Boiled Bacon with Pearl Barley and Lentils

After the killing of the pig in the autumn, most households would have a barrel of salted or pickled pork to last throughout the winter. There would also be a barrel of dried beans, and the combination was the dietary mainstay of most of the British throughout the centuries.

There are so many alternative ways of serving boiled bacon. It still eats well with dried beans – which would have been the broad variety before kidney beans were introduced from America – with other pulses or g