GOOD FOOD GUY
BRINGING HOME THE BACON
Taken from this month’s Cotswold Life magazine
No matter who you are, there’s something about bacon that seems to get many of us emotionally charged – especially when it’s thick cut, best back from your local butcher…
Hands up if you start the day with a good breakfast. If you don’t, you’re among the estimated 47% of people in the UK who regularly skip what was once termed the most important meal of the day. Whether that still rings true or not has been up for debate in recent times, but surely there can be no denying that for many of us a good old fry-up remains a much-loved treat!
That’s certainly what I’ll be endeavoring to do during this year’s Farmhouse Breakfast Week (22-26 January) which aims to educate us all about the benefits of filling our stomach before we start our day. Now I appreciate that we are all time-starved in the mornings, so I don’t think there’s any need to go the whole hog. Personally, I’d be just as happy with a simple bacon buttie – and so, it seems, would much of the Cotswolds! You see, if you look at what is the most popular, locally-produced item in our Warner’s store in Upton-upon-Severn, bacon wins hands down.
So, what is it about the humble bacon sandwich that makes it such a part of our culture? Bacon has always been one of life’s simple pleasures, an affordable comfort food that spans social divides. Whether it’s a greasy spoon, a 5-star hotel or a school fête, there’s no disguising the smell of bacon when it wafts across your path. And because it’s such as societal leveller, I’ve discovered it can also be a highly emotive subject.
I’d even go so far as to say it’s as emotionally charged as the football team you support. Talk to anyone about the right way to do a bacon sandwich and you’ll get a myriad of impassioned speeches about the subject. Which butcher or retailer to source your bacon from. The merits of grilling versus pan frying versus air frying. And then how to assemble all the right team players – the bread, the sauces, the butter – to make your winning combination.
Now, I’m obviously not an authority on how to put together the best bacon sandwich but I do know what I like. Give me smoked back bacon, crisped to the point of almost no return, between two doorstops of fresh white bloomer, brown sauce and hold the butter.
This may be a world away from your ideal bacon sandwich, but we all have our own way of doing it. No-one is right or wrong. Just make sure you choose top quality locally-produced bacon and you’ll be onto a winning streak(y bacon)! Here’s where to get fantastic bacon in the Cotswolds:
MARTIN’S MEATS
Using pork from rare breeds of Gloucester Old Spot or Middle White pigs from the North Cotswolds, this is exceptional bacon. The Taste of the West award-winning Old Spot Back Bacon is dry matured on the bone for 6 days in Himalayan Salt Chamber and then dry cured with a special blend of brown sugar and salt for 10 days. martinsmeats.com
TODENHAM MANOR FARM
With Old Spot, Middle White and Saddleback pigs roaming the grounds and an on-site butchery, you’d expect good things from this local producer. The bacon is 100% home cured using minimal ingredients and is available smoked, unsmoked, and with a delicious black treacle cure.
KINGLEY’S OF WARKS
This British back and streaky bacon is dry cured by hand for 12 weeks to produce smoked and unsmoked rashers.
