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Bacon, Cushion Of
A cushion of bacon weighing about seven pounds should be put into cold water, allowed to simmer for about three hours, then lifted, peeled, and covered with toasted bread-crumbs.
A one-line instruction for a large boiling joint, of the kind that assumes the cook already knows what a cushion of bacon is and how salty it will be. Two things matter: soaking first, and never letting the pot boil.
- What a cushion isThe cushion is generally understood as the boneless, rounded muscle from the fore-end or collar of a bacon pig — closest today to a boneless bacon collar. Ask for a cured, unsmoked or lightly smoked boneless joint of about 7 lb; anything with the bone in will need longer.
- Soak before you startBacon of this period was often cured much more heavily than modern joints, and a long soak in several changes of cold water — anything up to a day for a hard-salted piece — was usual, though this recipe does not mention it. Modern brine-cured joints are far milder, but a few hours' soak, or simply discarding the first water after it comes to a simmer, still keeps the finished meat from being punishing.
- Cold water, and whyStarting in cold water lets the salt draw out gradually and the muscle heat evenly, so the outside is not shredded by the time the centre is done. Bring it up slowly.
- Simmer means simmerThe surface should barely tremble, around 180–190F. A rolling boil on a joint this size squeezes the fibres and turns a cushion of bacon dry and stringy — the single instruction in this recipe worth taking literally.
- Three hours, checkedTwenty to twenty-five minutes a pound is about right, so three hours suits a 7 lb joint. Confirm rather than trust the clock: 160F at the thickest point, and the rind should lift away cleanly.
- PeeledThis means stripping the rind while the joint is hot, leaving the fat layer intact beneath. It comes off in one sheet if done straight from the pot; once cold it fights back.
- Toasted bread-crumbsThese are raspings — crusts dried in a low oven until brittle, then crushed fine and sieved. Press them onto the hot fat so they adhere; commercial dried breadcrumbs work, though they brown less handsomely.
- Yield and servingA 7 lb joint serves 12 to 16 hot, with more left for slicing cold. Cool it in its own liquor if you want it for the cold table.
Boiled bacon joints were a mainstay of the English cold larder, and this entry reads as reference rather than instruction: the cushion is the boneless collar, and a cook consulting it would already have known the shape of it. Crumbing the fat with dried raspings was a common finishing for boiled hams and bacon in the nineteenth century — it soaked up surface grease, gave a clean edge for carving, and made an otherwise pallid joint presentable on a sideboard. A joint of this size suits a household cooking once and eating cold over several days.