Bacon (meat)

Bacon is made ​​from pieces of meat to be cut from the sides, the back or the belly of a pig, which are then preserved (salted, dried and possibly smoked).It is usually used as an ingredient in a recipe, due to the fat and the flavor.

Bacon with rind (the skin still attached) is now less common. Even now one can find pre-cooked bacon.

Content

 * 1 Preservation and smoking
 * 2 Production
 * 3 Popular culture

Conservation and smoking
Bacon is normally salted, that is to say that the meat, for a number of days with salt is rubbed in order to dry it so. With the possible additions of sugar and spice it than two weeks left hanging to dry. Then it must, for up to nine months in a cool airy space 'mature'. Less time is sufficient for this purpose if the bacon is smoked.

In another wet preparation is used, the bacon in a table salt - water solution, for two to three days, submerged. Sweet bacon is obtained by adding sugar to this solution. Additives may also consist of honey and maple syrup. After this, the meat should still two weeks left hanging out to dry and ripen.

In modern meat industry one uses this wet preparation, in which, however, still water, sodium nitrate and phosphate can be injected so that the ripening process is accelerated, and the volumeincreased. These interventions will not benefit the taste. In the meat industry bacon is usually preserved only six to twenty-four hours prior to being cooked. This method of preparation is usually regarded as inferior. If the bacon is fried then it can happen that an unappetizing white liquid bleed.

Bacon is smoked in order to enhance the flavor and also to accelerate the preservation process. Not smoked bacon is sometimes called raw bacon. Smoked bacon is obtained by drying it in an enclosed space above wood chips. By using different woods, such as apple, beech, cherry, walnut or oak can be obtained flavors. When a low heat is dried, the bacon in two to three weeks, or in a few days over a hot fire, in which the meat is then partly cooked.

In the meat industry bacon is cooked in large convection ovens (convection ovens). This process is done in batches or on the assembly line. A party in a furnace, idle, either cooked or smoked.In an assembly line process, the bacon on a monorail system hung by a cooking stove and a smoking room carries. The smoke flavor is obtained by the combustion of wood chips, or by spraying the bacon with a liquid smoke extract. Through the use of hot-air ovens covers the preservative in the meat industry is not more than 6 hours.

Once the bacon is cooked and smoked it still has to be cooled before it can be pressed and cut. In the meat industry, the bacon to be cooled below 4.44 ° C in less than six hours for bacterial growth to occur, thereby promoting sustainability.

Production
In the Netherlands, Bacon mainly produced by the Large White (Great Yorkshire) pig. Dutch bacon is largely exported to countries in Europe and parts of Asia.

Popular culture
In the United States and Canada, there is a kind of subculture creation of bacon enthusiasts. Books, videos, internetmemes and events are dedicated to bacon and a whole range of recipes and products with bacon in it, including bacon- mayonnaise, bacon- vodka, bacon- donuts.