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.

Home-Cured Easter Ham: The Final Chapter

Easter morning arrived, and the ham went into my preheated Bradley Smoker which was 220F.  

 

After putting the ham in the smoker it took an hour for the smoker to reach 200F which is the temperature I maintained for the entire process.  Once this temperature was reached I turned on the hickory smoke.

The recipe called for three ingredients for the ham glaze:

• 1 ½ packed cups/270 grams dark brown sugar
• ¾ cup/185 milliliters Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon/20 grams minced garlic

When my husband heard I was going to be using a ham glaze that contained garlic, he begged me to omit it from the recipe.  It just didn't live up to his ideal of an Easter ham so that's what I did: left out the garlic.

I made the glaze using the dark brown sugar and dijon mustard.  

 

This was applied to the ham after it had smoked for two hours.  Half of this mustard/sugar was reserved to apply after the ham is fully cooked.

The smoking continued for 4 more hours and the ham continued to cook in the 200F smoker until it reached an internal temperature of 155F.  At this time the ham is essentially cooked but I wanted the glaze to carmelize.  The remaining glaze was brushed on and the ham was placed in a 325F preheated oven and baked for 30 minutes.  The glaze was bubbly and beautiful!

This was my fourth home-cured ham and the first time using this ham recipe with which I was really pleased with.  Now I have the ham hock also so I will share with you all my favorite pork and beans recipe soon.

Home-Cured Easter Ham: Part 2

Tomorrow is the big day so today the Easter ham was removed from the curing brine and rinsed with cold water.  It's beautifully cured with a nice pink tone and is much firmer to the touch than an uncured piece of pork.

 

After thoroughly rinsing the brine from the ham, it was dried off using a paper towel and then placed in the  fridge on a roasting pan to dry.  The recipe I'm following recommends letting it dry in the fridge for 12-24 hours.  My will rest for the entire 24 hours.

Tomorrow morning it will be going into my little smoker bright and early so it won't be late for Easter dinner.

Home-Cured Easter Ham: Part I

My ham and its detached hock defrosted so the prepping and brining have begun.  This is only the fourth ham that I ever cured and smoked on my own.  I am still very much working my way through the apprentice level of ham crafting but I want to encourage you to try one sometime, too.  

On the first three hams, I used the method described by Rytek Kutas in his book Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing...a wonderful must-have book.  This recipe requires dextrose amongst its ingredients which I normally keep on hand and for some reason I forgot to replenish my supply.  Luckily my friend pointed me in the direction of this recipe, and it doesn't require dextrose of which I have none. The recipe which I will be doing is in two parts since the brining time is for a week:

American-style Brown-Sugar-Glazed Holiday Ham

The Brine (this week):

• 1 gallon/4 liters water
• 1 ½ cups/350 grams kosher salt
• 2 packed cups/360 grams dark brown sugar
• 1 ½ ounces/42 grams pink salt (8 teaspoons)
• One 12- to 15-pound/5.5 to 6.75-kilogram fresh ham, skin and aitch-bone removed

The Glaze (next week when I smoke/cook it):

• 1 ½ packed cups/270 grams dark brown sugar
• ¾ cup/185 milliliters Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon/20 grams minced garlic

Since it came from the butcher with the skin removed, I trimmed the excess fat from my fresh pork ham and ham hock.  1/4 inch of outer fat was left on.

 

The brine was made with chilled water and stirred until all the ingredients dissolved.

Though the recipe that I provided the link to does not mention injecting cure into the ham, I did it and recommend that you do it, too.  There is a lot of meat between the outside of the ham and the bone so I inject straight in from the outside to the bone just to make sure that cure in getting inside meat. I set the ham in a non-reactive rimmed container and inject about 2 cup of the brine into it.  What ever drains out of the ham is caught in the container and you can add it to the brining container along with the ham.

Now I like to use ZipLoc 2 gallon reseal-able bags to brine my hams but you can use any non-reactive bucket or container.  Just make sure you put the bag in another container in case of leaks.  Brining time is 6 to 8 days, the recipe recommends "half a day per pound).  Mine will be in for 7 days.

Next week I will be smoking, glazing and cooking my ham.  Looking forward to showing you he technique and the results.

Time for Some Ham and Eggs

I'm not exactly sure why this year I have been hit with a bad case of either cabin fever or spring fever...maybe I'm afflicted with both! This was the view out my window yesterday and it just seemed beautiful and depressing all at the same time. The day before I was looking at one of our gardens thinking maybe I'll start digging it up and get ready to plant some spinach and arugula in it next week but now once again it's buried under the snow. Alas, life in North Idaho where the news of Global Warming just hasn't arrived yet.

But I am being proactive in battling this depression by defrosting a fresh ham which I will start to cure in a week. This way it should be done for Easter. I will share with you how I do it as soon as I start curing it.

Also, this evening, I am going to set 14 fertile eggs from my French Black Copper Marans flock into my trusty incubator. These eggs are from my new generation of birds that started laying late last summer. This breed of chickens lay a beautiful dark brown egg that is darkest at the beginning of their laying cycle.

