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Boiled Bacon
Put the piece of bacon to be boiled into the pot with sufficient cold water to cover it. Allow it very gradually to come to a boil, removing all scum as it arises, and draw it aside to simmer until thoroughly done; then pull off the skin and serve with bread crumbs over the top. Time to boil two pounds, one hour and a half; half an hour for each additional pound.
The "bacon" here is a cured joint of pork side or gammon weighing several pounds, not the thin breakfast rashers a modern shopper pictures. Everything in the method follows from that.
- What to buyLook for an unsmoked or lightly smoked gammon joint, a piece of green (unsmoked) collar, or a slab of uncut cured pork belly with the rind still on. Sliced supermarket bacon will fall apart and turn to salt water in this treatment.
- Soak firstPeriod bacon was cured far more heavily than today's. If your joint is labelled mild-cure you can skip this, but a traditionally dry-cured or heavily salted piece benefits from 4 to 12 hours in several changes of cold water before it goes in the pot.
- Cold water, gradual heatThe instruction to bring it very slowly to the boil is the hinge of the recipe. A fast boil tightens and shortens the muscle fibres and squeezes out moisture; the meat comes out stringy and dry rather than sliceable.
- Simmer, do not boil"Draw it aside" means moving the pot off the direct heat. Hold the water at a bare tremble, around 180F, for the whole cooking time.
- The timing checks outAn hour and a half for two pounds, then thirty minutes per additional pound: that is 45 minutes per pound at two pounds, falling to about 36 minutes per pound for a five-pound joint as the fixed initial time is spread further. Confirm doneness with a thermometer: 150F at the thickest point, away from bone.',
- Bread crumbs over the topThese are what older books call raspings \the crust of stale bread dried hard in a low oven, then grated or crushed fine and often toasted golden. Pull the rind off while the joint is still hot, leave the fat layer in place, and press the crumbs onto it.
- The cooking liquidTaste it before discarding. If the joint was well soaked the liquor makes an excellent base for pea or lentil soup; if it is aggressively salty, pour it away.
- ServingA five-pound joint serves eight to ten hot, and any remainder slices cleanly once chilled overnight. Traditional accompaniments are parsley sauce, mustard, and boiled greens or potatoes.
Boiled bacon of this kind was long a staple of English and Irish cooking, well before bacon meant a breakfast rasher. A pig killed in autumn was salted down in a whole side, and the household then drew on that side through the winter, boiling a piece at a time and serving it hot with vegetables or cold in slices. The coating of dried bread crumbs was at least partly decorative, giving a dry, tidy edge to a joint that might be sliced from cold over several days.