Fermanagh Black Bacon

This morning I watched Jimmy Doherty's Farming Heroes on BBC i-player. This week's episode was on Northern Ireland. Watch it quick before it expires!

The bit I liked the best was at the start of the programme; he visits a butcher who bought an island to rear pigs for bacon. I've actually heard of this bacon before, Fermanagh Black Bacon. They only use natural products to cure it. Recently there have been some reports that the use of nitrates in bacon may be carcinogenic if fried at a high heat - although the link is not proven. There's another report in the Ecologist, here. I have to admit that I like bacon really crispy, so I might look out for nitrate-free bacon.