bacon and cabbage

Lionel Messy

I want a recipe for this and parsley sauce

Cerulean Chicken

As my uncle says for bacon and cabbage: boil everything until it's soft. You don't really need a recipe for it, cook the bacon, cook the cabbage, cook spuds and/or turnip (mmm turnip with bacon & cabbage, introduced to me by my ex's mother, she was good for something!), serve with big dollop of brown sauce

Lionel Messy

Cerulean Chicken wrote: »

As my uncle says for bacon and cabbage: boil everything until it's soft. You don't really need a recipe for it, cook the bacon, cook the cabbage, cook spuds and/or turnip (mmm turnip with bacon & cabbage, introduced to me by my ex's mother, she was good for something!), serve with big dollop of brown sauce

What cut of bacon are we talking?

blue note

Lionel Messy wrote: »

I want a recipe for this and parsley sauce

Not sure about the parsley sauce, bit you have the recipe for bacon and cabbage in the title.

Lionel Messy

blue note wrote: »

Not sure about the parsley sauce, bit you have the recipe for bacon and cabbage in the title.

Your talking to a dummy. I want someone with a bit of pride about this to give me tips.

Lovely Bloke

Cook the bacon first - just go into a butchers and ask for some bacon, and ask the butcher how long to cook it for, then cook it for that length of time.

If it's real bacon, and not ham, it's going to be salty, so you need to soak the joint overnight in water, then pour that water away (I did this with ham before and was left with a disgusting, tasteless piece of meat, so be warned). If you don't soak the bacon, you probably won't be able to eat it.

to cook it, you are simply boiling it. Bring the pot to the boil, then lower the heat so you keep it at a rolling boil, not a severe boil so the water boils off. cover it with a lid until cooked. A good general rule is to cook for 20mins per lb, plus 20 mins over. Some people will tell you to score the fat and stick it in the oven at about 180-200degrees for the last 20 mins, but this is not absolutely necessary.

Once the bacon is cooked, remove it from the water and leave to stand on a plate while the cabbage cooks. KEEP THE WATER.

I prefer really dark green cabbage, for taste - if it's a light green colour, it doesn't usually taste of anything much, so look for York Cabbage, in my opinion it's the tastiest and greenest.

You need to discard the most outer leaves, they are tough and usually mucky, just chop them off and throw away. For the rest of the cabbage, just remove the leaves, and cut down either side of the stalk so you are left with two halfs of a leaf, then shred the leaves.

When the cabbage is prepared, stick it into the bacon water and cook it in that. Don't add any salt. Bring to the boil, then simmer for about 15mins, or 20mins. It's cooked when it's soft, but still with a little bite to it.

For the parsley sauce first of all, gently heat some milk, do not boil, get it to about body temoerature leave aside and add a pinch of fresh ground pepper, pinch of salt, a bay leaf. Next, make up a roux. Melt about 15g of butter on a low heat, then add 15g of plain flour, stir and cook it for about 10 mins - it will all clump together and turn a golden colour, keep the heat low or else it will burn, then strain the milk, and begin adding to the roux slowly, stirring all the time, incorporating the flour mix with the milk, stirring, stirring, stirring to ensure there are no lumps - once all the milk is added, you add the parsley. Obviously fresh parsely is best - it should be chopped very finely indeed - just throw it in, then up the heat and keep stirring until the sauce is thickened. Simple.

I'd probably serve this with mashed spuds too.

breen_og

Informative post by The Ninth Gate.

The only extra advice I have to add are i find it better not to soak either ham or bacon instead on the day of cooking bring your ham or bacon to the boil from cold. Once you have reached the boil taste the cooking water if it is overly salty discard the water and top up with fresh water.

For the white sauce,

half a pint of ham stock reserved from cooking,
half a pint of milk,
35g flour
35g butter

Use the same method as The Ninth Gate. You can never have too much white sauce with ham/bacon!

the beer revolu

The only difference between ham and bacon is the cut of meat.
The curing process is the same and so the salt content is the same.
Most modern ham or bacon cuts are less salty than those of the past and don't require soaking.

breen_og

^^^ Agreed

Kat1170

Get a bacon/ham joint in Lidl/Aldi. hey are usually €5 or less so if things don,t work out quite right you won't be down too much money.