Furtling around in the freezer last night I realised that was down to my last packet of bacon from last summer. On the last Friday of every holiday we will make a trip to Bantry market to stock up and buy cheese and bacon to take home with us.

The bacon all comes from the Gubbeen stall and my favourite is the Maple Cure. I think I have talked before about the umami smell as it cooks and perhaps the best bit, the sticky residue that is left in the pan once it is cooked. I suspect that it is not good for you to wipe a finger through the bacon grease to pick up the black nicks of maple syrup that have leached from the bacon as it cooks but it tastes very good.

Unfortunately the last of the Gubbeen was not a Maple Cure. It was a Gubbeen Unsmoked, cured with juniper, pepper, hebs, cane sugar and salt petre. Galen and I shared the packet. Two pieces for him and four pieces for me.  I had mine in a toast sandwich with HP Sauce.

Jane Grigson has a recipe for mackerel with bacon. It appears in the first edition in her book on Fish Cookery but for some reason does not, as I recall, appear in the later revised edition.

She suggests taking fillets of cold cooked mackerel, remove the skin. Cut the bacon into strips and fry lightly in a little butter. Leave to cool. Lay the mackerel fillets onto slices of buttered bread, put some mayonnaise on top and then arrange the bacon across it.

I have not tried it yet but will do next summer.

This afternoon we have spent time in the garden raking up the last of the autumn leaves, chopping up logs for the fire and cutting back the ivy that has managed to creep up over the wall by the veg patch. We are back inside now and it is trying to snow. The fire is on and we are listening to old records.