{"id":2829,"date":"2022-03-06T11:52:02","date_gmt":"2022-03-06T16:52:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/history\/?p=2829"},"modified":"2025-05-26T11:19:52","modified_gmt":"2025-05-26T15:19:52","slug":"a-cure-for-bacon-preserving-southern-food-and-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogarchive.utc.edu\/history\/2022\/03\/06\/a-cure-for-bacon-preserving-southern-food-and-history\/","title":{"rendered":"A cure for bacon? Preserving Southern food and history"},"content":{"rendered":"

***<\/span><\/p>\n

This story was written by Chuck Wasserstrom and was published as a UTC News Release<\/a> on Feb. 14, 2022.<\/p>\n

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Students in Mark Johnson\u2019s \u2018Food and Southern History\u2019 class prepare a chunk o\u2019park for curing bacon.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Mark Johnson likes bacon.<\/p>\n

He has always had an interest in history, too.<\/p>\n

In \u201cFood and Southern History,\u201d Johnson, a lecturer in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of History, gets to combine those passions.<\/p>\n

In the course, students explore the history of the American South through its foodways, which refers to studying why and what people eat and its meaning. It entails many different processes: Cultivation and production, distribution, marketing, preparation and consumption.<\/p>\n

Johnson, a UTC faculty member since 2019, said his interest in the history of Southern food stems from his time as a University of Alabama graduate school student.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Alabama State Department of Tourism and the Southern Foodways Alliance, which is a food think tank out of the University of Mississippi, co-sponsored a grant in conjunction with the state\u2019s tourism campaign, \u2018The Year of Alabama Barbeque,\u2019\u201d he recalled. \u201cUniversity of Alabama Professor Joshua Rothman got the grant, and he hired me to help him. I just kept going with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The assignment led to Johnson publishing \u201cAn Irresistible History of Alabama Barbecue: From Wood Pit to White Sauce\u201d in 2017.<\/p>\n

Johnson\u2019s current book project is on the cultural history of bacon.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m asking a simple question, actually. How did bacon, which has been condemned by major world religions, dietary advice and\u2014surprisingly\u2014elites and cultural influencers, end up taking over the 21st century?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The topic of how bacon is made was the focus of a recent \u201cFood and Southern History\u201d class, as bacon really fits with the course theme.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is such a staple food,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

He and his students were treated to an interactive session led by James Scott, a UTC history alumnus (2014), former UTC adjunct instructor (2016-2017) and current teacher at Baylor School in Chattanooga.<\/p>\n

Scott came to the Brock Hall class with a measuring scale, a vacuum-pack sealing machine, kosher salt, sugar, sodium nitrite\u2014also known as pink salt\u2014and a hog from North Carolina.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt came as one giant hunk of pork,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Curing meats involves adding some combination of salt, sugar, nitrite and\/or nitrate\u00a0for preservation, flavor and color. Scott learned about curing bacon during his time as a UTC student, thanks to a book his brother-in-law sent him about charcuterie\u2014dressed meats and meat dishes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up eating country hams and lots of bacon, but I\u2019d never done it myself. I wanted to give it a shot,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n

The guest instructor and students worked together on five sections of the hog\u2019s belly. One part was left alone; Scott referred to it as: \u201cOur control chunk o\u2019pork. When we cook it, it\u2019s going to taste a lot like a really fatty pork chop.\u201d<\/p>\n

Piece by piece, the other hog sections were seasoned. One with salt but left uncured. One with salt that will be cured. One with the mixture of salt, sugar, and sodium nitrite will later be smoked with hickory and oak. And one with the complete mix that will be smoked with applewood.<\/p>\n

While discussing sodium nitrite\u2019s uses in curing meats, Scott told a story about John Sevier\u2014one of the founding fathers of the state of Tennessee\u2014which led to a humorous exchange.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn Sevier\u2019s land, there were several caves that produced this kind of salt,\u201d Scott told the class. \u201cHe didn\u2019t say, \u2018We\u2019ve got sodium nitrite caves.\u2019 He said, \u2018We\u2019ve got saltpeter caves.\u2019 Saltpeter is an ingredient in our bacon. Does anybody know what else you can use saltpeter for?\u201d<\/p>\n

Multiple students quickly answered, \u201cGunpowder.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCan you tell them what you used to do in a previous life?\u201d Johnson asked Scott.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I came here as a student, I was an explosive ordnance disposal technician, so I got to play with explosives,\u201d said Scott, a one-time U.S. Army member. \u201cSo I particularly love the fact that this combines my two favorite things: Explosions and pork products.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the students worked in groups to season the different sections, Scott used the vacuum sealer to start the curing process.<\/p>\n

It will take a couple of weeks of refrigeration, turning the meat every two days, before it will be ready for the smoking process. Once it is fully cured and cooked, Scott will bring the bacon to Johnson\u2019s classroom for a taste testing.<\/p>\n

\u201cNext time somebody asks you, \u2018Have you ever cured your own bacon,\u2019 you can go, \u2018Yes, I have,\u2019\u201d Scott said with a laugh. \u201cThat\u2019s part of every humanities education, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

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Media Relations Contacts: Email\u00a0UTC Media Relations<\/a>\u00a0or call 423-425-5119.<\/small><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mark Johnson likes bacon. He has always had an interest in history, too. In \u201cFood and Southern History,\u201d Johnson, a lecturer in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of History, gets to combine those passions.<\/p>\n

Continue Reading <\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":800,"featured_media":2830,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[35426,92327,35701],"class_list":{"0":"post-2829","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-department-news","8":"tag-department-news","9":"tag-mark-a-johnson","10":"tag-what-history-teaches-you","11":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nA cure for bacon? 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