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Thread: Naked Bacon

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    Naked Bacon

    Just had my first taste of naked bacon: http://www.finnebrogue.com/naked/
    Cookes well, same taste, flavour and texture as 'normal' bacon but without the nitrates and E numbers. I would definitely buy it again.
    Waitrose have it on offer at the moment 200g for £2.25

    Anyone else tried it?

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Nope. Not likely to either. Despite shopping at Waitrose, I get my bacon from a trusted local butcher, who gets it from a local pork farm with an excellent dry cure/smoking operation. And I don't mean that horrible injected "smoke".

    I don't use vast amount of bacon, and given the taste of the stuff I get, I don't care about nitrates or wotnot. Unless my source's quality goes off, of he stops selling, I'm just not interested in trying alternatives.

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Unlike the gentleman above, I would happily buy bacon from Waitrose, despite also using local farm shops and countryside butchers....
    I have tried Heston's vanilla bacon, which I have since bought several times since.

    However, I saw the word Superfood and lost all interest from that point onward.
    I don't buy marketing trends.


    Sorry.....

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Might give some a try if I walk past a Waitrose,and do a taste test with the normal stuff,not that I eat a lot of bacon generally.

    Is there anyway of making bacon at home from normal pork or is it too much effort??

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    Is there anyway of making bacon at home from normal pork or is it too much effort??
    You could look on Gumtree for people selling piglets, but once you're there, you're on your own! No idea how long they take to raise, what they eat or anything

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Quote Originally Posted by Hoonigan View Post
    You could look on Gumtree for people selling piglets, but once you're there, you're on your own! No idea how long they take to raise, what they eat or anything
    Maybe I could keep it in a slightly smoky room and feed it Kebabs. They have corn fed chickens,Kebab fed bacon might start a new taste sensation....or lead to a lot of ill people.

    Hmm,there are recipes for bacon:

    https://www.theguardian.com/lifeands...your-own-bacon
    https://www.smallfootprintfamily.com/how-to-cure-bacon

    There is one main concern when curing and preserving meat, and that is botulism. While botulism is usually related to improper canning procedures, food-borne botulism also occurs in meats that have been improperly cured.

    To prevent this, commercially preserved meats contain sodium nitrite (sometimes called “pink salt”), which acts both as a preservative and a color fixer. This is what gives store-bought bacon that bright red color.
    SaveSmall Footprint FamilyWhen you cure your own bacon, you get to control the quality of the meat and the ingredients it is cured with! Here's how to cure bacon at home.2K+3Small Footprint FamilyFermentation, Canning, & Preserving the Harvest

    Sodium nitrite is toxic in high quantities, and has been linked to migraines in certain people. Some organic “un-cured” bacon brands use celery juice in lieu of pink salt, but celery juice can often contain even more naturally-occurring sodium nitrite than the curing salt! This won’t help migraine sufferers much.

    But the main concern with sodium nitrite (or even high levels of naturally-occurring nitrites from celery juice) is that when it is exposed to high heat in the presence of protein (like a piece of fried, nitrite-cured bacon), proteins in the meat bond with the sodium nitrite to produce toxic nitrosamines—and certain nitrosamines have been proven to be deadly carcinogens.

    Basically, frying and eating nitrite-cured bacon presents the perfect scenario for nitrosamines to enter your system.

    That sounds pretty bad, right?

    Unfortunately, the sodium nitrite (or naturally-occurring nitrites from celery) is necessary in a large industrial setting, where many different people, machines and industrial processes are involved in getting the meat from the feedlot to the store, free of botulism and other harmful bacteria.

    But the home cook can much better control the variables and handling procedures, and can get those assurances without the addition of nitrites.
    LOL.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 03-02-2018 at 03:16 AM.

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Quote Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster View Post
    Unlike the gentleman above, I would happily buy bacon from Waitrose, despite also using local farm shops and countryside butchers....
    I have tried Heston's vanilla bacon, which I have since bought several times since.

    However, I saw the word Superfood and lost all interest from that point onward.
    I don't buy marketing trends.


    Sorry.....
    Just to clarify, I have nothing against Waitrose bacon and, in the past, have had half a dozen or more brands from WR. But, since getting this farm bacon, as far as both the wife and I are concerned, nothing else we've ever had comes even close, in a taste test.

