Hot curing Wiltshire bacon

Summary A process combining multi-needle injection and dry salting of whole baconsides before they have been completely chilled can produce acceptable Wiltshire bacon in only 5 days from slaughter. Eating quality and storage stability of sliced and vacuum packed, hot cured bacon were similar to those of dry salted bacon made from conventionally chilled sides. The yields of hot cured and cold cured raw bacon were similar, but cooking yields of hams were over 3.0% higher with hot curing. A continuous hot curing process from slaughter, through carcass preparation, multi-needle brine injection, dry salting to chilling could simplify Wiltshire bacon processing. The concept could be particularly useful to a processor lacking the specialized facilities for traditional immersion curing.