A Tank of Petrol – Mandy & Steve

After my little project got a write up in the paper a few weeks back, I was inundated with a huge number of trade offers in a very short time. Unfortunately as it all came about so quickly, I didn’t have enough bacon stockpiled to be able to accept all the trades I wanted to, at least not straight away.

One offer I was able to accept was from Mandy & Steve. This lovely couple own the Caltex service station in Willunga, which for those of you who aren’t familiar with the place is about 40 minutes south of Adelaide, nestled amongst the vineyards around McLaren Vale. Mandy & Steve offered to trade a full tank of fuel from their petrol station, for a kilo of my bacon.

That’s a pretty good offer, I think you’ll all agree, and as I was to be in the area a few days later (with a relatively empty petrol tank) I decided to take them up on their offer….trade accepted!

Here’s a few photos of my trade with Mandy & Steve. That’s Mandy there, looking pretty pleased with her kilo of free range bacon.

As you can see in this next shot, the tank was pretty close to being empty by the time I got to Willunga…..guess I timed that pretty well, eh!

Mandy & Steve received a kilo of my ethically raised, free to roam middle bacon, from the same batch as Grant, and Dave & Anna’s trades. I sourced the meat direct from Ben and Bob at Wistow Springs Pork, who raise their pigs in an ethical and sustainable manner at their property near Strathalbyn.

I was pretty happy with this batch, the whole pork middle was cured for six and a half days in a mixture of coarse salt, pink salt, brown sugar, black pepper and ground coriander, and smoked for four hours with peach wood from my own back yard.

The pepper and coriander impart a sharp floral taste to the bacon, and the peach smoke gives the meat a soft and sweet aftertaste. On balance, I think I prefer the cherry wood I used last time, but peach is still pretty tasty.

Pork – Ethically raised, free to roam pork middle
Origin – Wistow Springs Pork, Strathalbyn
Cure – Pepper and Coriander
Length of cure – 6.5 days
Smoke – 4 hours with peach wood