Serves 6:
1x 6-8 bone ‘French trimmed’ loin of pork, (see notes).
Salt and pepper, plus coarse sea salt for sprinkling.
Cooking oil
1 Tbsp clear honey.
1 Teaspoon picked fresh thyme, saving the stalks.
Juice of ½ lemon.
300ml (½ pint) Chicken stock, tinned consommé or water.
25g (1oz) butter.

For the parsnip cream:
1.3kg (3ib) Parsnips.
Milk to cover (approximately 450-600ml / ¾-1pint).
Knob of butter
1 tablespoon Dijon or wholegrain mustard.

Preheat the oven to 230°C / 450°F / Gas mark 8. Score the skin of the pork with a sharp knife in a line between each bone. Season the underside and meat ends of the pork with salt and pepper. Brush the skin with cooking oil, then sprinkle with table and coarse sea salt. Place the joint in a roasting tray, sitting on its arched bones, skin side up. Place in the oven and roast for 15 minutes at the high temperature to begin the crisping of the skin. Reduce the oven temperature to 200°C / 400°F / Gas mark 6 and continue roasting, basting from time to time, for a further 50-60 minutes.

During this time, the skin will have crisped to a salted crackling finish. Remove the joint from the pan and keep warm to one side, allowing to rest for a good 15 minutes.

Pour away any excess fat from the roasting tray and place it on a medium heat. As the residue begins to bubble and crackle, add the honey and thyme stalks. The honey will melt instantly and begin to sizzle within a minute or two. When it begins to caramelise, add the lemon juice, which will begin to split, lifting all the flavours. Add the stock, consommé or water and bring to a simmer. Cook gently for a few minutes seasoning with salt and pepper. Stir in the butter. A teaspoon of flour can be added to the 25g (1oz) of butter. This will immediately thicken the liquor. Cook for a few minutes to finish the gravy,then strain through a fine sieve. Add the fresh thyme leaves just before serving.

While the pork is resting, make the parsnip cream. Peel the parsnips, splitting each lengthwise into quarters and cutting away the core. Cut the strips into rough dice. Place the diced parsnips in a saucepan and add enough milk to cover. Season with salt and pepper and bring to a gentle simmer. Place a lid on top and cook for 15-20 minutes, until the parsnips are completely tender. Using a slotted spoon, place some of the cooked dice into a liquidizer and blitz to a smooth puree, adding some of the milk if needed. As the parsnips begin to cream, more parsnips can be added. This may have to be done in two batches. If slightly grainy, you may want to pass it through a sieve. Once all of the puree has been made, keep to one side, ready to rewarm when needed. When reheating the knob of butter and mustard can be added and the seasoning checked.

To carve the pork, simply separate the portions by carving between each rib. An alternative is first to cut away the crackling. This can now be broken into pieces ready to serve with the craved pork. Serve the craved pork on warm plates with a spoonful of the parsnip cream and a drizzle or two of the thyme flavoured gravy.

Back to pigs and curing bacon. I become fussier and fussier about the bacon I buy. What is that awful, white, fishy smelling, sticky goo that emerges from each rasher as it fries, rendering the lot soggy and welded to the pan? Why doesn’t it turn crisp and fill the air with that irresistible coffee mixed smell of breakfast as I struggle back, cold and hungry from the yard?

So the pork belly will go into a dry cure: salt, bay leaves, crushed peppercorns, juniper berries and soft brown sugar. I will rub the mixture into the meat and place it in a plastic tray; wood will do to but on no account will I use metal. I will cover it with a tea towel and leave it in the fridge overnight. The next day I will pour off the liquid that has leached out of the meat and, if necessary, rub in a little more salt mixture. I will repeat this for three or four days. The longer I leave it the more salty but the more stable it will become. Finally I will take it out of the cure, rinse it well and pat it dry. I will wrap it in muslin or maybe greaseproof paper and make room in my fridge for it to hang from a shelf. It will keep for a month like this. Mild weather makes me feel the fridge is the safest option.

I would like to have it smoked but my local smoke house is now too large a concern to take tiny pieces of home cured affairs, so I’ll enjoy it “green”. Maybe one day I’ll tackle home smoking….

Delicious meals start to fill my head; petit sale with Savoy cabbage and mashed potatoes. Soak the bacon to remove the salt, rinse and bring gently to the boil, simmer for about forty minutes. Chop a Savoy cabbage, blanche in boiling water and drain well. Drain the cooked bacon and keep warm. Keep the liquor for future soup. Melt a piece of butter in a thick pan, add a tablespoon of the bacon liquor and re-heat the cabbage. Serve hot boiled bacon with cabbage and mashed potatoes.

Or how about an Anglicised Tartiflette? Fry some bacon till just beginning to crisp, add a couple of chopped onions and a left over, boiled potato or three. When the onion begins to caramelise tip the lot into and oven proof dish and pour over a little cream. No, this is not a light, slimming dish! Top with cheese, traditionally it should be Tomme de Savoie, but use up whatever you have. Bake until the cheese melts and bubbles. Delicious!

For a really quick supper just fry bacon cubes, shallot and cooked, sliced potatoes and, maybe, some mushrooms together and top with a fried egg. So simple and so nice!

But whatever you do, just remember as the winter month’s approach, to take a tip from Pieter Breuegel, the Elder’s Peasant Dancer and wear your spoon in your hat, so you may always be absolutely sure of a good meal wherever you go …….