Ayrshire Bacon Recipe

[Parson Snows]

AYRSHIRE BACON

Region of Production: South West Scotland

DESCRIPTION
Smoked or unsmoked (green) cured pork for cooking.
Colour: cream fat, dark pink flesh
Flavour: mildly cured, very lightly salted; depends on its flavour on the breed and quality of pig rather then the cure. Ayrshire bacon is made from Great White premium-grade pigs. Both skin and bones are removed before curing. The back or cutlet part and the streaky or flank are not separated. Once cured, the middle is rolled tightly, the fat side outermost. The gigot (leg) is rolled and tied and the shoulder cut into boiling joints. These are known as an Aryshire roll.

HISTORY
This is the only distinctive bacon cure in Scotland. It is thought to have arisen in the South-West, which has a history of dairying going back to at least to the 1600s. In Britain, by-products from the cheese and butter industries have always been used to feed pigs. Potatoes too, grown in south-west Scotland, contributed much to their diet (Mahey, 1978). Demand may have been stimulated by the presence of many large, wealthy households in the Upper Clyde. Ramsay�s of Carluke has been making Aryshire bacon since 1857 and is now the largest producer.

The bacon was always skinned, boned and rolled. Rolling is necessary because the flank is left attached to the side, giving a very long rasher: the only sensible method for dealing with it is to roll with the meat. In contrast to other cures in Britain, the carcasses are not scalded after slaughter. This is because the bristles, normally scraped away with hot water, are removed with the skin. The end product has a finer colour and firmer texture than meat which has been scalded.

The rolled back-bacon is usually cut thinly into rashers and grilled or fried. The round shape of the cut is convenient as a filling for a roll. In the cities of central Scotland, bacon rolls are a popular fast-food � eaten at any time of the day. The gigot is usually cut into steaks for grilling or frying. Both the gigot and the shoulder may be cut into joints for boiling. The term ham in Scotland loosely refers to any kind of bacon and not just the cured leg joint which is the usual English interpretation. In Scotland, this is called cooked ham or gammon.

TECHNIQUE
Only gilts (young female pigs) of a specified weight are used by Ramsay�s. The whole side is boned out and the skin removed. It is wet-brined in a pickle including brown sugar for 2 days with a small portion of nitrates for preservation. It is dried for 2-3 weeks before it is cut up and rolled. Less than half the production is lightly smoked over oak chips. Some bacon with the back and streaky still in one piece, which has been cured with the skin on and the bone still in, is subsequently skinned, boned and rolled into the Aryshire cylindrical shape. It is described as Aryshire-style bacon but is not true Aryshire. Some Aryshire bacon curers also cure whole legs on the bone but because the skin and bones have not been removed, neither is this regarded as an Aryshire cure. The demand for smoked or unsmoked is a local preference. A spiced cure tends to be a festive speciality and is only made in small quantities to order.

The following recipe has been taken (verbatim) from �The Scottish Cookery Book� by Elizabeth Craig � 1956

Aryshire Bacon
1 small side of pork
6 oz. salt
8 oz. moist brown sugar
1 oz. saltpetre
1 pint white vinegar (UK pint)

You must use home-fed pork for this bacon. Bone it, then mix the salt with the sugar and saltpeter, and rub it well into the pork, paying particular attention to the cut side from which the bones have been removed. Place in a dry pickling pan (my note: non-metallic) or crock, and sprinkle any of the pickle that remains over it. Leave for 3 days in a cool place, then sprinkle with the vinegar. Turn the pork in the pickle daily for a month, then remove from pickle and hang up to drain for 24 hours. Flatten it out on a board, then roll up tightly, the rind outwards, and fasten into a roll with strong string (my note: refer to sketches below). Hang up in a current of air. Leave until quite dry, then boil and serve cold, or slice and fry or grill.

For Butcher�s Knots see this site
http://www.amescompany.com/productspecs/knotway.html

kind regards

Parson Snows