Bacon is pork meat that is salt-cured. Most bacon in the U.S. is pork cut from the side of the pig. It has long layers of fat that run parallel to the rind, and often called streaky bacon.

Bacon in the U.K. is usually back bacon, which comes from the loin in the middle of the back of the pig, and is sometimes called Canadian bacon.

I love the smell of bacon cooking and the taste is wonderful. I’ve only baked or fried bacon, but these recipes from the 1800s are interesting. I plan to try some of them.

INFORMATION BELOW FROM 1800s COOKBOOKS

GOOD BACON
Good bacon has the lean of a bright pink and fine in the grain, while the fat is white and firm. If the lean is high colored, it probably has been over salted and is old besides. If the fat is yellow or has a curious, rather musty smell, the meat is rusty or tainted, and not fit to eat. So, also, if on the lean there are brownish or blackish spots. All sorts of food, if kept too long, should be thrown away at once.

Bacon should be soaked in cold water three or four minutes before frying. This prevents grease from running and gives the bacon a much finer flavor.

If the bacon is salty and hard, soak it all night, changing the water at bed-time, and early in the morning.

Bacon fat is excellent for corn cake, meat sauces, and soups of peas, beans, or lentils and is useful for basting lean roasts, fish, or meat loaf.

TO BOIL BACON
Soak the bacon and take off the rind before boiling. Fat bacon should be put into hot water, and lean into cold water before boiling. Put two or three pounds of nice bacon into a pot with plenty of cold water, and let it simmer slowly for an hour before it begins to boil. Skim it well, and when no more scum rises, put in the vegetables which are usually eaten with bacon, and which taste better for boiling with the meat.

BOILED BACON AND CABBAGES
Put a piece of bacon in a pot capable of containing two gallons. Let it boil up and skim it well. Then put in some well-washed split cabbages, a few carrots and parsnips also split, and a few peppercorns.

When the whole has boiled gently for about an hour and a half, throw in a dozen peeled potatoes and by the time these are done, the dinner will be ready.

First, take up the bacon, and having placed it on its dish, garnish it round with the cabbages, carrots, parsnips, and potatoes. Then add some pieces of crust or thin slices of bread to the liquor in which the bacon-dinner has been cooked. This will furnish you with a good wholesome soup with which to satisfy the first peremptory call of your healthy appetites.

BACON AND PEAS
Cut a quarter of a pound of fat bacon in small bits and fry it brown with two ounces of onions sliced. Then add four ounces of split peas, one tablespoon of salt, one saltspoon* of pepper, one teaspoon of sugar, and four quarts of cold water. Boil it until the peas are reduced to a pulp, which will be about three hours. Then stir in sufficient oatmeal to thicken it, and boil slowly twenty minutes, stirring it occasionally. Serve hot, or when cold, slice and fry it brown.

*saltspoon – a miniature spoon used with an open salt cellar for individual use before table salt was free-flowing. One saltspoon equals one-fourth teaspoon.

BACON AND BEANS
Scrape and trim a nice piece of bacon (not too fat), and see that no part of it looks yellow or rusty, or shows any appearance of being too old.

Put it into a pot, and boil and skim it till tender. Have ready a quart or two of fresh green string beans, cut into three pieces (not more). Put them into the pot in which the bacon is boiling, and let them cook with the meat for an hour or more. When done, take them out, drain them well, season them well with pepper, and send them to table on a separate dish from the bacon.

Many persons like so well this bacon flavor, that they always, when boiling string-beans, put a small piece of bacon in the pot, removing it before the beans are sent to table.

With bacon and beans, serve up whole potatoes boiled and peeled—and in the country, where cream is plenty, boil some with butter, and pour it over the potatoes, touching each one with pepper.

BACON FRAISE
Cut streaked bacon in small, thin slices. Make a batter of a pint of milk, two eggs, two large spoons of flour, and some pepper and salt. Put some lard or meat dripping in a frying pan.

When it is hot, pour in half of the batter, strew the bacon over it, and then pour on the remainder of the batter. Let it fry gently, and be careful in turning, that the bacon does not come out of the batter.

COLD BACON AND EGGS
An economical way of using bacon and eggs that have been left from a previous meal is to put them in a wooden bowl and chop them quite fine, adding a little mashed or cold chopped potato, and a little bacon gravy, if any was left.

Mix and mold it into little balls, roll in raw egg and cracker crumbs, flatten slightly, and fry in a spider* the same as frying eggs. Fry a light brown on both sides and serve hot.

*spider – a skillet with a flat bottom, straight shallow sides, a short handle and three short legs.

BACON ROLL-PUDDING
Boil a pound of fat bacon for half an hour, and then cut it up into thin slices. Peel six apples and one onion and cut them in slices. Make two pounds of flour into a stiff dough and roll it out thin.

First lay the slices of bacon out all over this, and then lay out the slices of apples, and the slices of onion. Roll up the dough so as to secure the bacon, apples, and onions in it.

Place this pudding in a cloth, tied at each end, and let it boil for two hours in a two-gallon pot with plenty of water. Serve it with boiled potatoes or boiled cabbage.

BACON DUMPLINGS
Cut slices of cooked bacon and pepper them. Roll out some crust as for apple dumplings. Slice some potatoes very thin, and put them in the crust with the meat. Close them up, and let them boil fast an hour, When done, take them out carefully with a ladle.

Image from Deposit Photos

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How do you Like to Cook Bacon? Please Leave a Comment Below.

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VINTAGE COOKING from the 1800s ~ PORK
by Angela A Johnson

Journey back into the 1800s and discover how people prepared, cooked, and preserved pork, making use of the whole animal. With no electrical refrigeration or modern conveniences, it was a time of thriftiness, resourcefulness, and “making do.”

Recipes Include Pig Feet Relish, German Roast Pork, Boiled Bacon and Cabbages, Bologna Sausage, Pork Apple Pot-Pie, Pork and Peas Pudding, Pork Stew, Baked Pork and Beans, Italian Pork and more.

Available from these online Retailers:

Amazon, Kobo, Apple, Barnes&Noble, Scribd, 24 Symbols,  Playster, Angues & Robertson, Mondadori Store, and more.

Also available as  Regular Print and Large Print on Amazon.

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