A Kent bar owner is offering a menu based on Roman processing methods such as pickling and curing.
Chef-patron Jason Freedman is using produce such as salt beef; corned beef with dripping; smoked pancetta; sweet cured air-dried pork loin; and smoked pastrami on the spring and summer menus at Minnis Bar & Restaurant in Birchington, Kent.
Freedman is interested in the flavours that the different methods bring to the Kentish meat and fish.
The meats have been added to dishes such as chorizo with grilled oysters; platters of home-produced meats with home-pickled seafood; and an open sandwich of homemade pastrami.
Bacon and pancetta are cured in salts and spices, vacuum-packed for two weeks and then hung to dry for a fortnight.
The air-dried sweet pork loin is cured in salts, spices, sugars and honey for three weeks, then hung for three months.