STOP Frying Bacon The Old Way! Try These 34 Appalachian Tricks

🔗 Grandma never wrote hers down, so my wife Opal finally did. All 118 plus much more. Get em before they're gone: https://cecilrowe.com Today Cecil lays out the old mountain way with a hog and a slab of bacon — the tricks the old-timers knew by heart and never once wrote down. How to cure it, smoke it, slice it, cook it low and slow, and stretch one hog clean through a hard winter with nothing going to waste. And running through the whole thing is one secret he holds back to the very end: the "gold" a mountain man poured over his own bacon, saved for number one. If you ever wondered how folks fed a family well on next to nothing — before the store, before electric, before a thermometer or a chart — this is 34 real Appalachian bacon-and-hog secrets, learned standing at your daddy's elbow on hog-killing day. In this one Cecil covers: • Curing & smoking the old way — the plain wood salt box, "seven days to the inch," the sugar cure, saltpeter and the second coat when the peach trees bloom, red pepper on the bone, cold smoke over green hickory, and the smokehouse that has to breathe • Cooking bacon right — the cold skillet, the cast-iron press, waking up tired bacon, slicing it cold, cutting it thick, and rendering the fat low and slow • The grease was the whole point — pull the meat and keep the grease working, the grease can that never got emptied, straining every pouring, and why bacon grease was a tool, not leftovers • Stretching one hog all winter — soup beans and side meat, seasoning a whole pot with fatback, leather britches, the hog jowl nobody wasted, and "everything but the squeal" • The mountain table — kilt lettuce in hot bacon grease, what plain cornbread was really for, fried taters done right, milk gravy off the drippings, and the New Year's plate that meant something • Streak-o-lean vs. bacon, hog-killing weather, killing by the signs of the moon, salt boiled right up out of the ground — and the gold, revealed at the very end These are the real secrets the old mountain folks knew — and now they're finally written down. Which one did you find most interesting? And tell us down in the comments where you're watching from. 📖 Every one of these — and a heap more that wouldn't fit — is in The Holler Almanac, linked here and in the comments. CHAPTERS 0:00 The Gold He Poured Over His Bacon — 34 Years, Never Told a Soul 1:18 Why a Screaming-Hot Pan Ruins Good Bacon 1:57 The Cast-Iron Press That Keeps Every Strip Flat 2:51 Bringing Limp, Tired Bacon Back to Life 3:38 Pull the Meat, Keep the Grease Working 4:22 Slice It Cold, or You'll Tear the Slab 5:10 Why Homemade Bacon Gets Cut Thick 5:57 "Hog-Killing Weather" — Waiting on the First Hard Freeze 6:46 Killing a Hog by the Signs of the Moon 7:40 The Plain Wood Box That Carried a Hog Through Winter 8:32 Seven Days to the Inch: Knowing When It's Cured 9:21 The Sugar Cure That Makes It Worth Eating 10:06 When the Peach Trees Bloom, You Cure It Again 11:07 Red Pepper on the Bone, Where the Bugs Get In 11:52 Cold Smoke — the Part Everybody Gets Wrong 12:46 A Lighter Hand on the Bacon Than the Hams 13:37 The One Rinse That Saves a Whole Year's Work 14:33 Streak-o-Lean vs. Bacon: the Line Only a Mountain Cook Drew 15:25 The Hog Jowl Nobody Up Here Wasted 16:11 Three Old Ways to Beat the Skippers 16:43 The Smokehouse That Has to Breathe 17:37 Salt Boiled Right Up Out of the Ground 18:24 Get It in the Salt Warm — the Same Day You Kill 19:19 The Grease Can That Never Got Emptied 20:04 Strain Every Pouring, or It Goes Rancid 20:55 Bacon Grease Was a Tool, Not Leftovers 21:44 Soup Beans & Side Meat: Supper From Almost Nothing 22:41 Kilt Lettuce, Wilted Under Hot Bacon Grease 23:33 What Plain Cornbread Was Really For 24:18 Never Boil Your Taters First 25:07 Milk Gravy Off the Drippings 25:54 Season the Whole Pot With a Hunk of Fatback 26:44 Everything but the Squeal 27:35 The New Year's Plate That Meant Something 28:30 The Gold, Revealed — Sorghum Poured Over Hot Bacon #Appalachia #OldWays #HogKilling #Homestead #CuredBacon #Smokehouse #MountainCooking #CastIron #SelfReliant #SouthernCooking