Bacon

“ The strip of fat that occurs between the rind, or outer coat, and the first layer of lean is the firmest and the best for larding. The fat that fries out of bacon is excellent for use in the cooking and seasoning of other foods, such as vegetables and meats. When bacon is cooked for the table, its flavor will be improved if it is broiled rather than fried in its own fat. The rind of bacon should, as a rule, be trimmed off, but it should never be wasted, for it may be used to grease a pancake griddle or any pan in which food is to be cooked, provided the bacon flavor will not be objectionable. ”

“ Fill up any hollows with scraped or pounded bacon; lay some thin slices of fresh butter, and then over them some very thin slices of fat bacon. Have ready some rich pastry, of which form the top crust; egg it over and bake. When ready, lift the crust, remove the bacon, and pour in some rich gravy; replace the crust, heat up again, and serve.
Potted.—An excellent breakfast dish. The birds must be very carefully picked, singed, and drawn, dried well, and seasoned inside and out with pepper, salt, and mace, then put into a stone jar with plenty of butter, tied down, and baked in a moderate oven. ”

“ Fried bacon is remarkably strong, and is hence more likely to offend the stomach than when it is broiled, or preferably toasted before the fire; the last being, of all others, the best way of dressing it so as to preserve its delicacy and flavour. Gourmands, however, often esteem, as ‘une bonne bouche,’ bacon dressed in the flame arising from the dropping of its own fat.
Choice. Good bacon has a thin rind, and an agreeable odour, the fat has a firm consistence and a slightly reddish tinge; the lean is of a pleasing red colour, is tender, and adheres, whilst raw, strongly to the bone. ”

“ He had actually sliced off a rasher of bacon, the fattest, the whitest, and the most beautiful rasher of bacon ever I had seen in my life! There were three distinct layers of lire and fat, curving alternately through it like quarter moons. No man ever beheld such a sight! He sliced out another piece, which was still more perfectly beautiful than the preceding one. ”

“ Put the pieces of bacon into a hot frying-pan and turn them constantly until they are crisp; then take them up. Draw the pan back to a cooler part of the range, and, laying the slices of bacon in the hot fat, cook them for eight minutes, turning often. Season with the salt and pepper. Arrange the liver on a warm platter and garnish with the bacon.
Remember that slow cooking spoils bacon, and rapid cooking hardens and ruins liver. ”

“ For best quality of bacon, the proper meat is of first importance. Withes or strings of basket wood, bear’s grass, or coarse, stout twine, one in the hock end of each ham and shoulder, and two in the thick side of each middling, are fastened in the meat by which to suspend it for smoking. Before it is hung up the entire flesh surface of the hams and shoulders, and sometimes the middlings also, is sprinkled thickly with fine black pepper, using a large tin pepper box to apply it. ”

“ Then it is a dish fit for gods, and for mortals who know what is good. Then there is left the grease, golden brown and delicious. Now the usefulness of bacon only begins.
Hear this! From one pound of breakfast bacon you get one pint of precious bacon grease.
What do with it? That's easy.
Fry eggs in it. You will never again use lard. Even butter is inferior to it.
Season boiled string beans with it. It is a substitute for cooking bacon with them. Two or three tablespoonfuls will give the proper flavor. Use the bacon fat in place of butter or lard. ”

“ Ingredients.—Pigeons, bacon, watercress, salad-oil, salt and pepper, Espagnole, tomato or piquante sauce (see Sauces) , croûtons of fried bread.
Method.—Draw and truss the birds, cover each breast with a slice of larding bacon, and roast before a clear fire or in a brisk oven for about 20 or 30 minutes, according to age and size. Baste frequently, and a few minutes before serving remove the bacon to allow the breasts to brown. ”

“ Should the flavour of the bacon be considered an advantage, slices of it can be laid over the article braised, and secured to it with a fillet of tape.
“To braise the inside (or small fillet, as it is called in France) of a sirloin of beef: Raise the fillet clean from the joint; and with a sharp knife strip off all the skin, leaving the surface of the meat as smooth as possible; have ready some strips of unsmoked bacon, half as thick as your little finger, roll them in a mixture of thyme finely minced, spices in powder, and a little pepper and salt. ”

