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BACON (AND PORK)

It should be so simple. Cover a fresh pork back or belly with salt and a little sugar, leave it to cure, then mature it in a cold, dry room and you have bacon. But simple it isn’t. Traditionally cured bacon is still available but the majority of commercial bacon is produced very differently – and much of it is imported from other European countries, a long way from our breakfast tables. The same issues apply to bacon’s raw material, fresh pork. This ranges from slow-grown traditional breeds with sublime flavour and superb cooking qualities (meaning less shrinkage and no seeping white paste during cooking) to characterless, pale, fatless joints that are as disappointing as they are cheap. It is worth bearing in mind that, due to the poor cooking quality of such pork, the cheapest pork is not always the best value.

What methods are used to make commercially
cured bacon?

Commercially made bacon is wet cured in brine with either phosphates or a derivative. Injected into the meat, phosphates encourage the absorption of water, which boosts the weight of the meat. This is the milky liquid that seeps from the bacon as it fries. Bacon cured this way will retain a higher level of salt – a matter of concern to anyone watchful of their diet.

How is traditional bacon made?

It can be wet or dry cured. The former is placed in a brine tub with salt, sodium nitrite (E250 – note nitrite not nitrate) and potassium nitrate (E252, otherwise known as saltpetre), plus the spices, sugar or seasoning that give it its character. Dry-cured bacon is placed in a mixture of dry salt, sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate, seasonings and/ or spices. Nitrates give bacon its pink colour. Ordinary salt produces very unappealing grey bacon. Organic production permits the use of both. After curing, it is hung to dry and mature. With no injections of phosphates, traditional cures are less salty and the flavour of the meat more obvious. These two methods are well suited to traditional, slow-growing pig breeds.

Should I be concerned about the preservatives in bacon?

Obviously excessive salt in bacon is not healthy but it is much better to eat bacon that has been dry cured or traditionally brined (the Wiltshire cure) than injected with brine and phosphates, as is sometimes the case with commercial cured pork. The preservative with the greater problem is potassium nitrite (E249), which is not permitted in food specifically made for infants and small children because it can affect the body’s ability to carry oxygen and is therefore a danger to asthma sufferers or those with respiratory illness. Just to confuse matters further, sodium nitrate (E251) and sodium nitrite (E250) can also be used in the curing process. The latter is controversial and some retailers will not permit its use because it is potentially harmful to children.

Who makes bacon?

Britain, Holland and Denmark are major producers but bacon is also made in the Irish Republic, France, Germany and Spain. The majority of bacon eaten in the UK is imported, mainly from Holland and Denmark, and the figure is on the increase. Recently it was reported that imports have increased by 38 per cent to 300,000 tonnes, and that excludes fresh pork that is imported and cured in the UK.

Why not eat imports?

It is largely a moral choice. Welfare for British pigs, especially breeding sows, is of a higher standard. It is estimated that two-thirds of breeding sows in other EU countries (apart from Sweden, whose welfare standards are more on a par with UK ones) are kept indoors, confined individually in small stalls all their lives. In the UK, indoor-farmed breeding sows are confined during birth and for four weeks after the birth in ‘farrowing crates’, which measure six feet by four feet (the pigs weigh about 250 kilos). The reason given is to protect the piglets, and British pig farmers say they are trying to design a larger, more welfare-friendly crate. Once the sows have mated again – about five weeks after the last litter – they are moved to pens where they are kept in groups for the duration of the pregnancy – about five months. They may be on straw bedding, which is good, but could be on slatted floors – not good. Young indoor-reared British pigs are loose housed in pens, about half of them on deep litter straw.

In all European countries (apart from Sweden) pigs are kept in groups. Tail docking is permitted in Europe and the UK, but only under veterinary supervision, so at least farmers are not routinely carrying it out. Nose rings are permitted, but rare in the UK.

Is all British pork welfare friendly?

No. Welfare experts say standards for 70 per cent of pigs (reared indoors) could be improved. The other 30 per cent are reared outdoors, where they can behave more naturally, but they must have some sort of shelter.

What do pigs eat?

In spite of being omnivores, British and European pigs are now, in the most part, vegetarians. Meat and bone meal feed are banned (due to BSE), and so is pigswill (which by definition contains meat waste) because it is thought it can spread diseases such as foot and mouth. Pigs are permitted some fishmeal, but it must constitute no more than three per cent of their feed. Pigs can eat dairy waste, such as whey from cheese making, but this is sadly rare (the whole Parma ham/ Parmesan business was founded on feeding pigs whey). Whether or not this enforced vegetarian diet affects their growth is not yet known – will the pig of the future evolve with no meat-eating teeth?

