In the long years without refrigerators, fresh pork is difficult to preserve, so smart Xiangxi people usually choose to kill pigs that have been raised at home for a year in cold winter. In addition to the fresh meat to be eaten in the New Year, the remaining meat will be pickled first, and then hung on the stove to dry into bacon for the next year. Today, bacon is not only the favorite of Hunan people, but also the favorite of many diners. Today, my aunt will teach you how to cook bacon, and finally there are two special dishes made with bacon. Don't miss it!

Production of bacon:

1. When curing bacon, you usually choose two cuts of meat, that is, the meat near the hind legs.

2. Cut the meat into long strips, stir-fry the sea salt on the fire, grind it and apply it evenly on the surface of the meat, rubbing the pork while applying it to make it fully absorb the salt.

3. Burn the wok red, roast the meat in the wok, let the meat fully absorb salt through heat until the skin is burnt, then cover the meat in a plastic bucket and air it for 4-5 days.

4. Put the marinated meat on the rope, smoke and bake it for 24 hours at 100℃, and stop cooling and deoiling at 1 day; Smoked at 80℃ 12 hours, cooled 1 day until wax oil dripped naturally. At this time, the fat has been translucent. Finally, smoke at 30-40℃ for 5-6 hours to make the meat smell smoky. The temperature in this step should not be too high, otherwise the fat will melt easily.

There are many fuels for smoked bacon, such as branches, sawdust, chaff, etc., among which rice bran is the best, because rice bran is alkaline, and the smoked bacon is rich in fragrance and bright in color, while the bacon smoked with sawdust and branches is often dark in color, and the fragrance only floats on the surface of the meat.

Preservation of bacon:

Wash the bacon, absorb the moisture, seal it with plastic wrap, and store it in the freezer.

Identification of cured meat:

The quality of bacon sold in the market is mixed, how to identify it? Good bacon has a dry surface and is firm and elastic to pinch. After cutting, lean meat is bright red or dark red, and fat meat is transparent or milky white. On the other hand, if the meat is soft and inelastic, there is mucus on the surface, the meat color is dull, the fat is yellow, moldy and smelly, indicating that it is defective and has deteriorated.