    If the taste differences were modest and the price difference significant, maybe I'd try it. But the farm bacon is actually cheaper, and we're so delighted with it we don't even want to try something else.

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    M&S do a version too which is quite reasonably priced - we've got some in the freezer so (if I remember) I'll drop a comment in once we've eaten it I've suspected for some time that I do have a mild reaction to nitrates, so if it's good I might buy more often.

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    ... Is there anyway of making bacon at home from normal pork or is it too much effort??
    It's actually fairly straightforward, AFAIK, and there are a number of home-baconing kits on the market. I don't think I'd bother with anything claiming to make smoked bacon in a kit, as it's bound to use some kind of fake smoke seasoning, but unsmoked should be just fine. Or you can get yourself a smoker (or appropriate kettle barbeque) and hot smoke it yourself.

    Also, you don't have to bacon just belly pork. There's a farm up near Lancaster than visits some of our local markets and often have shoulder bacon, which is delicious Basically it's their way of using cuts that wouldn't sell very well otherwise...

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Funnily enough, just read this last night which also refers to product and explains more about the effects and history of nitrates/nitrites :

    https://www.theguardian.com/news/201...rites-sausages

    I'll probably give it a go this weekend. Also despite that URL, the article says sausages don't typically contain nitrates/nitrites. Yay, I prefer them for my Sunday fry up! But ... they can contain sulphites. A quick search suggests there's no evidence of a sulphite-cancer link, but possibly other side effects.

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Quote Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH View Post
    There is one main concern when curing and preserving meat, and that is botulism. While botulism is usually related to improper canning procedures, food-borne botulism also occurs in meats that have been improperly cured.

    To prevent this, commercially preserved meats contain sodium nitrite (sometimes called “pink salt”), which acts both as a preservative and a color fixer. This is what gives store-bought bacon that bright red color.
    SaveSmall Footprint FamilyWhen you cure your own bacon, you get to control the quality of the meat and the ingredients it is cured with! Here's how to cure bacon at home.2K+3Small Footprint FamilyFermentation, Canning, & Preserving the Harvest

    Sodium nitrite is toxic in high quantities, and has been linked to migraines in certain people. Some organic “un-cured” bacon brands use celery juice in lieu of pink salt, but celery juice can often contain even more naturally-occurring sodium nitrite than the curing salt! This won’t help migraine sufferers much.

    But the main concern with sodium nitrite (or even high levels of naturally-occurring nitrites from celery juice) is that when it is exposed to high heat in the presence of protein (like a piece of fried, nitrite-cured bacon), proteins in the meat bond with the sodium nitrite to produce toxic nitrosamines—and certain nitrosamines have been proven to be deadly carcinogens.

    Basically, frying and eating nitrite-cured bacon presents the perfect scenario for nitrosamines to enter your system.

    That sounds pretty bad, right?

    Unfortunately, the sodium nitrite (or naturally-occurring nitrites from celery) is necessary in a large industrial setting, where many different people, machines and industrial processes are involved in getting the meat from the feedlot to the store, free of botulism and other harmful bacteria.

    But the home cook can much better control the variables and handling procedures, and can get those assurances without the addition of nitrites.
    That quote genuinely pisses me off... Firstly, because I own a small organic meat curing business. And secondly because they are scare mongering.

    Sodium Nitrite is dangerous in large quantities - Very true, but you would have to eat at least 10kg of bacon every day for an extended period of time before it having a negative effect.
    Sodium Nitrite has been linked to migraines in certain people - It very may well have but the vast majority of migraine sufferers (me included) know their triggers. If you have narrowed it down to bacon and other cured meats you have probably just stopped eating them. But by all means if NaNO2 (oh no! scary chemical formula) is your trigger then go nuts on this bacon.
    bond with the sodium nitrite to produce toxic nitrosamines—and certain nitrosamines have been proven to be deadly carcinogens. - This is just jumping between convenient facts by using long science words. Did you also know that your SALIVA can break things down into nitrosamines. Better get all that nasty saliva out of your system.
    home cook can much better control the variables and handling procedures - I highly doubt anyone in their home kitchen could attempt begin replicate the levels of cleanliness required to even get the council to consider them for inspection to be graded as a food manufacturer. So this is absolute BS.


    You know the best way to reduce the completely safe Sodium Nitrite in your diet? Don't drink celery juice by the gallon.

