It has been some time since I added to this post and a lot of things have moved/gone on, some life threatening, most life changing.
These are things we all have to live with as we make our way through our time on earth. How we spend our time upon this rock we all call home for the short time we are allowed denotes (usually) what people think about us when we are gone.
These things as well as others; one (or should) ponders while traveling along the path we make for ourselves in the short time we are here
There are some of you out there who know me as a transplanted person in a foreign land, others as close friends while others who know that I would and will go to the ends of the earth (and back) for them
This was going to be a simple post with what I had hoped would be another classic example of doing thing the simple way to achieve something (what I hoped) was another hit/loving example of ‘real’ bacon.
After posing the following bacon on Twitter a close friend asked for the recipe and how it was done, I complied and gave of such saying that this was just a simple thing but in fact was a life changing thing. The reply was that it was too simple and (possibly?) not worth it
The things I do or make are really not that significant or great and when it all boils down as long as they seem to please my pallet and possibly be able sell some of it to make money to live then all (I hope) is well with the world
Before we go too much further I do have to say that this post is not about a put down of any person (living or dead) but to show how the very simple things that we do can and are life changing
The bacon that I posted above I had not made for well over five years due to the fact that I do not (at the moment) have a retail outlet, only a hole in the wall (with no windows) where I make things I sell wholesale (another story for another time)
I used to make three hundred pounds of this bacon a week that I sold in my shop (along with other types of bacon), yes Wheels; even back then I was slowly educating North Americans on what proper bacon taste like
The meat industry as a very young lad growing up and working in the trade in the UK has always been synonyms with Smithfield Market the one and only (as far as I am concerned) Smithfield
As a young lad growing up I had heard of stories of bacon that was doubled smoked and as black as toby’s a*** and formed a mental image of it and while running my shop I had always wanted to reproduce something along these lines
Fast forward to the beginning of last November when I had a conversation on my face book page with a person (Cathy) whom I had wrongly assumed was the wife of a friend of my children, which in fact was his mother. The conversation got around to the subject of bacon and how she missed the particular taste of it and did I still make it. After much humming and haring we finally came to the conclusion it was the Smithfield bacon that I used to make well over five years ago. I did inform her that no I did not make but as someone else had enquired along the lines I would possibly think about it after the New Year due to Christmas overload and personal things.
Christmas came and went and I was/am trying to get my personal life back on track and so less important things get shoved to the back. Smithfield bacon is not as important as getting production back on track as well as producing Haggis for the event that was coming up at the end of January (by the way; this operation is a one man (gong) show)
On the 22nd of February I get a call from Rick that his mother was terminally ill with cancer, had already been under the knife to have one tumor remove from the spine and was due to go under again for one that was pressing against the brain and had not long to live.
Cathy, Rick tells me had three requests –
1) to meet one last time all her close friends. -
2) to meet Mike Holmes (a Canadian residential home improvement contractor and television show host) and -
3) the Smithfield bacon that I used to do
Bacon as I make it takes at the very minimum, three weeks and that’s pushing it. The Smithfield bacon if done proper takes a minimum of four weeks and the unknown equation of how much time I have is the unknown factor
It was without hesitation that I started the journey and the process of producing the Smithfield bacon
https://www.facebook.com/14165925586358 ... =1&theaterEverything was stacked against me, time of which I did not know how much I had. The end process on making this bacon as my mentor who devised the end process of making said bacon had long passed away and the most important part of the process was the hot smoking of the bacon and to that extent I had (and still to this day) no confidence in the present people who run the smokehouse
The process of making this bacon was I know plain sailing up until the bellies went out to the smokehouse. The one thing I needed was a product that was painted on the outside of the bellies once cured and this I had no idea of what it was. I knew the sores but not the product and to make matter worse the head fellow for the branch that the product comes from had retired some months ago and was traveling so no contact. After talking to a close friend who used to work the smokehouse in the good days we came up with the answer ---- caramel colour ($80.00 cost).
The only other obstacle was going to be the hot smoking as Gunther used to only hot smoke bellies to 145 degrees F and I could not trust the new owners (as they have screwed up before numerous times even with repeated cautions) to smoke right as this was going to be a one shot so I went the safe rout with cold smoking hoping that it would not change things too much
I am truly glad to say that thing worked out as the product came out as good if not better than I hoped or expected as Cathy passed away just over a week ago having got to taste the bacon one final time
I was not going to post this as it is written as some people may see it as blowing ones own horn, far from it but the question was asked by NCPaul
Did something go wrong?