Black Pepper and Bay
Bacon
Batch Details

We don't make many products, but what we do make is extraordinary.
Here you will find details of how this specific product was made.

Scroll back through the production process,
clicking each "more detail" search icon to discover extra information, where it is available.

Bacon

Black Pepper and Bay

Batch Code: BAC069

Comments
Black Pepper and Bay

Date Information
Use By: 31-May-19
Manufactured: 14-Feb-19
Sell By: 31-May-19
Best Before: 31-May-19

Supplied / Made By:

The Curiosities Company Ltd [https://thecuriosities.co.uk]

The best bacon producer in the world

This is ourselves. We produce and supply ourselves and many others.

General Product Information

Our own special bacon

Was created by this process

Cure Bacon

Process Information

Cure Bacon

Process used to cure bacon

Comments

We use a very manual dry curing method to cure our bacon.
Firstly the bellies are washed in cold water, cut in half and weighed.
Using our own curing recipe we add sufficient Sea Salt and Sodium Nitrite to create a safe cure. To this we add a mixture of flavours to create the cure flavour.
The meat is then sealed into a Plastic Free bag for at least 10 days to cure at a temperature of around 3C. It is massaged at least 3 times each week.
Once cured, it is removed from the bag and air dried in our converted fridges between 2C and 5C for at least 21 days.
Once dried it is hand cut on our old HOBART slicing machine (which incidentally we're told was originally installed in the kitchens at the Lloyds Headquarters in London).
The slices are weighed to create packs of at least 200g minimum. These are vacuum sealed and put into our bespoke outer packs made from FSC 100% certified components.

Cure start: 2019-02-14
Dry start: 2019-03-29
Cut and pack: 2019-04-23

Used the following 5 ingredients

Ingredient - #1

Pork Belly [Eastbrook Farm Organic Pork Belly]

Batch Code: BELLY131

Comments
Purchased directly from Eastbrook Farm which is owned by Helen Browning's Organic. GB-ORG-05 Soil Association Certified.

Kill date: 2018-06-20
Frozen date: 2018-06-22
Use by date: 2019-12-21

Slaughtered at
TULIP FRESH MEATS (WESTERLEIGH),
Oakleigh Green Farm,
Westerleigh,
Bristol,
BS37 8QZ

Cut at

D B Foods Ltd,
Unit P & Q,
Vantage Way,
Poole,
BH12 4NU.

Batch #00173051 Julian: 173

Supplied By:

Helen Browning's Organic [https://helenbrowningsorganic.co.uk/]

Organic Pig Famers

Organic farmers in Bishopstone, Wiltshire. I have personally known the farmers and farm for many years.

Eastbrook and Lower Farm together cover some 1500 acres, in a long thin strip running from the top of the Marlborough Downs down to the heavy clay land of the Vale of the White Horse. It's only half a mile wide, but it’s five miles from top to bottom. With the ancient trail of the Ridgeway dissecting the farm, and lots of footpaths too, it’s a great place to walk, ride and cycle across wonderful countryside, with heaps of wild flora and fauna, and all our fabulous livestock to admire too.

Helen's family has farmed at Eastbrook for 67 years, courtesy of their landlords, the Church of England. Helen's father, Bob Browning, took on the tenancy in 1950, and soon made a name for himself as a progressive young farmer, and one of the best shots and fishermen around. The farm Helen grew up on was in some ways not that different from today, with a mix of dairy cows, beef, sheep and arable crops….but Bob, like most farmers of his time, was pulling out hedges to enlarge fields, upgrading to ever bigger tractors (when he came here, it was mostly horses still) and benefiting from ever more potent chemicals to control weeds, disease and pests. With more modern crop varieties too, yields increased, but wildlife started to vanish.

When Bob gave Helen the opportunity to take over the running of the farm in 1986, she decided to experiment with organic farming, to see if she could grow good quality crops and animals, while making more space for nature too. Helen had been shocked, while doing her degree in ‘Agricultural Technology’, to see how so called state of the art pig and poultry systems were treating farm animals. So alongside the enterprises that were already here, she started to keep both pigs and chickens, to show that it was feasible to give these animals a good life, and make great products from them!

Helen was also determined to connect with the people who might want to eat our food, rather than just sell into commodity markets. She started a butchers shop in the local village, and from there attempted to sell our produce in a whole host of ways. The trials and tribulations of all this are too much for this short introduction, but she is always happy to tell you the warts and all stories as and when you can visit the The Royal Oak in Bishopstone.

The farm today

There’s a huge amount going on. A dairy herd, lots of calves and beef cattle, 300 Romney ewes, 200 British Saddleback sows, 400 acres of cereal and pulse crops and a small flock of laying hens. They have also started experimenting with orchard crops, berries and agro-forestry at Lower Farm. So there’s lots of food flowing from the farm.

Date Information
Purchased: 12-Dec-18
Best Before: 21-Dec-19

Ingredient - #2

Pork Belly [Eastbrook Farm Organic Pork Belly]

Batch Code: BELLY132

Comments
Purchased directly from Eastbrook Farm which is owned by Helen Browning's Organic. GB-ORG-05 Soil Association Certified.

