Bacon is cured and dried.

Every few months before the Chinese New Year, when the weather is fine, you will see many people take out preserved fish and bacon to dry at home. Bacon is a traditional food in China, which can be preserved for a long time after curing and drying. So how long does bacon usually last? When is bacon the best?

Bacon is a kind of cured meat in China, which is mainly popular in Sichuan, Hunan and Guangdong, but it is also made in other parts of the south. Because it is usually cured on the second day of the twelfth lunar month, it is called "bacon".

Smoked bacon has the same appearance, cooked and sliced, transparent and shiny, bright color, yellow in red, mellow taste, fat but not greasy, thin but not stuffed with teeth, not only unique flavor, but also has the functions of appetizing, dispelling cold and promoting digestion. Hubei bacon has maintained the characteristics of good color, fragrance, taste and shape, and is known as "a hundred flowers in cook the meat".

How long does it usually take to cure bacon?

Bacon is produced in the north and south of China, with bacon in the south and preserved beef in the north.

It takes about 0.75 Jin of salt to make bacon and pork, and it takes about 3 hours to marinate with salt. If it is cured pork, it is best to choose pork belly with fat and thin, and the soup will be more fragrant. Zanthoxylum bungeanum and star anise should be put in a container with salt, so that the bacon will have a special taste. The season for making bacon and sausage should be around 10 degrees Celsius.

How long can bacon be dried in the sun?

From winter to the future, cured meat needs to be cured for 7 days and then dried. Bacon can be preserved in the twelfth lunar month (around January in the solar calendar) every year.

When pickling, don't wash the meat with water, remove all the bones, cut it into strips of about 2 kg, smear all the surface of the meat with salt, and then put it in containers in layers, and sprinkle some salt on each layer when putting it (if you want to taste good and increase the flavor, you can add some pepper, liquor and ginger when pickling); Finally, tie the container tightly. After a week, turn over the meat, sprinkle some salt on the surface, and then take it out and hang it on the balcony 14 days. This kind of bacon can be preserved for a long time.

When is the best time to dry bacon?

I don't know if you have heard of a little secret of drying bacon. The best time to dry bacon is from winter to 10.

Listen to the old man said that these days are the days with the least bugs in winter. The authentic bacon of the farmer has to be roasted in the sun. Choose sunny weather and hang pieces of bacon on the threshing floor or balcony in front of the farmhouse. After exposure to the sun, the oily bacon and the unique salty taste of bacon were exposed. After 1 ~ 2 months of smoking, air drying and sun exposure, the meat strips gradually lost water and became dry, and the color changed from white to golden yellow. The finished product was about 70 kg per 100 kg of fresh meat.

Can bacon be cured in one day?

"Some people think that the longer the bacon is dried, the more fragrant it is, but this is not the case." Jiang Peizhen reminded that studies have shown that the content of volatile basic nitrogen is gradually increasing during the drying process of bacon, which means that protein is prone to decomposition during the drying process of bacon. In addition, during the drying process, the peroxide value will gradually increase with the extension of drying time, especially from the fourth day after drying to 10 day. "In order to maintain the quality, nutritional value and edible value of bacon, it is best to eat it as soon as possible after refrigeration or drying for a certain period of time, which can not only maintain the taste of bacon and prevent it from further decomposing the protein of bacon, but also avoid the corresponding reduction of edible value of deteriorated bacon.

It should be noted that bacon needs a dry environment, so it is not suitable for long-term storage in the refrigerator. There are often vegetables, fruits and other foods in the refrigerator, which are prone to mildew when wet. If there is only a little mildew on the surface, it can be cleaned with warm water and dried in a ventilated place; If there is more mildew, it is not recommended to eat.

The meat used to make pickled food needs to be fresh.

It is very important to choose materials for making pickled foods, especially when making sausages and bacon, you must choose fresh pork. Fresh pork is compact, elastic and thin; Fat and tender, white and shiny, the lean meat part is reddish, shiny and non-sticky. Stale meat is dull, dark red in color, green and gray in section, soft, inelastic, sticky and smelly. Seriously rotten meat smells, so you must not buy it or eat it.

In addition to fresh materials, spices such as salt, pepper, cooking wine, sugar and mixed spices are also essential. However, it must not be excessive, especially the amount of salt needs to be scientifically mastered and cannot be used too much. When making, the salt and other ingredients are evenly mixed, evenly spread on various meat products, or poured out, and then the meat pieces are marinated in a certain container. If the sliced meat is made in winter or later and before beginning of spring, the curing time can be extended by 1 day due to the cold climate, and it is slightly warmer after beginning of spring, so the salt can be easily cured into the meat, and the curing time can be shortened by 1 day. The ingredients can be taken out after infiltrating into the meat block. First, the foam on the meat block is washed with clear water, and then a small hole is tied at the upper end of the meat block with a knife tip and tied with hemp rope, hung on a bamboo pole and placed in a ventilated place.