4 August 2024
Lagos
Nigeria
The End
The idea of the work came to me as I was travelling through England at the start of the Woodys project. I remember sitting by the window in a small hotel in England where I travelled with Hendrik Jeppensin, who was with Tulip for many years. I was doing crazy bacon curing trials but in reality, I was learning the art of bacon.
While I was looking out over the town square below my window on a bright English afternoon, I had just written an email to my family in Cape Town, and the idea struck me to compile the emails I wrote home into one work where I tell the story of the history of meat curing and retain some of the personal communication with my family. Over the years I started to include more and more family stories which I learned from my mom and Uncle Jan Kok. I continued to investigate the origins of every aspect of our trade and had the privilege of telling these stories, often being the first one ever to report on it.
Never before has the chronology of the development of bacon curing been so thoroughly investigated and so completely reported on as in this work. It is the most complete work on the subject in existence. With the investigation of not only the beginnings of the practices and the colourful characters who established the modern curing industry but also the history of the discovery of the natural phenomena behind the processes underpinning meat curing – in other words, the science behind it – as I delved into the history of these discoveries my understanding of the amazing and wonderfully complex natural mechanisms behind curing grew. All these have been the combined subject of this work.
I wrote the first chapter just after 2010. It was when Lauren and I lived in Johannesburg that I wrote the bulk of the chapters. Today, over fourteen years after that first chapter, I woke up and knew it was time to put a full stop behind it.
Much has changed in my life over the past few years, personal and professional. There were major endings and conclusions but for every ending, there was an even more significant beginning. One thing stands out and that is that whatever follows, is built on the past and the past is Bacon & the Art of Living.
I will continue to return to relevant chapters and complete updates that I must still make mainly of a technical and scientific nature. One or two chapters must still be completed. One day I will have it all edited and maybe even publish it. It is my gift to my kids and to an industry I love.
Sincere thanks to every encouraging mail or message I received over the years from countless people from around the globe. I dedicate this to my kids.
The index Page is found at Bacon & the Art of Living.
