Making a Full English Breakfast from scratch.

[Workingman]

I have been reading a blog by an American who misses his time in England and the Full English Breakfasts he got used to, so he decided to make his own, but his main problems were getting sausages, beans and bacon of the right types. He has still not come anywhere near to making Heinz type beans, but he has been quite successful in making his own sausages and bacon.

His problems got me thinking..... So, I am going to try making sausages and bacon when I can cobble together all the bits and pieces.

In the market yesterday I priced up belly pork at £2.18/kg, pork loin at £3.90/kg and pork shoulder at £2.98/kg and the best thing about market butchers is that you can get any weight you want. I have all the spices and can easily make my own rusk (for the bangers) but I am having trouble with one absolutely necessary ingredient - saltpetre.

All the places I have looked want silly money for a small amount, or to sell it in big bags. It's all a bit silly when it only needs 1 gm per kilo of meat. I only want a teeny weeny bit to try a dry cure on some cheap belly pork to make streaky bacon and I am stuck. Any ideas anyone?

[Diflower]

Hugh - with no saltpetre
http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle ... cipes.pork

There's a sausage machine in the window of the kitchen shop in town - I didn't even dare look at the price
They made them on masterchef last week and both of us fancied it

[Workingman]

Thanks Di, but look at how much salt he is using!

Apparently and average pork belly weighs around 6kg so he is using 125g/kg. The cure I intend to use only has 30g/kg of salt and 0.25g/kg of saltpetre. I can only assume a misprint or that using saltpetre reduces the amount of salt required.

My hand-me-down mincer has a sausage making attachment (never used) and it looks a bit faffy. I saw an electric one on eBay earlier for £20 + p&p, also with a sausage making pipe, but I will probably wait until after the bacon is tried and tested.

[Diflower]

Didn't Debih make some bacon?
Or maybe went on a course?

Yes I did see he said something about it being salty, washing it, something...didn't read it properly lol

[Workingman]

He said to stand it water for some time (30 mins?) then rinse, then soak again.

Sorry Hugh, but when I want a bacon butty I want it NOW! I do not do plan-ahead butties

[meriad]

speak to a butcher that makes his own bacon and ask if he would sell you a small amount? Assuming that is they use it as well?

[debih]

We've made it a few different ways WM but the Hugh F-W method is the best. I preferred loin to belly pork - I found the belly pork far too fatty.

My favourite one was the one that you used loads of salt (you do need loads of salt as that's how you cure it) - we didn't use salt petre (the first time but I do tend to now simply because I have a stock of it) just normal salt, brown sugar and pepper corns.

You just mix the salt, sugar and peppercorns together, rub it on the bacon and put the bacon in a plastic tupperware box in the fridge. Pour off the liquid every day, rub the salt mix in again and put it back in the fridge. It takes about five days to be ready.

I've got one on the go at the minute.

We've tried the air cured ham as well but that's rather a faff and you really need a whole leg of pork to do it properly. Its fine when you have your own pig but I wouldn't spend the money on whole leg of pork just to air dry it.

My favourite thing to make is ham. I tend to buy the flavour packs from a website and then make my ham. It is lovely. Before I bake it, after it has brined, I cut some off to use as gammon.

Mmmmmmmm - I'm feeling really hungry now!!

[Workingman]

Thanks for that Debih. xx

I like streaky, even though I know it is fatty, but it is cheap and for a tryout it has to be the way to go.

Mum use to do ham. It was done in a pot mixing bowl with an iron taylor's press and an old plate to push it down before being baked.

Now I am hungry!

[debih]

Thanks for that Debih. xx

I like streaky, even though I know it is fatty, but it is cheap and for a tryout it has to be the way to go.

Mum use to do ham. It was done in a pot mixing bowl with an iron taylor's press and an old plate to push it down before being baked.

Now I am hungry!

Mick prefers it with belly pork as he loves streaky bacon.

[Osc]

Home made baked beans are lovely though.......