Food & Drink
Reconnect with food traditions and make your own bacon. It will be the best you ever taste
Recipes from Neil Forbes, plus Rose Murray Brown on the rise of concrete eggs in wine production
Everything but the oink is an old saying that means every part of a pig is edible in one way or another. There’s the blood for black pudding, the innards for frying or pâté, the intestines for sausages, the head for brawn or Bath chaps. Italians adore the brains in an omelette, the prime cuts for chops and roasting, the legs for hams, and even the ears are delicious served as a crispy snack. For me, nose-to-tail eating is about using all the animal as a matter of respect.
For centuries people kept pigs in a sty out the back. It was a great, sustainable way of using up kitchen scraps and they also acted as guard pigs for any unwelcome guests! November was the usual month for slaughtering. The temperature was cooler so the meat wouldn’t go off quickly. Salting would take place and legs would be brined, then smoked and odd bits would be made into sausages, pâté, terrines, pies, even confited, and stored for the long winter months. After curing, the legs would be hung above the fireplace and gently smoked giving the hams a wonderful flavour. This was the way to preserve before refrigeration was invented.
It’s a shame we are losing these ancient traditions. We now wander around supermarkets buying prepacked plastic trays of chops and sausages and accept that as the norm. We have lost so many old British varieties of pig and now predominantly eat a commercial fastgrowing breed to achieve maximum profit. Many farmers’ market stallholders still sell old, rare breeds of pig. Try them and discover the different tastes. And remember, pork must be fatty for great flavour!
Pork belly, champ, crispy sage, fennel and lemon butter
We often use this classic way of cooking pork belly at Cafe St Honoré. It’s simple: skin removed, boned out, seasoned, rolled, tied, braised, chilled, then cut and pan fried. The process creates a wonderful taste that’s not fatty, with the fennel seed and lemon helping to cut through the richness. Buttery champ is so good with the pork, and the addition of sage is classic, but optional.
Serves four to six 750g rare-breed organic pork belly, skinned and boned 2 tbsp fennel seeds 1 carrot, scrubbed and halved 1 onion, peeled and halved 1 stick celery, halved a few sprigs thyme 1 bay leaf a few peppercorns zest of 1 lemon good salt and pepper 400g good mash made with lots of butter 3 or 4 spring onions, finely chopped a small handful of sage leaves, gently shallow-fried until just crisp and dried on kitchen paper 2 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil 75g unsalted butter
1 Pre-heat the oven to 160C/gas Mark 3.
2 Lay the pork belly on a board and season with salt and pepper, then sprinkle over half the fennel seeds and half the lemon zest. Roll the belly up like a swiss roll and tie with butchers’ twine, or string, but not too tight.
3 Place the pork in a pot and cover with hot water. Add the carrot, onion, celery, thyme, bay leaf and peppercorns. Bring the pot to the simmer then cover with a lid or foil and place into the oven for 3 to 4 hours until the meat is very tender.
4 Remove from the oven and allow the pork to cool in the liquid for about an hour or so, no rush. Once cooled, remove from the liquid and drain on a tea towel to make sure it’s dry.
5 Line your work surface with 4 layers of clingfilm about 6 inches wider than the belly and place the pork onto the cling film. Remove the string with scissors and discard, then roll the pork in the clingfilm very tightly and refrigerate overnight.
6 To cook, preheat the oven to 180C/ Gas Mark 4, then cut 4 slices of pork about an inch or so thick, and fry in the rapeseed oil for 3 to 5 minutes each side. Place the pan in the oven for 5 minutes to ensure the pork is hot and coloured. It should be a lovely golden colour.
7 Meanwhile, melt the butter in a pot, add the remaining fennel seeds and lemon zest to it. Season.
8 Just before serving, add the chopped spring onions to the heated mash to make champ, and place some in the centre of each plate. Top with the sliced pork and spoon over the sauce. Garnish with crispy sage leaves. Serve at once.
Organic cabbage, my bacon, crushed black pudding
This can be a starter, a side dish or even a main with a fried egg on top. I love Scottish black pudding. Stornoway is great, but Lawson’s do a fresh blood, traditional version of this incredible food. All over the world many countries have a version of a black pudding. In France it’s boudin noir, morcilla in Spain, and so on. Give the bacon a go, it really is interesting making it, and the taste is unbelievable. Much better than anything you can buy in the shops.
Serves four
Neil will be appearing at Christmas Foodies Festival at EICC from 23-25 November. See www.foodiesfestival.com
1 medium Savoy, January King or hispi cabbage, quartered and shredded 2 slices of good black pudding, I like Stornoway 500g piece of pork belly, skin on, bone in 300g coarse sea salt 150g dark brown soft sugar 4 star anise 1 tbsp fennel seeds 1 measure whisky 1 tbsp ground white pepper a little oil 50g unsalted butter good salt and pepper
1 Begin the bacon by making a cure. Mix the coarse salt, dark brown sugar, star anise and fennel seeds together in a bowl. Then add half of the mix to a container that will fit in the fridge – ideally made of plastic with a lid and add the pork belly. Cover with the remaining cure mix and massage well to ensure the surface of the pork is covered.
2 Place the tub in the fridge and every day – at the same time if you can – massage the pork belly quite vigorously, turning it over in the salt mixture. It’s a good sign to see liquid in the bottom of the tub – try to incorporate that with the cure as you rub.
3 Continue to do this for 6 to 7 days. 6 days for a thinner, less fatty piece of pork belly, and 7 for a thicker piece. Don’t be tempted to use a skinless or
boneless pork as it will end up being too salty.
4 After day 7, remove the belly from the salty mixture and rinse under the tap for a good 5 to 10 minutes. Allow the pork to dry then wash with whisky and dredge with white pepper. Hang somewhere cold like a stone outhouse, or on a cooling rack in the fridge, for 3 to 7 days. This process is called dry ageing, and it allows the pork to take on the flavour of the spices and whisky. After this time, trust me, you will have the best bacon you have ever tasted.
5 To prepare the dish, remove 150g of bacon from the belly, discarding any skin, and cut into lardons. Fry in a little oil until golden.
6 Place the black pudding under the grill until warmed through.
7 Meanwhile, blanch the shredded cabbage in boiling, salted water for 2 minutes, then add to a pan with the butter. Stir and season.
8 Add the bacon to the cabbage and stir. (Retain the fat from the pan as it’s great for adding to oatcakes and bread, or frying any greens alongside a little butter).to serve, place the cabbage and bacon on a warmed plate and top with crumbled black pudding.
Oatcakes
I have been making oatcakes since I was a wee boy. I love the simplicity of mixing oats with salt, water and fat to create something so good to eat. I love watching them cook on a girdle over a fire where the flames lick around the edge as they cook in the sizzle of pork fat.
Makes 30 500g pinhead oatmeal 100g porridge oats 400g plain flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 150g bacon fat or butter 30g sugar 15g salt 250ml water 1 Heat oven to 180C/gas Mark 4. 2 Combine the oats, flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and sugar in a mixing bowl and give it a good mix before adding the bacon fat or butter. Continue to blend and slowly trickle in the water, a little at a time, to make a soft dough.
3 Roll into sausage shapes and refrigerate for a couple of hours, before cutting into 1cm thick discs. Place these onto a greaseproof-paperlined baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour until golden and deliciously crunchy.