Canadian Bacon: the Final Chapter

Yesterday morning, the Canadian bacon was to go into the smoker.  But before that I had to let the smoker heat up to 225F and in the meantime, let the pieces of cured loin rest at room temperature for an hour.

When the hour was up, into the smoker my little babies went.  I had water in the pan of the smoker and left the vents open half way.  After closing the smoker I turned on the smoke and the wood I used was maple.  I didn't touch the temperature control.

My plan was to apply 2 hours of maple smoke but my little chunks of loin reached an internal temperature of 145F before the smoke session completed.  So, I pulled them out. From all that I am reading, cured pork loin is best if you let it go between 140F and 150F, beyond that, it will dry out because it is so lean.  One of the gentlemen that helped me on the Bradley Smoker Forum pulls his at 140F.

 

They came out really pretty, the color made you want to eat them!  I tented them with fold and let them cool down enough to handle them so I would wrap them and let them cool down completely before taking a sample, it wasn't easy to wait!  Later in the evening we all took a taste test and were very pleased with the results.  Cannot wait to make another one and I'm already eyeballing another recipe but this time I want to work with entire loin.

Canadian Bacon Update

Well, 9 days into curing I started thinking and worrying about my Canadian bacon's 21 day cure.  I wasn't worried about the safety of it but more concerned about the how salty it would end up.  So, I posted my concerns on the Bradley Smoker Forum and got some great guidance.

Some of the forum members were not quite sure about the 21 day cure either so it was nice to know I wasn't completely crazy.  One member told me to slice into the meat to see if it cured all the way through.  What he said was that if it was a nice pink color all the way through, it was completely cured to the core.  As you can see it was.

 

Now I knew that it had cured safely, I could rinse off the pieces of loin under cold water.  This washed off any extra cure and maple syrup.

The other quality I was to check for was its saltiness.  By taking a bit off and cooking it, I could taste the level of salt.  I took off three bits for each family member to taste and get their opinion.  Don't those pieces look a lot like regular pork belly bacon?  Our meat processor left a fat-laden strip of meat along the length of the loin which I'm not sure is usually on a pork loin but I don't care because I'm a big fan of pork fat!

Fried up these three pieces and they really tasted GOOD but were a bit saltier than we like.

 

To draw out a little of the salt, I soaked the loins for an hour in 3 gallons of cold water.

After the soaking, I dried them off and tied them with string to keep them together.  They will dry overnight, uncovered in the fridge on a rack.  Tomorrow they go into the smoker. Stay tuned!

Canandian Bacon II: Adding Some Sweetness

One day three of my Canadian Bacon Project, I added 1/3 cup of Grade B Maple Syrup.  I have been turning the pieces of pork loin in their individual bags and they are definitely curing and firming up.

I take back what I said about Grade B Maple Syrup not being for pancakes, too.  I might try it sometime, it's stronger and richer than Grade A but it tastes good.  In the past I have only used it for making pumpkin pies.

The three week cure continues and I will take the pork loins out once a day to turn in their bags then return them to the fridge.  I will keep you all posted though it's a bit like watching paint dry.

First Attempt at Canadian Bacon

Here we go again, curing and smoking some pork.  This time I am going to make my first Canadian bacon. The recipe I'm working is from the Bradley Recipe Site.  This recipe requires a three week curing time which is very different from anything I have ever tried in the pass and is going to make this blog entry into a two or three parter. I'm going with this recipe because it calls for maple sugar cure and grade b maple syrup, two things I have on hand and would like to use.  So, for this recipe you will need only three ingredients:

• Pork loin
• Maple sugar cure, used to the manufacturer's specifications.
• Grade B maple syrup, this is not the kind you put on pancakes but it's best used for cooking.

My pork loin was a half portion weighing in at five pounds and after trimming the exterior fat from it, ended up weighing in at three and a half pounds. I cut this half.

The maple sugar cure was from Cabela's.  Their directions for dry rub application was 0.07lb per pound of meat.  For the amount of meat I had I calculated 3.5 pounds of meat would need about 0.25 pound of cure which would be 4 ounces.  Does that make sense?  I rubbed 2 ounces of cure on each half.

 

Each half was placed in its own one gallon zip loc bag.  Now they are in the fridge and I am turning them everyday.  After 3 days, I will be adding the maple syrup to them and promise to keep every one posted on the progress.