This is where it all starts to get a little bit repetitive.  Today – just like yesterday – take the bacon out of the fridge, pour off the pickle, re-apply the dry cure (another quarter or fifth depending on whether you’ve got belly or loin) turning the bacon the other way up, and put it back into the fridge.

There’s something special today, though – you should start to notice a change in the appearance and texture of your meat – already it’s less like pork and more like bacon, it may be visibly darker pink in colour than it was, and will certainly be starting to feel firmer, all of which is evidence that the cure is being absorbed, water is being removed, and the character of the meat is changing as a result – it’s the alchemy of curing, and it’s exciting to see each and every time.

All the Big Bacon Challenge posts will be collected under the ‘BigBaconChallenge’ category heading – so go there to read them all!

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