how to use uncured wild boar bacon for dinner

I’m looking for non-breakfasty (i.e., not bacon-and-eggsy) ways to use wild boar bacon as a dinner entree. Veggies on hand are asparagus and red potatoes. Any suggestions? Many thanks.

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Well, you could roast the potatoes and some bacon parts.

BLT comes to mind.

You could make a meatloaf and top it with bacon.

You could wrap it around the asparagus and roast.

You could wrap it around some sirloin streaks.

Make a spinach salad and use some bacon bits and the bacon oil for a vinaigrette.

Just some ideas. For me I would go with a major league BLT and potato salad (adding some bacon bits in the salad) and save the asparagus for later.

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Fried thin cuts of belly pork with either mashed or boiled potatoes and (root) vegs are a typical dinner meal in Netherlands. Season the meat any way you like, fry until crispy. Dutch food is not sophisticated. In the summer the same cuts are cooked on the bbq. Even thinner slices are wrapped round skewers for barbequeing.

For myself I would make Austrian hash. Since it’s not smoked and cured you can still fry it until crispy. This is one of the national dishes of Austria, “Groestl”.

Potato soup with asparagus and crispy-fried bacon. OK, I tend to like this cut crispy-fried.

A sort of stew with the potatoes, or without . I would use dark beer.

I’m curious about language here. In the UK, bacon is inherently cured - if it wasnt cured , it would smply be pork. Curious to know about how this wild boar has been prepared in whichever part of the world it’s coming from, for it to be “bacon” and “uncured”. By the by, I also see the package says it’s “fully cooked”, yet the meat does not look cooked. Is this a simple matter of linguistics, or am I missing something obvious.

We always include bacon in mac & cheese and it’s a rare soup in this house that doesnt have a bit of bacon in it.

John, typically uncured here in the US means it has been smoked and salted but that is it. It is really the same thing as your “typical bacon” and the tastes are not going to be radically different. If fried or baked its going to taste just like the bacon everyone is familiar with.

That is my understanding anyway and I have had it both ways. I would just treat it like cured bacon

If the celery products/extracts are allowed under UK law as sub for refined nitr*tes, this could presumably be called “bacon” even under the definition you mention. (I’m not sure if US federal law has a similar definition, since I’ve never seen a truly “uncured” bacon or other normally-cured meats like ham for sale here.) In this context, “uncured” is really (legally permitted) marketing doublespeak for “not cured using refined nitrates or nitrites”. As you can see on the label of this bacon if you look at the larger verson of the photo, it does contain “Naturally Occurring Nitrates in Celery Juice Powder & Sea Salt”, as does every similar product I’ve ever seen personally…

One of a couple of ironies here is that products like this sometimes contain more nitr*tes than those using the refined versions, since the nitr*te content in vegetable extracts isn’t as easily quantified. So in order to make they don’t make anyone sick, producers apparently/sometimes allow a greater margin for safety than they’d have to if they used a refined product that can obviously be measured with great precision.

Uncured in the US just means that it doesn’t have added nitrates/nitrites, but this is hogwash. You also see “except for naturally occurring from celery juice powder and salt”. Celery juice powder has tons of nitrites/nitrates, and is what does the cure. So uncured, is really cured. it’s technically bullshit. the color is from being cured, and it is hot smoked or heated until legally cooked. this can, and usually means, slowly brought up to a temp. that will kill bacteria when held at that temp for a period of time. Like in sous vide cooking.

what others have said above is spot on.

Maybe some other ideas…baked beans, potato soup, pea soup, fried rice, potato salad…chocolate dipped (don’t laugh until you have tried it :wink: )
…there really isn’t much that bacon can’t enhance for me when I think about it. Obviously there are many things it won’t go with, but it does go well with a boat load of proteins and veggies.

I’ll add pasta carbonara to to the many excellent ideas already listed - but it has both bacons and eggs, so maybe it’s disqualified :joy:

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Thanks for the explanations, folks. Looking at the various offerings by my normal supermarket, it seems everything (including bacon prepared from organic pigs) contains sodium nitrite and potassium nitrate. I’d never heard of “celery juice powder” - you learn something every day - Thanks.

Two nice thick slices, grilled to a light crisp. Serve along side with some thin sliced onion , some hardy tomato slices and some white beans; with a nice vinaigrette spiked with a little ketchup.

Perhaps just dreaming, but sounds good!

+1 on the carbonara.

What the what…!!! Is this something magical i am unaware of?? Is it tasty on bacon free veggies?

Yes it is magical…I make a basic vinaigrette using red wine vinegar 1tbs., some Dijon 1 tsp., 1 tbs. minced shallot, and good 2 tbs evoo. pinch of salt and black pepper. I omit the capers, but add 1 tsp of Heinz ketchup. I find the sweetness of the ketchup is sort in the style of a honey/mustard vinaigrette…but not as sweet…goes great on raw veggies (except carrots…I tried it on carrots and just did not work for me.)

!!!
:exploding_head:
K i am definitely making a point of picking up ketchup (i ran out a while back) and red wine vinegar today (i have everything but red wine apparently :roll_eyes:) so i can make this ASAP.

True confession- please don’t lose all respect for me as a person- i spent YEARS putting obscene craptons of ketchup on about anything and everything. I may or may not have been in high school/college at that point- ie not socially acceptable like it is for a five year old. Broke myself of the habit as i got better at cooking but I don’t usually keep it around due to past abuse :joy:

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That is some admission!..Might I add, as a kid, the red gravy went on chicken, fish, meat, pork, duck, turkey. Veggies; broccoli, cauliflower, potatoes(except mashed),asparagus, green beans and sometimes peas and carrots. Never on eggs or a hot dog or bologna sandwich… did I miss anything?
Oh yes, my brother and I raiding the fridge on a night we were both home from college, and found nothing to put on some fresh rye bread…no silly not ketchup sandwiches…we became more sophisticated by the time we were in college…IT was mayo/ketchup on rye, open faced!!!
I started using red wine vinegar, because I found balsamic too strong in my vinaigrette.

It looks like it’s already pre-cut and it looks like its standard, not thick cut. That would lead to wrapping something as the best use:

Meatloaf
Shrimp
Asparagus
Scallops
Water chestnuts (for vegans - wink wink)
Chicken (stuff the chicken with asparagus and cheese)
Turkey Breast
Turkey loaf (I’m a big fan of turkey loaf)

I love cabbage cooked with bacon too.
Bacon can be used in pasta fagiole, pea soup and collard greens too.
**ETA Bacon mac n cheese is pretty dam good too!!!
( I make a baked mac-n-cheese with tomato soup mixed into the cheese and pasta, topped with a bacon weave and baked. Once it’s cooked, all that bacon grease goes into the mac n cheese, I remove the top/bacon weave, chop it up, mix it into the mac n cheese. Dear God it’s Delicious!!! )

More wrapping: chicken liver

OHHHHHH Yea! (Bacon wrapped chicken livers , fried…divine!!!)

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Golden chicken has fried chicken liver as appetizer for $4.99
My babies and I love them
They are not wrapped with bacon ( which I cannot eat now) but they re divine!!!