Kill date: 2018-06-20
Frozen date: 2018-06-22
Use by date: 2019-12-21

Slaughtered at
TULIP FRESH MEATS (WESTERLEIGH),
Oakleigh Green Farm,
Westerleigh,
Bristol,
BS37 8QZ

Cut at

D B Foods Ltd,
Unit P & Q,
Vantage Way,
Poole,
BH12 4NU.

Batch #00173051 Julian: 173

Supplied By:

Helen Browning's Organic [https://helenbrowningsorganic.co.uk/]

Organic Pig Famers

Organic farmers in Bishopstone, Wiltshire. I have personally known the farmers and farm for many years.

Eastbrook and Lower Farm together cover some 1500 acres, in a long thin strip running from the top of the Marlborough Downs down to the heavy clay land of the Vale of the White Horse. It's only half a mile wide, but it’s five miles from top to bottom. With the ancient trail of the Ridgeway dissecting the farm, and lots of footpaths too, it’s a great place to walk, ride and cycle across wonderful countryside, with heaps of wild flora and fauna, and all our fabulous livestock to admire too.

Helen's family has farmed at Eastbrook for 67 years, courtesy of their landlords, the Church of England. Helen's father, Bob Browning, took on the tenancy in 1950, and soon made a name for himself as a progressive young farmer, and one of the best shots and fishermen around. The farm Helen grew up on was in some ways not that different from today, with a mix of dairy cows, beef, sheep and arable crops….but Bob, like most farmers of his time, was pulling out hedges to enlarge fields, upgrading to ever bigger tractors (when he came here, it was mostly horses still) and benefiting from ever more potent chemicals to control weeds, disease and pests. With more modern crop varieties too, yields increased, but wildlife started to vanish.

When Bob gave Helen the opportunity to take over the running of the farm in 1986, she decided to experiment with organic farming, to see if she could grow good quality crops and animals, while making more space for nature too. Helen had been shocked, while doing her degree in ‘Agricultural Technology’, to see how so called state of the art pig and poultry systems were treating farm animals. So alongside the enterprises that were already here, she started to keep both pigs and chickens, to show that it was feasible to give these animals a good life, and make great products from them!

Helen was also determined to connect with the people who might want to eat our food, rather than just sell into commodity markets. She started a butchers shop in the local village, and from there attempted to sell our produce in a whole host of ways. The trials and tribulations of all this are too much for this short introduction, but she is always happy to tell you the warts and all stories as and when you can visit the The Royal Oak in Bishopstone.

The farm today

There’s a huge amount going on. A dairy herd, lots of calves and beef cattle, 300 Romney ewes, 200 British Saddleback sows, 400 acres of cereal and pulse crops and a small flock of laying hens. They have also started experimenting with orchard crops, berries and agro-forestry at Lower Farm. So there’s lots of food flowing from the farm.

Date Information
Purchased: 12-Dec-18
Best Before: 21-Dec-19

Ingredient - #3

Pure Sea Salt [PUR05000 EW/GJ/LMR/JFH Pure Sea Salt]

Batch Code: 8240

Comments
Purchased direct from Halen Môn factory in person on 2018-09-15

Supplied By:

Halon Môn [https://www.halenmon.com]

Sea Salt Manufacturer

Halon Môn are based in one of the loveliest parts of Wales. They source their salt from the Menai Straits. After graduating from Bangor University, where where the founders had fallen in love with each other and the island of Anglesey, they started looking for ways that would allow them to continue to live and work in this area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

In 1997, they left a saucepan of seawater to boil on the Aga in their family kitchen aga and as the salt crystals started to form, they knew they'd struck culinary gold. In 1999, they started supplying Halen Môn Sea Salt to Swains, their local butchers in Menai Bridge on the Isle of Anglesey, and now we use it too.

We love this story and love their products and any company that has not one, but two dogs on their "Who are we" page definitely deserve to be suppliers!

Date Information
Purchased: 15-Sep-18
Best Before: 31-Jul-23

Ingredient - #4

Flavour [Black Pepper and Bay]

Batch Code: BPB20190214

Comments

Supplied By:

The Curiosities Company Ltd [https://thecuriosities.co.uk]

The best bacon producer in the world

This is ourselves. We produce and supply ourselves and many others.

Date Information
Manufactured: 14-Feb-19

Ingredient - #5

Sodium Nitrite Salt [Prague Powder #1]

Batch Code: 0181029

Comments
Curing salt

Supplied By:

Surfy Curing Supplies [https://www.homecuring.co.uk]

Surfy's Home Curing Supplies

Surfy's design, blend and test all their own seasonings. Their seasonings contain only the best herbs and spices we can find, no carrier oils, artificial colours or flavours. They even dry some herbs and spices their selves in their own desiccators to ensure that they are the best we can get. Just like us! Their ham & bacon cures and nitrite curing salt are all made from Certified Organic Kosher Sea Salt pre-mixed to precise standards so we can safely make our bacon.

Date Information
Purchased: 01-Nov-18