Day Three

 

Once upon a time, "Day 3"in my family lexicon, was a day to be feared. A day to look sideways and not make too much  noise. To make oneself scarce and avoid eye contact. I've even worked with people who've diarised "Day Three" as a warning.

But with the advent of the Mirena(tm) and the onset of perimenopause, Day Three has finally been humbled. 

And, in fact, now, might just be something to celebrate.

The above pic shows the next step in my attempt to make my own bacon.

Yesterday morning, when I checked it, the soon-to-be-bacon had dried out quite nicely, except for the bottom, which was still quite moist. So I decided to wrap the whole thing in a cloth, re-salt it and apply some weight. 

Enter:

 As you can see, I've drawn enough moisture out of the meat for it to have enough structural integrity not to sag over a bowl, It's much denser than it was originally, and because I'm a Nurse, it had to pass the sniff test, which it did admirably.

You can see from this photo that the texture/structure/colour of the meat has changed well, and is looking much more like bacon, than like pork.

I've re-wrapped it, added a new layer of salt and a bit of pepper, and I'll check it again tomorrow, I am planning on a five day cure. Tomorrow will be day 4, so we'll see.

Still researching methods and recipes for the smoking, so let me know if you have any tips.