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Bacon, Boiled, to Warm
Many people think that bacon once boiled must be eaten cold, but the following mode will show that it is easy to make it an agreeable and also an economical breakfast dish. Cut it into thin slices, sprinkle each slice with fine bread-crumbs, with which a very little cayenne has been mixed, and toast quickly before the fire. A common wire toaster that can be turned without displacing the bacon answers best.
A thrift dish: yesterday's boiled bacon joint turned into a hot breakfast. The whole thing hinges on fast, fierce heat, since the meat is already cooked and only needs browning.
- What "boiled bacon" isNot rashers. This means a cured joint — collar, hock or gammon — simmered whole and left to cool. A piece of cooked gammon or a thick-cut unglazed ham is the modern equivalent; ordinary streaky bacon is too thin and too fatty to behave this way.
- Slice thicknessThe recipe says only "thin slices". Somewhere around 1/8 to 1/4 inch suits the method: thin enough to heat through in the time the crumbs take to colour, thick enough not to dry out.
- "Toast before the fire"An overhead broiler on high, rack 3-4 inches from the element, is the closest match: roughly 2 minutes a side, until the crumbs are golden. A very hot dry skillet also works, though the crumb coating browns less evenly.
- The wire toasterA hinged, double-sided wire rack that clamped the food so it could be flipped as a unit. A folding grill basket, of the kind sold for fish, does the same job under a broiler or over coals.
- CrumbsDry, fine crumbs, not fresh soft ones — fresh crumbs steam and slide off. Cayenne at about 1/8 teaspoon to a half-cup of crumbs is in keeping with "a very little"; the bacon is already salty, so add no more salt.
- Getting the crumbs to stickThe original says nothing about how the crumbs adhere; presumably the cool, slightly tacky surface of the boiled bacon is enough. If your slices are dry, brush them very lightly with the fat skimmed from the cooking liquor, or with melted butter, before crumbing.
- Reheating temperatureCooked cured meat should be brought back to 165F/74C through the centre. Under a hot broiler that happens within the browning time on slices this thin, but check the thickest piece.
- YieldThe recipe gives no quantities. Allow 3 to 4 ounces of bacon per person for breakfast, served with toast, fried eggs or a mustard-dressed salad.
Boiling a bacon joint was routine in nineteenth-century British households: the cure made the meat keep, and long simmering drew out enough salt to make it palatable while yielding a pot of stock for pease pudding or soup. What remained was a cold larder standby, sliced for suppers and packed lunches, and Cassell's is addressing the common assumption that once cold it must stay cold. Crumbing and toasting before an open fire appears elsewhere as a way of reviving cooked meat, cold mutton and ham among them, and the wire toaster named here belongs to a kitchen where the range fire, not an oven, supplied the fiercest heat.