50 Foods by Edward Behr

Author:Edward Behr
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2013-10-30T16:00:00+00:00

HOW TO BUY AND STORE HAM AND BACON: In a store that sells raw ham in slices, ask for a taste. If you have the option, choose a ham that isn’t boned and ham or bacon that has never been in plastic. If you know a reliable producer, look for the name (the US hams I’ve bought in recent years have come from Gatton Farms and Benton’s Smoky Mountain). If you buy a whole ham, take courage and, in the area where you’ll start to carve, pare away the surface with a strong blade. I make the actual slices with a narrow twelve-inch slicing knife, which allows longer strokes and smoother slices with fewer saw marks. Once you’ve begun to cut into the ham, unless you take more slices every day or two, the exposed moist meat may mold. If that’s a danger, it makes sense to wrap and refrigerate a ham, though I’ve never done that. I do often drape the ham with plastic to hold in moisture.

Traditional dry-cured bacon comes with the rind on, which slows drying. A very little Southern country bacon is cured with the ribs in place, and if you have a sharp boning knife, you can order that as opposed to a “clear side.” The ribs further slow drying, and there’s good meat between them. As soon as bacon is sliced, it begins to lose flavor, so buy slab bacon and slice it yourself. I cut it, for straight, even slices, with a ten- or twelve-inch chef’s knife, whose heft is useful for getting through the rind and any dry edges. Store dry-cured bacon in the paper it comes in. At room temperature, especially in warm weather, mold can appear. For that reason, I often refrigerate bacon, and to reduce drying I add an outer layer of plastic. Dry-cured bacon remains tender and holds its best flavor for only a few weeks.

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