Winter Bacon

We have had an exceptionally lovely fall, which fooled me into thinking that I had more time to do fall things – like making this year‘s bacon. 

And now here is a public service announcement from my husband: 

“All bacon contains pink salt, which is a nitrate, which in combination with the meat in your colon is a carcinogen. Also, don’t believe the nitrate free labels because they use celery salt which is a natural source of nitrates which achieves the same carcinogenic goal“.

Which is why I started making our own bacon. For some reason public health authorities think that the risk of botulinum poisoning from improperly cooked bacon is higher than the risk of colon cancer from the nitrates which stop the botulism from developing. Anyway… My bacon just has salt, sugar and spices no nitrates. There is an investment in time and care. I started the process on Sunday morning and had to flip the bacon every 12 hours in the fridge. Last year I used a wet brine from Fergus Henderson’s nose to tail eating. Unfortunately that was too salty for my taste. This year I used the advice I got from people and a few recipes I saw online and I went with a one to one sugar to salt ratio.