traditional bacon curing,step by step.

[TeeDee]

Good article. Thank You.

 

[David LaFerney]

When I was newlywed my in-laws (true country folk) were still curing pork - although they outsourced the smoking to someone with a proper smokehouse and the skills to properly use it - The salt curing was done in a cold out building by burying the meat in a "salt box." The resulting product called "country ham" was quite salty and most often used to add seasoning to slow cooked dishes such as brown beans, and would keep without refrigeration until it was cut and the rind thus opened. Other cuts such as shoulders, jowls, and side bacon got similar treatment. It was traditionally done after Thanksgiving (late November) when the weather was reliably "cold enough for killin' hogs" (still an exclamation sometimes heard on cold mornings) and was a big job that everyone in the extended family participated in. 35 years later and it's pretty much a lost art and tradition. Not only that, but the climate has changed so that the process would have to be move at least a month later and even after Christmas our weather is no longer reliably cold.