Historically, the terms ' ham' and 'bacon' referred to different cuts of meat that were brined or packed identically, often together in the same barrel. īacon is distinguished from other salt-cured pork by differences in the cuts of meat used and in the brine or dry packing. The Virginia Housewife (1824), thought to be one of the earliest American cookbooks, gives no indication that bacon is ever not smoked, though it gives no advice on flavouring, noting only that care should be taken lest the fire get too hot. This process can take up to eighteen hours, depending on the intensity of the flavour desired. Differing flavours can be achieved by using various types of wood, or less common fuels such as corn cobs or peat.

Boiled bacon is ready to eat, as is some smoked bacon, but they may be cooked further before eating. Fresh and dried bacon are typically cooked before eating, often by pan frying. Cured bacon may then be dried for weeks or months in cold air, or it may be smoked or boiled. Bacon brine has added curing ingredients, most notably nitrites or nitrates, which speed the curing and stabilize colour.

However, both the flavour imparted to the meat in doing so and the extended shelf life it offered had become much prized, and although curing is in general no longer necessary in the developed world, it continues in wide use.īacon is cured through either a process of injecting it with or soaking it in brine, known as wet curing, or rubbed with salt, known as dry curing. Before the advent of cheap and widespread artificial refrigeration in the modern era the curing of meat was necessary for its safe long-term preservation.

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