Charles Hennell, chef/proprietor of the Apple Tree, Onibury, near Ludlow, Shropshire, chooses… Smoked bacon
"I do lean quite heavily on smoked, porkbased products in my cooking. I tend to use it a lot for wrapping poultry because it adds to the flavour, as well as making the meat more tender and juicy. "I use a third-generation family butcher's in Ludlow called Carters. They do dry-salted oak-chip-smoked home-cured bacon. I first came across it because it was hanging up in the window of the shop. You just have to look at the colour of it to see that it has been properly cured.
"Sides of the different types of bacon hang up in the shop in the centre of Ludlow - just like cured meats hang from the ceilings of proper Italian delicatessens. "I use it a lot with chicken because even free-range chicken has very little flavour, but it absorbs the smoky flavour of the bacon. The bacon keeps everything moist and it also imparts a lovely flavour into sauces and means you don't have to add much salt.
"I used to use pancetta, but what's the point of getting that stuff from Italy or Spain when we've got a family butcher a few miles away in Ludlow, who lovingly cures his bacon, using top-notch local pork. "The butchers at Carters slice it on a traditional old machine and they'll slice it as thin as I want it, to the point that it's so thinly sliced that it almost falls apart. It's wonderful. If I do a beef bourguignon or coq au vin, I buy a big lump of it and it goes into the dish in fat cubes."
Carters butchers, Ludlow, 01584 874665