[Sca-cooks] German bacon

[Stefan li Rous]

Brighid asked:
> I'm looking at the recipe for bratwurst in Sabina Welserin.  It calls
> for 4
> pounds each of prok and beef, plus two pounds of bacon.  What kind of
> bacon would be appropriate?  Back bacon (Canadian), streaky bacon
> (American), or something else entirely?
Well, from previous discussions here I would say the bacon is there 
primarily to supply some fat. Since it specifies both pork and 
bacon(fat) this also reminds me of some "discussions" Ras and I had on 
this list a while back about just how fat medieval pigs were. I think 
this supports my contention that medieval pigs were not primarily 
raised for their fat and that while some were fat, most weren't. If the 
pig was as fat as much of the modern pork is, at least until the last 
decade or two, you wouldn't need to specify extra fat in this recipe.

If it is there for the fat, I don't think Canadian bacon would be a 
good choice since it is fairly lean. We've discussed bacon here before. 
I think the outcome was that the streaky American bacon wasn't a period 
cut. However, I think it would work in this recipe. I'd probably go 
with the unsmoked version and perhaps the bacon "ends" since you are 
going to grind it up anyway. But I suspect that any fatty pork would 
work.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
**** See Stefan's Florilegium files at:  http://www.florilegium.org ****