So, in a little over two weeks I should have a lovely ham for Easter Sunday and in three weeks a batch of chicks. I will keep you all posted.

I'm NEVER Buying Bacon Again!

For my birthday last month I bought myself the perfect present: Half a hog! I have purchased locker pork before but I usually have the processor make me ham, bacon and sausage from it. He does an awesome job of curing and smoking his customers' pork but I decided this time around to have him just cut it up for me and do all the curing, smoking and sausage making myself.

I have been making sausage for almost 3 years now but last year I tried my hand at curing and smoking my own ham. The butcher at our local grocery store ordered an 22 pound pork leg and sawed it to a butt and shank portion. For Easter I cured and smoked my first ham and it came out wonderful and I was sold on curing my own ham from then on out.

So, now I'm trying my hand at curing and smoking my own slab of bacon. The piece of pork belly that I'm working with came from the processor with skin removed and it weighs 5 pounds. The recipe choice is 10.5's Maple Cured Bacon from the Bradley Recipe Site.

Here's the ingredients needed:

• 2 oz. Kosher salt (about 1/4 cup)
• 2 tsp. Cure #1 (aka pink salt, InstaCure #1, Prague Powder #1)
• 1/4 C. Maple sugar or packed brown sugar
• 1/4 C. Maple syrup
  
• 5 lb. fresh pork belly
  (Makes enough for a 5 lb. belly)

The prep was actually pretty easy. I mixed together the dry ingredients (salt, sugar, cure)

Then added the maple syrup to the dry ingredients to make a paste which was spread all over the piece of pork belly.

After the paste is applied, it goes into a 2 gallon ZipLoc bag (I love these big ones!) Squeeze out as much air as you can out of the bag to insure good contact with the meat. Place it in the frig to cure for 5 to 7 days, turning once a day.

After curing, the pork belly needs to be rinsed to remove excess cure. It was placed on an inverted smoker rack sitting on a cookie sheet then returned to the frig to air-dry over night. The next morning it was removed from the frig and allowed to rest on the kitchen counter for an hour and a half.

Into my preheated Bradley Smoker it goes. I smoked it with 2 hours of maple smoke at 130F with the vent opened half way. After the first 2 hours, I increased the temperature to 150-160F until the meat hit an internal temperature of 140F.

It came out just beautiful!

I planned on getting it sliced at the meat processors (since I don't own a meat slicer) but I did take a slice to fry up a sample for the family to try. It tasted as good as it looked, too.

After taking it to get it sliced. (Picture at the top) I vacuum-sealed four pounds of it.

I cannot tell you enough how easy and rewarding it was to make my own bacon. It took less time and labor than a batch of jerky takes. Go for it! And do let us know how it comes out.

Jerky: the Easiest Way to Look Like a Pro

This last weekend I wanted to make something in the smoker that was really easy. Emma and I were just getting over a bad case of the flu and poor Greg was in the middle of it. So, to get the satisfying feeling of accomplishing something but not having to spend a ton of time in the preparation of it, I decided to make jerky from a Hi Mountain jerky kit. I highly recommend these kits that are available at sporting good stores and online. The variety flavors are great and directions clear and easy to follow. They work for whole meat jerky and ground meat jerky with two separate directions for both versions.

I'm not going to give all the details because one needs to follow the Hi Mountain 's directions for success but I'll share some pics of what my batch looked like at various stages of preparation. I started with 3+ pounds of venison roast. Hi Mountain's Original Blend is the flavor I used this time around.

I cut the venison into 1/4 inch thick slices. It is much easier to slice it when the meat is still partially frozen. Remove any fat, sinew or silvery membrane from the meat.

After trimming and slicing your meat make sure you weight it. This is how you accurately figure out how much season and cure you need to mix up from your kit. I love using my digital kitchen scale.
The slices need to be patted dry with a paper towel. Place the slices flat on a cookie sheet and sprinkle with the season-cure mixture evenly on both sides.

Once you are done covering the meat with the mixture, put it in a big bowl and mix it up to get the seasons and cure evenly distributed.
Now the seasoned and cure-added meat needs to cure for 24 hours in the fridge. After 24 hours it is ready to place on jerky racks and place into the smoker.

I cooked the jerky at 200F and applied an hour and a half of smoke during the first part of the cooking process. I used Bradley's Special Blend bisquettes since I recently received a variety pack from Bradley and had not tried the blend before. The entire cooking process took about 3 hours.

I'm not exactly sure how to take the internal temperature on a piece of jerky so I just check for doneness by touch. It should be dried but still flexible enough to bend without breaking. Also, there should not be much give when you squeeze it between your fingertips.

When cooked let it rest on the kitchen counter until cool. Then place it in a zip lock bag in the fridge. This will allow the jerky to release a little moisture to its surface and give it a beautiful glossy finish. Now you will have some great jerky that tastes and looks like a pro made it.