I recently bought some meat from my local supermarket, mostly on a whim, figuring I’d cook it according to the instructions.
Alas I had forgotten that in France, it’s not very common to buy prepacked meat with instructions. You either know how to cook it or you just ask your butcher.
Now the Internet is full of recipes for this cut but all for the same thing, Petit salé aux lentilles (bacon and lentils) a traditional French dish. I’ve tried translating the cut of meat (poitrin demi-sel) and the best I can come up with is salt pork but all the recipies suggest that salt pork is added to stews and soups to add flavour and isn’t a key indegredient in itself.
Then maybe I thought that it could be “slab bacon” (it looks like that on the pics I found on the 'net) and that’s when I thought I’d come here.
Does anyone know what this cut of “salted pork” is in English and if anymore can be done with it rather than just boiling it?!
Yeah, it’s lightly salted pork belly. There are some recipes, most including cabbage, or lentils, or both. I would boil it for a while with some herbs and aromatic vegetables, maybe poach some whole peeled carrots, parsnips, Jerusalem artichokes, some wedges of Savoy cabbage in the broth, cook some lentils in the broth, serve the whole thing up with some good mustard.
Slab bacon is simply a slab of bacon, not already cut into thin slices. Bacon is cured and smoked. What you have there is salt-cured, but not smoked (at least it doesn’t look smoky in the least.) Judging by the name “demi-sel,” I’m guessing it’s not quite as salty as something like salt pork. I would use it in the same way I would use salt pork or pork belly. Usually, this means I use it for flavoring (rendering the fat out of small dice of salt pork, then frying my onions and stuff in it) or I might use it as an ingredient in its own right (like with many Asian dishes that involve pork belly.) The latter use depends on how salty it is. But, yeah, clam chowder, black eyed peas, a little bit in a bolonaise sauce, etc. – that sort of stuff it’d be perfect in.
I’m sure it would make some great lardons- simply cut it into jullienne or cubes and fry till crispy. That seems like the typical classic french utilization of this bacon…
One very simple and delicious classic french use of this type of bacon is in a Salad Lyonnaise. It’s a classically dressed frissee salad with the crispy bacon lardons and a poached egg to top.
You could make this awesome looking BLT-ish sandwich. Wrap the slab in foil with a little water and bake at 200 for 3-4 hours until meltingly tender, let cool and then fry or grill.
OMG
I’ve done this and it is exceedingly rich. Mmmm, braised belly.
