Bacon

Many readers complain that the bacon they buy ready-sliced in packets is of a very poor quality and that it exudes a grey watery scum in the frying pan. This is because industrial bacon producers immerse sides of pork in brine and also inject brine into the meat rather than use the dry salt and nitrite of artisanal cures. They do so since this is a cheap and rapid method which takes days rather than weeks, while the inclusion of water is legal and means the bacon can be marketed at an apparently lower price by weight.