Canadian Bacon

[OnAFly]

Reinhard1 brought this up in another thread and it got me interested.

Let's hear some recipes known to be good. I prefer a 'home made' recipes to boxed kits, but if they turn out great it's all good.

[thirdeye]

Here is my homemade cure

~~~~~~~~thirdeye's Tenderquick Cure for Buckboard Bacon~~~~~~~~

Per ONE pound of pork loin or boneless pork butt:

1 Tablespoon of Tenderquick

1 teaspoon of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of maple sugar

Other spices as you see fit (garlic powder, onion powder etc.)

Sprinkle of black pepper to the meat before adding the curing mixture, maybe a little more after the soak-out.

Amount of cure is based on weight, and should not be eyeballed. Cure time is based on thickness of the item, and they will range up to 10 days for a butt, 5 or 6 days for a loin and 4 or 5 days for a tenderloin. I have full instructions as we progress in this thread.

Don't discount the Hi Mountain Buckboard. It is a superb product, it's pre mixed and ready to go, and packaged in 3 pouches each one for 8 pounds of meat. This kit comes with good instructions, but I have made some modifications as Hi Mountain's instructions are written for a box type smoker, and I use charcoal smokers.

[OnAFly]

I've seen some that use a wet cure. Can I simply remove the water from the equation and dry cure? The recipe looked good to me, I just prefer a dry cure for the easier storage.

Brine Recipe:

- 1 Gallon water

- 1.25 cups Morton's TenderQuik

- 3 bay leaves

- 1.25 cups brown sugar

- 3 garlic cloves

- 1 tablespoon juniper berries, slightly crushed

- 1/2 tablespoon black peppercorns

I'm guessing I would cut the amount of TQ as it looks very large compared to your recipe.

[reinhard1]

Third Eye i'm going with you on this one but probably wont be doing this until late next week or week after. so i will be watching this thread. i'm assuming this will be a dry cure? i have never done canadian bacon. i have a brine mix, but i would like to get into dry curing. your smoked trout method is great. thank you. good luck.

[thirdeye]

OnAFly...... No, not really. I would advise you to not go that way. Although they seem really simple.... curing techniques are very specific, not only for food safety, but for good results. I have used many "wet cures" with excellent results, and the one you posted looks pretty good. If it works, stick with it.

But if you want to try a dry cure, don't guess or experiment.. just try a proven dry cure instead. Many of them will have the same flavor profile you like in your recipe. And you are correct, the storage and overhauling of the meat is much easier with a dry cure.

[thirdeye]

reinhard1...... Yes, the Tenderquick recipe is a dry cure.

I'm not sure how the PM feature works, but I'm sending you one right now.

[OnAFly]

I'm giving the wet cure a try. We'll see how it goes. Next time I might try a modified version of your recipe adding a small amount of garlic and bay and maybe the juniper, depending on how they grind up. I threw the pepper and juniper in the grinder a gave it a couple pulses and the juniper seemed to tear more that grind.

[pushbutton]

Earlier this summer i did a wet cure for canadian bacon, found the recipe from a google search, and in typical fashion added some other spices as well. Wow, it was good. Had company and 3 lbs were inhaled in short order. Best thing about it is that it only costs a couple bucks a lb. I bought a loin that had a mix of the light and dark meat, and really liked the darker meat better. I do not know names of the different cuts. Closing up the camper this weekend and will have time to cook more....think this will rise towards the top of the list!

[Jim Almquist]

reinhard1...... Yes, the Tenderquick recipe is a dry cure.

I'm not sure how the PM feature works, but I'm sending you one right now.

Click on the persons name, View profile,then on the right side just click on Send a Personal Message or click on there name and Send a PM

[thirdeye]

Here is my homemade cure

~~~~~~~~thirdeye's Tenderquick Cure for Buckboard Bacon~~~~~~~~

Per ONE pound of pork loin or boneless pork butt:

1 Tablespoon of Tenderquick

1 teaspoon of brown sugar

1 teaspoon of maple sugar

Other spices as you see fit (garlic powder, onion powder etc.)

Sprinkle of black pepper to the meat before adding the curing mixture, maybe a little more after the soak-out.

Amount of cure is based on weight, and should not be eyeballed. Cure time is based on thickness of the item, and they will range up to 10 days for a butt, 5 or 6 days for a loin and 4 or 5 days for a tenderloin. I have full instructions as we progress in this thread.

Don't discount the Hi Mountain Buckboard. It is a superb product, it's pre mixed and ready to go, and packaged in 3 pouches each one for 8 pounds of meat. This kit comes with good instructions, but I have made some modifications as Hi Mountain's instructions are written for a box type smoker, and I use charcoal smokers.

Here are the instructions for dry curing a pork loin: Start with a loin trimmed of excess fat. Use only meats that are marked "fresh" or "natural", do not use enhanced meats. Enhanced pork will usually have an attractive name like "Moist-N-Juicy" or "Always Tender", and the small print will say something like "...injected with a 12% solution". This meat has actually been brined and seasoned, so it may take some of the cure, but the end results will be unpredictable.

Mix up your cure and measure the amount of cure based on the weight of your meat. Don't use less than the amount of cure called for, it's okay if you go a little heavy on the measurement. I usually buy the whole loins (these will be in the 8 to 9 pound range), and cut them into half or into thirds.