Pigs are now fed dried concentrates of cereals including soya (which can be GM derived); co-product feed from the food industry, such as biscuits (so they are snacking on lots of sugar, salt and hydrogenated fat!); or waste from the non-meat ready-meal business. Farmers can also choose to ‘wet feed’ a sort of nice porridge with cereals and, best of all, Greenwich Gold, the leftover ‘mash’ from London gin making. If I were a pig I know what I would choose from the menu. Roots are the correct natural feed for outdoor pigs, who love turnips, but best of all is the acorn and apple diet of woodland- or orchard-reared pigs. Ideally some common sense regarding pig feed needs to be applied; a return to eating fat from butchery or poultry waste could be a good thing.

Look at it this way – if the science was right, feeding meat and bone meal to vegetarians (cattle) caused a disaster; should we now be depriving natural omnivores of the small amount of flesh they would naturally eat in the wild?

When is British bacon not British?

In theory a side of Danish- or Dutch-reared pork could be cured, sliced and packed in Britain and then be labelled British (the country of origin on the pack will read ‘UK’). Beware of packaging dressed up to look ‘olde’ – the bacon may be nothing of the sort. It must be said that supermarkets often differentiate between British and, say, Danish because consumers enjoy the taste and size of the Danish rashers. Well and good, but for me welfare remains a big issue. It is a perfect example of how uneven the playing field can be among the European member states when it comes to food production.

What’s in a bacon sandwich?

It’s hard to tell, but 85 per cent of bacon sold through catering outlets – such as restaurants, takeaways, cafés, motorway service stations, schools, hospitals and office canteens – is imported. No need for a label makes it easy to hide.

What the supermarkets say

None of the ‘Big Four’ supermarkets would reveal what percentage of British bacon they sell. Waitrose says 82 per cent of its bacon is British and Budgens’ own label is 100 per cent British. Some supermarkets sell speciality bacon (including organic – look for Soil Association for ultra-high welfare standards for the pigs), which is cured in the traditional manner (seek out British bacon made from British-reared pork).

Artisan-made bacon by post

Traditionally made bacon stores well, so it makes sense to buy in large quantities to justify the price of home delivery. All the producers listed below offer a mail-order service.

Blackface.co.uk, Weatherall Foods Ltd, Crochmore House,Irongray, Dumfries DG2 9SFTel: 01387 730326www.blackface.co.uk

Pork from ‘Iron Age’ pigs (a cross between Tamworth and wild boar), with a darker, fuller-flavoured meat.

Bleiker’s Smoke House Ltd, Glasshouses Mill, Glasshouses,Harrogate, North Yorkshire HG3 5QHTel: 01423 71141 Iwww.bleikers.co.uk

Smoked food experts, Jurg and Jane Bleiker, dry cure and smoke backs of 100 per cent British free-range pork, deep in the Yorkshire Dales.

Brampton Wild Boar, Blue Tile Farm, Lock’s Road, Brampton,Beccles, Suffolk NR34 8DXTel: 01502 575246

Deep-flavoured bacon from fourth-generation purebred boar.

Denhay Farms Ltd, Broadoak, Bridport, Dorset DT6 5NPTel: 01308 422717www.denhay.co.uk

Bacon from free-range pigs fed a natural diet. Denhay also make the excellent organic Duchy Originals bacon, which is widely available in supermarkets. Denhay bacon is available through mail order.

Heal Farm Meats, Heal Farm, Kings Nympton, Devon EX37 9TBTel: 01769 574341www.healfarm.co.uk

Organic bacon made using traditional breeds, reared in exceptional conditions: British Lop, Tamworth, Welsh and more.

Maynards Farm Bacon, Weston-under-Redcastle, Shrewsbury,Shropshire SY4 5LRTel: 01948 840252www.maynardsfarm.co.uk

Various traditionally cured styles of bacon, made with the interesting addition of spices in the cure such as ginger and caraway.

Richard Woodall Ltd, Lane End, Waberthwaite, Nr Millom,Cumbria LA 19 5YJTel: 01229 717237www.richardwoodall.com

Award-winning bacon from a closed herd of Landrace and Large White pigs.

Sillfield Farm, Endmoor, Kendal, Cumbria LA8 0HZTel: 015395 67609www.sillfield.co.uk

Peter Gott’s skilfully made bacon is produced from beautifully cared-for pigs that roam almost wild.

Slacks, Newlands Farm, Raisbeck, Orton, Penrith,Cumbria CA10 3SGTel: 01539 624667www.edirectory.co.uk/slacks

Air-dried bacon from locally sourced, free-range, dairy-fed pigs.