And it is very easy.
My basic recipes for the bacon and the pie are adapted from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book where he has researched age-old pork pie recipes.
Ingredients
Pork belly. I chose organic which cost about $12 for 750g.
Mix:
0.5kg course salt
Finely sliced fresh bay and sage leaves
10 crushed juniper berries
100g palm sugar (he says soft brown but I was making do)
15g black peppercorns roughly smashed in a mortar
Being a daring devil I’ve deliberately left out the saltpetre, the nitrate that keeps certain bugs away.
Manhandle the meat, roughly rubbing in the salty mixture. I stored the salted cut is a plastic container in the fridge, raised from the bottom, where a pink liquid will leech, with an upturned chinese steamer.
Each day drain this liquid. Then, and this is a tip from Preserving the Italian Way, forcefully manoeuvre a rolling pin over the belly to squeeze out additional moisture. Roughly rub the salt in again and repeat this process for five days.
Now you have bacon, as salty as a fisherman’s tale. Rinse it and pat dry with your twidow/twidower’s favourite linen Tea Cloth. Wrap in Muslin and store, which for most of us in the inner-city will mean bunging it in the fridge, than hanging in a cool airy place.
You’ll need a steady hand to thinly cut this bacon, the kind only achieved at 8am with a couple of shots of espresso followed by a Marlboro and grappa chaser. Fry in a hot pan (note: not non-stick) and when near crispy add a free range egg or two.
Oh, and don’t forget you’ll need to save 250g of bacon for that giant pork pie, so large that it is bigger than my head. And to be served accompanies by a vat of home made piccalilli.
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{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
Noice.
I have a thing against bacon, maybe because I have only eaten the bacon available here.
You’re going to get me experimenting.
Ahhh….you have no idea how hard I have searched Melbourne for decent salt cured bacon!
I never thought to make it myself, and it looks like I have an activity for my next break. My odyssey will be using it to get my baked bean recipe just right.
Lets hope your pork pie will be just salty enough to need washing down with an ale this winter.
Can’t wait to see the finished product. I *heart* Pork Pies!
Ed, you have come to the fork in the road & that is to fully realise that if you want something done properly, you’ll have to do it yourself.
Bacon is a great motivator-I dont mean to sound condecending but sheesh, how many times when you taste something do you wonder, ‘Surely it cant be that hard’, morons have made it for centuries?!”
I thought the saltpetre was really just for empinkening? I tried to cure some belly using it and had a BACON FAIL. I shall try again, and guts it all before any germs can grow.
Also, how do you rate Preserving the Italian Way? Worth buying?
YUM Tomato! I had never ever thought of makin bacon, this is inspirational! Destined to dazzle my flatmate, that’s for sure. Pic has made me quite hungry….
The bacon sounds great, but I just can’t get the picture of you having a couple of espresso’s, Marlboro and grappa – before breakfast. Brilliant!
i was just ranting yesterday about how i cant get my hands on good bacon. i now make my own bread, jams, sauces and stocks, do i have to make my own bacon too?!
if you cvould say one was worth buying what would you reccommend. where did you get the pork belly from (if i may ask)
i need to source some wild rabbit too (hubbie wants to buy a gun to shoot me some but that is not going to happen in melbourne)
Jess, you may have got me going on butter too.
Andrew, the pork pie wasn’t too salty but excellent with a Mountain Goat Pale Ale. I used to be a real baked bean fiend but I think I must have OD’d a couple have years back.
Steve, I guess you are right and it’s not too bad a fork to have found. But one thing, if morons have done it for years why, with a few exceptions, is Australian cheese so crap?
Zoe, yes it does preserve the colour and add flavour but also guard against the fat going rancid and botulism. As I was only keeping the bacon for a few weeks I didn’t bother. A lot of Italians don’t.
Felicity, look forward to hearing about it.
Michael, it all depends how early you get up. But I don’t want to spoil the illusion.
Ran, I just went to Hagen’s Organic Meats at Prahran Market but there are also organic stalls at South Melbourne and Vic Markets that’ll do decent pork belly. I’m not sure about wild rabbit – I have sometimes seen it a Prahran and you’ll probably get it at Vic.
Couple questions – my pork belly has some bones. I’m going to cut them out, but is this approved practice? And once cured, how long will it last in the fridge? Some interwebs say to baked the bacon too..Necessary step?
Brett, I’m not an expert but my pork belly didn’t have bones and I’m guessing it is best to remove them. I just rubbed everything into the raw bacon. And remember I left out the Nitrates so I am taking the risky option.
Hey Ed, I am getting some great belly bacon from a local butcher in Lavington(part of Albury). Nice balance of fat and meat, female pigs, wellsmoked (perhaps just a little too heavy on the smoke). If you are ever up this way I will show you some or I could bring you some when I am next in Melbourne.
Michael
My God I never thought to cure my own bacon! I am from Ireland and the fact that all Australian bacon is at least a little bit smoked is disapppointing. I just don’t eat bacon at all over here.
I am definitely going to give this a try – maybe even today. Am a bit worried about slicing it though – you are right, it has to be thinly sliced.
Excellent work!
Mine came out quite delicious. Too salty to start with, but an overnight soaking in water solved that. As for slicing – well, my thickish slices are awesome!