First, a word of explanation on why I teach classes like bacon making and cocktail bitter making: yes, there are folks who should probably eat less bacon and other fatty meats and, of course, drink less (myself included.) However one of the best arguments for making it yourself, aside from the very positive aspects of understanding how your food is made and customizing it to your tastes, is that the quality is so much higher than the factory produced crap out there that you are satisfied with less. There will always people who have the time and inclination to be offended by a wholesome cooking class being offered at a center that focuses on bringing people together in a myriad of ways. In my experience few things work better than sharing a meal around a common table. Food as medicine, the the theory of magic "good" foods vs. bad "evil" foods has always driven me nearly around the bend. There are no magic bullets out there, folks. When you make it yourself, you know what you are putting in your body. Rather than bacon pumped full of water (which you pay the same per pound price for as the meat) and god-knows-what-else, yours contains a very few ingredients, all of which are natural and safe...
This leads quickly to the other bee... the Nitrite issue. Much of this concern has very little science to back it up. Again the fat in the bacon is much worse for you than the small, small amount of nitrates left in the finished bacon. There are more nitrates in a kale salad than your Sunday morning bacon. I could ramble on about this but I will give you a quote from cookbook author and food expert, Michael Ruhlman,
"The fact is, most nitrate we consume comes from vegetables. Nitrate we consume coverts to nitrite in our body, which is a anti-microbial agent in our guts. Sodium nitrite in bacon cures the bacon (more info in my safety concerns for charcutepaloozians) and then converts to nitric oxide, so, while I’m not chemist, I have heard others suggest that you’re not actually consuming any nitrite by the time the bacon gets to you. Again, almost all the nitrate and nitrite in your body comes from veggies. It’s an anti-oxidant. Studies are coming out now saying it’s good for the heart.
A study in the Journal of Food Protection put it this way: “Since 93% of ingested nitrite comes from normal metabolic sources, if nitrite caused cancers or was a reproductive toxicant, it would imply that humans have a major design flaw.”
Read the full post here. http://ruhlman.com/2011/05/the-no-nitrites-added-hoax/ It is very enlightening.
Morning after breakfast...
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