Post by Jane GillettHowever.
Does anybody have a good way of storing bacon. Not large quantities,
just the sort of amount you get in a small pile, sliced, on a
butcher's refridgerated display - about a pound or so I guess; usually
unsmoked streaky if that's relevant.
Hi, sorry for coming late to the thread.
And this might be too long for many readers ... but it's all important!
Now, I don't ever want to be accused of trying to teach my granny to
suck eggs (or store bacon!) but I had your same problem for years. I
love bacon. I eat bacon in decent quantities, but always there was the
problem of "wet" bacon becoming impossible to store for any decent
period of time.
So, I went hunting. First of all I had been buying my bacon from a local
butcher who advertised his wares as "dry cured", and he had both
unsmoked and smoked. I always prefer smoked bacon and so I bought my
bacon from him on a regular basis. The only (main!) problem I had, was
that this "dry cured" bacon still spilled white fluid/gunge into the
frying pan when I cooked it. I had my suspicions that "dry cure" in this
instance might also include some "added water".
So, I left my local butcher's bacon alone and I went online to a rather
famous butcher called "Boston Sausage .co.uk" and indeed, his smoked
bacon was truly perfection. I used to buy what the purveyor described as
"triple smoked" dry cured bacon - see here:
http://www.bostonsausage.co.uk/product/triple-smoked-dry-cured-bacon-
500g/
Initially I thought all my bacon problems were well and truly solved.
Beautiful smoked bacon, fries up in the pan with no "gunge", and not a
very expensive price for nationwide shipping, unlike some other
suppliers. *However*, they did not supply smoked streaky which is my
main favourite bacon. And then, *catastrophe*!!! I received an order
from them and when I put it into the pan, the dreaded "white gunge"
appeared. I immediately complained to Boston Sausage Co., and they were
full of apologies, 'explaining' they had been trying out a new
supplier/curer for their bacon and they now realised after many
complaints from customers that things were not as they should be, so
they were now going to revert to "home curing" their own, blah, blah,
blah ...
Hmmm ...
No good to me. Once badly let down by a food supplier I never return to
them. Food is food and should not be mucked about with in order to
increase profits which I suspect had happened with this bacon.
So, Jane, do you know where I tried next? And I have never, ever looked
back:
I now only ever buy my bacon from either Tesco or Asda, *BUT* it is only
their very expensive bacon that I do buy.
Tesco Finest Smoked Drycure Streaky Bacon 240G = £3.29, OR 2 for £5.00
or the alternative
Asda Extra Special Smoked Streaky Bacon 240g = £3.00, OR again, 2 for
£5.00
(I suspect they both have the same suppliers as the bacon is so
similar.)
To explain, I buy very little other meats from supermarkets, but this
bacon is truly bacon as bacon should be and bacon used to be. For
example, today, 28 November, I opened a tray of Tesco bacon which was
marked "Use by 19 Nov". It had been in my fridge since 30 October when
my order was delivered. When I opened the pack, it was still vacuum
sealed, no sign of blowing or anything else untoward, and all of the
bacon rashers were as dry as a bone. Today I cooked 6 rashers and had
not only the beautiful true taste of perfectly smoked bacon, but it also
fried to an absolute crisp (the way I like it) where a fork thrust into
a rasher would have made it explode across the kitchen! Of course, you
do not need to cook your bacon so crisp. Apart from that, I now have a
permanent jar of bacon drippings sitting at the side of the stove and a
life *without* bacon dripping is a life not worth living. :-)
I add the drippings to all sorts of dishes, including cornbread,
biscuits (breakfast scones) and goodness knows what else. Potatoes fried
in bacon drippings ... drool ...
And apart from that, I know for a well established fact that the
remainder of that pack of smoked streaky will keep well in the cheap
plastic bag I placed it into for well over another week. The fact is,
there is virtually *NO MOISTURE* in this bacon and it is moisture which
causes "slime" and spoilage.
I suggest that you try this bacon only once and I bet that like me, *if
you are a bacon lover* you will return again and again to buy your bacon
from one of these supermarkets, rather than from "artisan/craft"
butchers, who often promise so much but deliver short of their promises
whilst charging top dollar.
p.s. On the deal of 2 packs for £5.00, both supermarkets offer
combinations like smoked/unsmoked/streaky/back bacon to make up the
offer. I stick with the smoked streaky 'cos that's what I *LOVE*, and I
like the fact there is no waste. The only thing I *don't* like is that
both of them charge exactly the same for streaky and back bacon which is
not as it should be. A year or two back, streaky was cheaper than back,
but because the bacon is so very, very good I will live with this small
point.
I do hopes this helps you (and perhaps other bacon lovers).