Sprinkle the meat with a little black pepper. Rub on the cure and massage into the meat. Place the loin in a plastic "zipper bag", then place in your refrigerator. the cure time will be 6 days. After a day or so you will notice some liquid in the bag. This liquid will act as a brine, so don't pour it out. It may be re-absorbed by the meat after 3 days. Every day you need to turn the bag(s) over so that the brine can come in to contact with all the meat. The ideal temperature for your refrigerator is 38° to 40°.

After 6 days, Rinse the cured meat under the kitchen faucet. Next, soak the cured meat in cold fresh water (changing the water at least once) in the refrigerator for a minimum of 2 to 3 hours, or up to 6 or 8 hours if you are salt conscious, then drain and dry. The "soak-out" allows the fresh water to replace some of the harshness of the salt that the meat has absorbed. I use 2 gallon buckets for the soak-out, but zipper bags will work for this too. The soak-out takes place in the refrigerator.

Following the soak-out, blot the loin dry and add another sprinkle of black pepper, then rest in the refrigerator from 2 hours to overnight, the longer the better. The rest allows the cure to disperse more evenly. In curing circles the rest is referred to as "equalization". The equalization step is very important.

Smoke the cured pork until the internal temperature is 140° to 150°. I like to keep my smoker temp around 200° to start with, and will let it creep up to 225° after an hour or so. Use a gentle smoke. Apple, cherry, or maple are good wood choices. Now you have Canadian style or Buckboard bacon. If after 4 hours, your internal temperature has not reached 140° to 150°, just transfer the loins into a 225° oven and finish it off there. You will already have good color and good smoke on the meat, the oven finish just gets the meat into the safe zone.

My typical timeline for smoking loins on a Saturday is to start the process the Saturday before:

Saturday: start to cure the loins

Sun-Mon-Tue-Wed-Thu: turn the zipper bags daily

Friday: rinse the loins and soak-out for 8 hours

Friday evening: dry and rest the loins overnight

Saturday: smoke the loins

To prepare for eating, just rest for an hour, slice it and try it out. You can lightly fry, microwave, bake or grill it. Since this cure is not a preservation cure, the bacon needs to be stored in your refrigerator. It will keep for 4 or 5 days. Just treat it like ham. Since buckboard bacon is so much lower in fat than belly bacon it cooks much faster. If you want to slice it for packaging and freezing, let it chill overnight first.

[thirdeye]

Earlier this summer i did a wet cure for canadian bacon, found the recipe from a google search, and in typical fashion added some other spices as well. Wow, it was good. Had company and 3 lbs were inhaled in short order. Best thing about it is that it only costs a couple bucks a lb. I bought a loin that had a mix of the light and dark meat, and really liked the darker meat better. I do not know names of the different cuts. Closing up the camper this weekend and will have time to cook more....think this will rise towards the top of the list!

That is my favorite end too. It's the rib end, closer to the front of the hog and is just a little more fatty than the sirloin end. Those smaller muscles take the color differently and have a sweeter flavor.

[pushbutton]

Is there a cut of pork that that has a similar type of meat?

[OnAFly]

thirdeye - is resting the meat similar to forming the pellicle when smoking fish?

I've noticed in a lot of the pictures you show, there seems to be a glossy finish on your smoked items. Is this from the resting stage?

[thirdeye]

Is there a cut of pork that that has a similar type of meat?

Kind of. Think of a pork chop... if it is a center cut chop the large muscle is the loin and the smaller muscle on the other side of the T shaped bone is the tenderloin. The farther forward you come when cutting pork chops you run out of tenderloin and your chops are just called rib chops. They only have loin and the bone is not T shaped anymore. That is the end of the loin in the photo above.

[Harmonica Bear]

Thanks for the info and the passing on of the knowledge! Good stuff for sure.

[thirdeye]

thirdeye - is resting the meat similar to forming the pellicle when smoking fish?

I've noticed in a lot of the pictures you show, there seems to be a glossy finish on your smoked items. Is this from the resting stage?

Yes, the rest time does form the pellicle, but there is more to it. The reason it's called equalization is because during the curing process and during the soak-out, liquid, salt and seasonings are moving from an area of lesser concentration to an area of greater concentration. When the meat comes out of the fresh water things are still in motion and they need time to settle down and equalize. Just like you rest a steak or roast before cutting into it.

Long rest times are good to use when brining foods too. When I brine chicken breasts for 2 hours, I rest them for another hour or two.

The shiny look on my smoked trout comes from a light spray of oil before going on the smoker. I'll sometimes to the same to other smoked meats just to make sure they don't stick to the smoker grates.

[OnAFly]

Interesting, thanks!

[reinhard1]

thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience with us. great stuff. good luck.

[LindellProStaf]

Ya thanks thirdeye. That looks GREAT. I am thinking this will be my 4th of July meal. I am glad you did the day by day plan. That spells it out nicely....

[reinhard1]

while the Highmountain buckboard bacon cure is good, having done this and Thirdeye's own buckboard cure, i like Thirdeye's the best. great stuff!!!!good luck.

[Mnfisher]

I finally got around to smoking some Canadian bacon. It turned out awesome. Thanks for the great recipe!!

[reinhard1]

glad it turned out great for you Jim!!! i got a couple of boneless porkloins i have to make also prior to firearms season. good luck.

[OnAFly]

I showed my dad how to make this stuff the other weekend. He was pretty impressed by the stuff I gave him so he had to try it out for himself.

[reinhard1]

thanks to Thirdeye with the recipe and method. my family likes it as well. good luck.