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Don't worry, Sam_, I'll still gobble your meat quite happily!!

    Incidentally, do you make any biltong or droewors?

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Quote Originally Posted by Ttaskmaster View Post
    Don't worry, Sam_, I'll still gobble your meat quite happily!!
    Me too! Nothing beats a couple of farm shop rashers, eggs, a sausage or two, mushrooms etc for breakfast.

    Looking at a previous post on botulism, - I was under the impression it was an anaerobic bacteria, which is why it can occur in improperly sterilised canned food - is it a potential problem with badly cured food?
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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Quote Originally Posted by ttaskmaster View Post
    don't worry, sam_, i'll still gobble your meat quite happily!!
    wowzers!

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Quote Originally Posted by peterb View Post
    ... is it a potential problem with badly cured food?
    Depends on the curing process, AFAIK.

    I rather suspect that this paper from 1973 is the originator of the evidence for nitrites inhibiting Botulism. I find this line from the abstract particularly interesting:

    No toxin developed in samples incubated at 7 C.
    Which, if it can be taken at face value, means no samples stored at fridge temperature produced any botulinum toxin - so food that has been adequately refrigerated throughout production should be safe? Of course, if you're dry curing and naturally smoking your bacon that's likely not going to be the case...

    tbh Botulism can be an issue for pretty much any foodstuff, and it takes a moderate period of high temperature to break down the toxin, which is something that you might not give a rasher of bacon, depending on how crispy you like it Bottom line, I guess, is that Botulinum toxin is a lot more dangerous than nitrites, and since nitrites do seem to work in inhibiting toxin production, why wouldn't you use them?

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    Re: Naked Bacon

    This seems a fairly definitive text about botulism:

    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs270/en/
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    Re: Naked Bacon

    Cookes well, same taste, flavour and texture as 'normal' bacon but without the nitrates and E numbers. I would definitely buy it again.
    Waitrose have it on offer at the moment 200g for £2.25
    Some organic “un-cured” bacon brands use celery juice in lieu of pink salt, but celery juice can often contain even more naturally-occurring sodium nitrite than the curing salt! This won’t help migraine sufferers much.
    Quote Originally Posted by Sam__ View Post
    4 Firstly, because I own a small organic meat curing business.
    Next time don't use the quote option to indicate I said that - I quoted a website and went "LOL".Why did you think I went "LOL"??

    I went LOL at the ridiculous hatred of nitrites and LOL at the thing I highlighted - plenty of organic/health food bacon is using celery juice anyway,and that includes farm bought bacon. So whether you like to or not,you getting nitrites.

    So basically most bacon has nitrites in it for the last few decades - there are people who lived past 100 who ate bacon everyday.

    They rightly pointed plenty of organic uncured bacon does use celery juice,which has high levels of nitrite. The scare mongering is coming from organic/health food lot,who keep going on how its always 100% better to buy their products since less nitrite equals less migraine,etc and other weird stuff.

    Plus,as indicated later nitrites have been used for a very good reason.

    This is what annoys with all this "organic" and "health food" stuff - its been proven time and time again that just because you use modern ways of processing or growing food,it does not mean 100% its worse off than "old fashioned" methods.

    I would be more worried less about the bacon and the amount of calories in total,and whether you have a balanced diet.

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    Depends on the curing process, AFAIK.

    I rather suspect that this paper from 1973 is the originator of the evidence for nitrites inhibiting Botulism. I find this line from the abstract particularly interesting:



    Which, if it can be taken at face value, means no samples stored at fridge temperature produced any botulinum toxin - so food that has been adequately refrigerated throughout production should be safe? Of course, if you're dry curing and naturally smoking your bacon that's likely not going to be the case...

    tbh Botulism can be an issue for pretty much any foodstuff, and it takes a moderate period of high temperature to break down the toxin, which is something that you might not give a rasher of bacon, depending on how crispy you like it Bottom line, I guess, is that Botulinum toxin is a lot more dangerous than nitrites, and since nitrites do seem to work in inhibiting toxin production, why wouldn't you use them?
    This.

    People forget that Botulinum toxin was a major problem,before modern food preservation techniques were derived. In the past there were situations where even canning/preserving was not done properly and it killed people.
    Last edited by CAT-THE-FIFTH; 02-03-2018 at 05:54 PM.

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