For me this started many eons ago at a tender young age of about five; it used to be a race in the morning between my two sisters and I to see whom would be up early enough to cook our mothers bacon sandwich. Them that are old enough will remember the war where everything was on ration; there are others that remember a short time later when rationing was still on due to the Suez Crisis of the early fifties hence mother had the bacon as well as the butter, us poor bairn’s could only chew on the smell until we found out that cooking the bacon rind on a high heat gave us the fixings that we craved
Growing up as a child in the early fifties was a treat as of yet food as I and some other oldies remember the taste of things that had not been tainted with chemicals and additives as most of today’s products are. As a young lad starting in the trade I went to college to further my education within the trade hopefully advancing my way up the ladder.
Whilst at college we learned the fundamentals of the trade, math, English, science, biology and refrigeration. What really fascinated me were the different breeds of beef lamb and pork, now as a young lad I took all this for granted as each had a long history and Mrs Jones loved her fillet (bottom end of the leg opposed to the shank end for our North American friends) of pork for the Sunday joint.
How things change, and not for the better
Mrs Smith came along and decided that she did not like all the good fat associated with good wholesome pork and before too long there came a change to breed lean pork that had more meat and could be killed sooner than later
You are now beginning to wonder what all this has to do with ‘Bacon” bare with me as you need to know where you have come from in order to get back there from here
Five and a half years travelling around the world on cruise liners then emigrating out to Canada I started to hear rumours of what was/is called ‘Rear Breads’, this perked my interest as I had not come across this whilst at college. Upon delving into it more I found to my dismay it was the breads that I had grown up with
In the UK we placed our pigs in three distinct categories;
Pork Carcase; Berkshire, Middle White. Bacon Type Carcase; Tamworth, Large White and Multi-purpose Pigs; Landrace. The following breeds can be described as intermediate types; Lincolnshire Curly Coat, Large Black
I was asked politely with tongue in cheek
Robert (brican), can you please 'av a word with your new North American mates and educate them about bacon not being hot smoked, or for that matter cooked in advance?
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=8992 I think (?) (please see disclaimer on tag line) our fine North American friends have been eating what they class as ‘bacon’ out this way for so long it must seem a strange concept to listen to us talking about ‘real bacon’ that has the complexity of flavours and texture --- and that’s before it’s cooked and defiantly not hot smoked as that just plain ruins/destroys the complexity of flavours one has worked hard to produce.
It still amazes me each time I place unsmoked (green) bacon in an unbeliever’s hand as I did two days ago (unsmoked (green) Ayrshire short back bacon) after explaining how to cook sent him on his way. Today he tells me that his girlfriend does not like any type of bacon but persuades her to try ---- she just about ate the whole pound
In the meantime I had been reading (and swearing at the screen) about Ayrshire bacon and how some fine people over here http://wedlinydomowe.pl/en/viewtopic.ph ... hire+bacon believed that it was held together with ‘meat glue’, what it seemed that they did not know the fundamentals of dry curing bacon the traditional UK way.
The other part of this equation was the question that came up about Whole hog purchase and butchering http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=8968 and DanMcG timely request
I'd also like to see some back bacon pic's Brican...
One thing has lead to another and thus the journey has begun.
Trying to explain that we can and do turn the (or just about) whole hog into bacon can and may seem mind boggling to our North American friends so with taking photos to place in the tread Whole hog purchase and butchering for Vindii I carried on preparing the pork middle to answer the question about Ayrshire bacon in that other fine forum.
I have my own Ayrshire bacon spice recipe which I got from a young lady who was in charge of the catering department at Glasgow University (in1990), I use it with great success on my Ayrshire Short Back, but this time for this project I needed something new to try – besides I was bored
I revisited Maynard Davies Manual of a Traditional Curer and on page 58 there is a recipe for Traditional Ayrshire Bacon. I have looked the recipe over many times before but not to this degree – the challenge was now on.
First things first is get the pork ready for curing;
Pork Middle
Tenderloin coming out
Starting to take out the ribs – first off is taking out the breast bone
The ribs follow
Removing the hip bone
Back bone next
All bones out
Chump (top Sirloin) removed; used for pork chops – sausages – stuffed pork chops (that's another story)
Top of the knife defining the cutting line for the long back
Top of the knife defining the cutting line for the short back
Ready to take off the rind
The start
Finished; rind off
Rolling to see how it looks before adding the curing salt and spices
This is as far as I go tonight/morning as this might/will get monotonous for some people – plus I need some sleep
Tune in next week; same time; same channel; same station
this is BriCan signing off for WWBD until next time --- eat more bacon
there's more challenge to it 
, I do a Wiltshire (style) cure now and Ramsay's is noted to be somewhat the same 