“ Take bacon, cut as for larded sweetbreads, and lard in the same manner. Place a few pieces of chopped suet at the bottom of a stew-pan, half an onion, one clove, a slight sprinkling of flour, brown, and add one cup of second stock. Cover with a close lid, and simmer slowly for one hour. Dish the fillets of beef, skim the grease, and sprinkle a few mushrooms in the sauce, and serve. ”

“ Prepare:— (1) Three chopped onions mixed with two crushed garlic cloves; (2) one-half lb. of lean bacon, cut into dice and blanched; (3) one-half lb. of fresh, bacon rind, blanched and cut into squares of one in. side; (4) a large bunch of parsley, containing a small piece of dry, orange peel. Garnish the bottom and sides of a daubière with thin slices of bacon; set the pieces of mutton in layers inside, and alternate them with layers of onion, bacon and bacon rind; sprinkle a pinch of powdered thyme and bay on each layer of meat. Put the faggot in the middle. ”

“ The boiling of bacon is a very simple subject to comment upon; but our main object is to teach common cooks the art of dressing common food in the best manner. Cover a pound of nice streaked bacon with cold water, let it boil gently for three quarters of an hour; take it up, scrape the under side well, and cut off the rind: grate a crust of bread not only on the top, but all over it, as you would ham, put it before the fire for a few minutes, not too long, or it will dry and spoil it. ”

“ The good woman, considering herself honored by such military and political greatness, spread her table with fried bacon and new laid eggs, and the cold pork and beans left over from yesterday, a few shavings of dried beef, currant jelly of the most tempting kind, doughnuts, hot and fresh out of the bacon fat, and bread made of wheat raised on the two acre patch across the road, and to which she added a cup of tea so delicate in flavor that it would have made a Dutch grandmother return thanks to the East India Company. ”

“ Some other meat you may have; but, bacon is the great thing. It is always ready; as good cold as hot; goes to the field or the coppice conveniently; in harvest, and other busy times, demands the pot to be boiled only on a Sunday; has twice as much strength in it as any other thing of the same weight; and in short, has in it every quality that tends to make a labourer’s family able to work and well off. ”

“ Cut some fat bacon into long slices nearly an inch thick, but quite free from yellow. Dip them into vinegar, and then into a seasoning ready prepared, of salt, black pepper, allspice, and a clove, all in fine powder, with parsley, chives, thyme, savoury, and knotted marjoram, shred as small as possible, and well mixed. With a sharp knife make holes deep enough to let in the larding; then rub the beef over with the seasoning, and bind it up tight with a tape. ”

“ Set aside on a dish until the next day, when rub it again with what liquor may have arisen, and put it down to roast before a brisk clear fire. Smear six ounces of sound fat bacon with a spoonful of tar, stick it on the prongs of a long toasting fork, and when the meat is about half cooked, hold the bacon over the fire until it blazes, then transfer it over the meat, and baste it with the liquid fire until the bacon has melted all away. The mutton [Pg 28] when cooked will have a peculiar appearance, and a flavour highly esteemed by many persons. ”

“ Line the bottom of a stew-jar or stewpan with slices of bacon, pack the pieces of hare closely on the top, add the herbs, cloves, peppercorns, mace, bay-leaves, and a liberal seasoning of salt. Barely cover with stock, lay slices of bacon on the top, cover closely, and cook very gently either on the stove or in the oven for about 3 hours, adding more stock from time to time. Remove the bones, chop the flesh and the bacon finely, and pound these in a mortar until smooth, moistening gradually with stock, previously strained. ”

“ Almost any game may be used in this way, but great care must be taken that it is perfectly fresh. Streaky bacon must be used in the proportion of 1⁄4 lb. bacon to every lb. of meat. If veal, it should be cut as for cutlets, but rather smaller. If poultry or game, only the best parts should be used. Cut into pieces not too large, lay them in a flat dish, dredge them plentifully on both sides with flour, also with black pepper and salt; place a layer at the bottom of the mould-liner in which the meat is to be baked, packing them closely together; lay thin slices of bacon about 2 in. ”

