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Home-style bacon: how to cook? Video
The subcutaneous layer of pork (lard, bacon) can be used to prepare Ukrainian borscht and other soups in meat broth, as well as in minced meat. When stuffed with lean meat, the roast will be surprisingly juicy. Home-style bacon is also a wonderful appetizer, an addition to fresh vegetables, rye bread, greens. Usually housewives salt or pickle bacon, which gives it a spicy, bright taste and preserves it for a long time.
How to deliciously cook salted bacon
Cut a piece of fatty pork belly with small layers of meat (total weight – 0,5 kg) into bars of the same size, about 10 cm thick.After that, you need to prepare spices and herbs for pickling. Crush the sweet peas with a spoon (but do not bring to a powdery state), and chop the peeled garlic cloves very finely with a knife. You can use a special garlic press.
Add coarse salt (not iodized) to the spices
Mix spices and herbs in the following proportions:
- garlic (2 heads)
- salt (3 tablespoons)
- allspice black pepper (to taste)
Dip the bacon in the resulting mixture, then do not put them too tightly in a glass jar. Sprinkle each layer of bacon with garlic juice, stuff with thin slices of a spicy vegetable. Place the container under good pressure and keep in a cool place for a week. Do not take the product out into the cold, otherwise it will not be able to properly soak in the brine. Ready-made bacon at home should be kept in cling film or hermetically sealed glassware on the refrigerator shelf, and for longer storage in the freezer.
You can use ready-made bacon slices not only as an independent product, but also as a base for melted fat and cracklings. Fry the excess lard in a pan and separate the lard from the hard pieces that have formed.
Cooking pickled bacon at home
Before pickling lard (weighing 1 kg), rinse thoroughly and dry with napkins, and scrape off the pork skin white with a sharp knife. After that, the marinade is prepared.
Dip into a liter of water:
- coarse salt (100 g)
- allspice (pinch)
- bay leaf (2-3 pcs.)
- garlic (1 head)
- freshly ground black pepper (to taste)
Bring the spicy liquid to a boil, then boil pieces of bacon in it for 10 minutes. If you want a nice golden cut, it is recommended to throw a handful or two of onion husks into the marinade. The pickled bacon should lie in brine at room temperature for 3-4 hours, away from direct sunlight, then overnight on the bottom shelf of the refrigerator. After that, let the bacon dry a little on a platter. It is recommended to eat a ready-made snack chilled, having previously cleaned it of spices and seasonings.