Bacon is a processed product made from meat that has been cured and then baked (or exposed to sunlight). Bacon has a strong antiseptic ability, which can prolong the preservation time and add a unique flavor, which is the main difference with salted meat. In the past, bacon was processed in the lunar month (December), so it is called bacon.
Bacon is a specialty of the central and western regions of Sichuan, Shaanxi, Hunan and Hubei, and has a history of several thousand years. According to records, as early as two thousand years ago, Zhang Lu called Han Ning Wang, defeated south to go Bazhong, passing through Hanzhong Hongmiao Tang, Hanzhong people with the best bacon to entertain him; and rumors, the Qing dynasty Guangxu twenty-six years, Empress Dowager Cixi with the Guangxu Emperor took refuge in Xi'an, the local officials in southern Shaanxi Province has been tributed to the imperial bacon, Cixi after eating, praise. The traditional habit of processing and making bacon is not only ancient, but also common. Whenever the winter waxing month, that is, "Snow" to "spring" before, families kill pigs and slaughter sheep, in addition to save enough fresh meat for New Year's Eve, the rest of the multiply fresh salt, with a certain proportion of pepper, fennel, aniseed, cinnamon, cloves and other spices, pickled in the tank. After seven to fifteen days, it is strung up with palm leaf ropes, dripped dry and processed. Selected cypress branches, sugar cane bark, Tsubaki bark or firewood fire slowly smoked, and then hung up with smoke fire slowly smoked dry. It is hung on the top of a wood-burning stove or over a wood-burning oven, and slowly dried by smoke. The western region is rich in forests and grass, and almost every family burns firewood for cooking or heating, which is a favorable condition for smoking bacon. Even if the city people, although not kill pigs and slaughter sheep, but every winter and wax month, but also in the market to pick that good white meat, or fat or thin, buy some, go home as the method of curing, smoked on a few pieces of bacon, taste taste bacon. If you don't have a wood fire at home, you can ask your friends and relatives in the countryside to smoke a few pieces.
Smoked bacon, the same table, cooked and cut into slices, transparent and shiny, bright color, yellow and red, eat up the taste of mellow, fat is not greasy mouth, thin is not stuffed with teeth, not only the flavor is unique, nutritious, but also has the appetizer, cold, digestion and other functions. Southern Shaanxi bacon to maintain the color, aroma, taste, shape are all good characteristics, there is a "family cooking meat hundred incense" praise.
Bacon from fresh meat processing, production to storage, meat quality unchanged, long-term flavor, there is a long time to put the characteristics of not bad. This meat is smoked because of the Department of cypress branches, so the summer mosquitoes and flies do not climb, by three volts and does not deteriorate, become a unique local flavor food.
Sichuan bacon, a long history, famous in China and abroad. The whole process of production is divided into three steps: preparation, curing and smoking.
1, preparation: take thin skin, fat and lean moderately fresh or frozen meat scraping the skin meat dirt, cut into 0.8 a l kg, 4-5 cm thick standard ribbed meat strips. If the production of boneless bacon, but also to remove the bones. Processing bone bacon with salt 7 kilograms, 0.2 kilograms of fine nitrate, pepper 0.4 kilograms. Processing boneless bacon with salt 2.5 kilograms, 0.2 kilograms of refined nitrate, 5 kilograms of sugar, white wine and soy sauce prepared 3.7 kilograms, 3-4 kilograms of distilled water. Accessories before preparation, salt and nitrate crushed, pepper, fennel, cinnamon and other spices dried and crushed fine.
2, there are three ways to marinate: (l) dry dry. Cut meat strips and dry marinade wipe wipe through, according to the meat face - down order into the tank, the top layer of skin face up. The remaining dry marinade on the upper layer of meat strips, marinated for 3 days to turn the tank; (2) wet marinade. Cured boneless bacon into the preparation of marinade marinade for 15-18 hours, in the middle of turning the tank 2 times; (3) mixed guess. Meat strips with dry dry material rubbed into the tank, poured into the sterilized Chen marinade submerged meat strips, mixed marinade in the amount of salt does not exceed 6%.
3, smoked cured meat with bones, must be rinsed and dried before smoking. Usually every hundred kilograms of meat embryo need to use charcoal 8-9 kilograms, wood chips 12-14 kilograms. Will dry the meat embryo hanging in the smokehouse, ignite the wood chips, close the door of the smokehouse, so that the smoke spread evenly, the initial temperature of 70 ℃ in the smokehouse, 3-4 hours after the gradual reduction to 50-56 ℃, keep 28 hours or so for the finished product. Just into the bacon, shall be after 3-4 months of preservation to make mature.
The shortcomings of bacon
If we let go of the "taste" for the time being, from a nutritional and health point of view, bacon is not a suitable food for many people, especially patients with chronic diseases such as hyperlipidemia, hyperglycemia, hypertension and elderly friends.
First of all, bacon is very high in fat. By weight, 100 grams of bacon contains as much as 50 percent fat; not only that, but bacon also contains a considerable amount of cholesterol -- 123 milligrams of cholesterol per 100 grams, which is 50 percent higher than pork! There is a lot of evidence that saturated fat and cholesterol are the "risk factors" for high blood cholesterol. Secondly, bacon loses a lot of nutrients. In the production process, meat in many vitamins and trace elements are almost lost, such as vitamin B1, vitamin B2, niacin, vitamin C content are zero. It can be said that bacon is a "double nutritional imbalance" of food. This double imbalance on the adverse effects of health may also be "worse". Thirdly, the salt content of bacon is high. 100 grams of bacon has a sodium content of nearly 800 milligrams, which is more than ten times the average amount of pork. Eating large quantities of bacon over a long period of time invariably results in excessive salt intake, which may aggravate or lead to increased or fluctuating blood pressure.
Scientific selection and consumption of fats and oils is very important for people with high blood pressure. Eating a lot of fats and oils is not good for your health, but eating no oils at all is also not desirable. Daily diet can choose to monounsaturated fatty acid-based vegetable oils, such as olive oil, tea oil, etc., to reduce "bad cholesterol" and raise "good cholesterol" is helpful. However, even the best "oil" must be eaten in moderation, 20-25 grams per day is enough,
Lastly, the use of fruit wood carbon is the best ~!