“ Take two pounds of the fillet out of the inside of a rump of beef and two pounds of best fat bacon. Cut them small, put them into a marble mortar, add to them a small quantity of parsley, thyme, savory, four eschallots chopped fine, some pepper, salt, two spoonsful of essence of ham, a spoonful of mushroom powder, sifted mace, cloves, and allspice, a little of each, two eggs beaten, and a gill of rhenish wine. ”

“ Lean bacon is the most wasteful thing that any family can use. In short, it is uneatable, except by drunkards, who want something to stimulate their sickly appetite. The man who cannot live on solid fat bacon, well-fed and well-cured, wants the sweet sauce of labour, or is fit for the hospital. But, then, it must be bacon, the effect of barley or peas, (not beans,) and not of whey, potatoes, or messes of any kind. It is frequently said, and I know that even farmers say it, that bacon, made from corn, costs more than it is worth! ”

“ Red beans are cooked in salted water with one-third lb. of lean bacon, one pint of red wine, one carrot, one onion stuck with a clove, and one faggot per quart of beans. The bacon should be withdrawn as soon as cooked. These beans are cohered by means of manied butter, and they are then mixed with the bacon, which is cut into dice and frizzled in butter. ”

“ Soak the liver in cold water fifteen minutes; wipe dry, and cut in strips an inch wide, and three long. Cut as many thinner strips of bacon, and fry these three minutes in their own fat; take out and keep hot while you fry an onion—sliced—with the liver in the same fat. Salt, pepper, and dredge the liver in flour before it goes in. When it is done lay in two rows, the length of the dish, with a strip of bacon between each piece and the next. Strain the fat, and return to the pan with a cupful of hot water, the butter rubbed into the flour, and, when it has boiled up, the juice of a lemon. ”

“ The cut can be roasted bone in or out; both methods were popular in 1620. If you do take the bone out, make sure to stuff the roast with bacon, as the loss of its bone tends to dry it out. And the smoky bacon taste is a positive addition, especially if you are oven-roasting your lamb. It can also be imparted to a bone-in roast if you make a dozen half-inch cuts in the tough surface skin and stuff raw bacon in each.
ADRIAEN VAN OSTADE
Stuffing Elizabethans were fond of a rich, sweet stuffing that was more like a bread pudding than the dry, herbed variety we commonly prepare today. ”

“ PORK.
TO CURE BACON.
Hogs are in the highest perfection, from two and a half to four years old, and make the best bacon, when they do net weigh more than one hundred and fifty or sixty at farthest; they should be fed with corn, six weeks at least, before they are killed, and the shorter distance they are driven to market, the better will their flesh be. To secure them against the possibility of spoiling, salt them before they get cold; take out the chine or back-bone from the neck to the tail, cut the hams, shoulders and middlings ”

“ This soup is not as expensive as it appears, for the bacon is served as a dish of meat, either after the soup or cold for breakfast or tea. Put two quarts of water into a saucepan; when it boils put in a pound of bacon neither too lean nor too fat. Let it boil slowly for one hour. The bacon must be well washed and scraped before cooking, and when it boils skim the pot thoroughly. Well wash the cabbage and soak it in hot water for half an hour. Take all the water away and put the cabbage into the saucepan with the bacon and vegetables cut up, and the peppercorns tied in a piece of muslin ”

“ Let there be without fail a platter of hot bacon, curly, juicy, fried to the debatable point where softness is overlaid with the faintest crepitation of crackle, of crispyness. If hot Virginia corn pone is handy, so much the better. ”

“ Fried Eggs and minced Ham or Bacon.— (No. 549.)
Choose some very fine bacon streaked with a good deal of lean; cut this into very thin slices, and afterward into small square pieces; throw them into a stew-pan, and set it over a gentle fire, that they may lose some of their fat. When as much as will freely come is thus melted from them, lay them on a warm dish. Put into a stew-pan a ladle-full of melted bacon or lard; set it on a stove; put in about a dozen of the small pieces of bacon, then stoop the stew-pan and break in an egg. ”