Posted by:
Roy G Biv
(
)
Date: July 07, 2021 11:53AM
For regular bacon use Pork Belly. I buy it whole at Costco, about 9 or 10 lbs. usually runs about $30 US. For Canadian bacon, use pork loin, center cut, not pork tenderloin.
per 1 lb. of meat mix:
1 T. Morton's tender quick curing salt
1 T. pure maple syrup
1 T. brown sugar
1 t. ground black pepper
I cut the pork belly into 3 pieces and put each piece in a 1 gallon Ziploc bag. Or put each piece of loin in a bag. Cover each piece with the cure mix. I weigh the mix, then part it out evenly for each bag. Work the mix all around the meat, push out the air and seal.
Place bags on a cookie sheet and refrigerate, turning the bags and "massaging the meat a bit every day. As it cures, it will draw out water and become liquid in the bag.
Cure pork belly for 7 - 8 days (I go with 8 days). I cured the loin for 4 days, but if they are big, you could go more. I'm sure you could go 7 days and be fine but most recipes I saw only went 3 - 4 days in a liquid brine cure.
When cured, remove from cure and wash well under cold water until all the brine is off. Dry with a paper towel, place on a rack on a cookie sheet and place in refrigerator over night. this will form the "pellicle" layer on the skin which attracts the smoke.
I use the Smoke setting on my Taeger which is around 160F, but it bounces around up to 190F or higher so I watch it and open the lid now and then to get it down to about 180F. I'd say 180F is a good temp over all. lower and slower is best but you can use a higher temp to speed it up. Don't go over 225F. Put on the grill with the fat side up for both cuts of meat.
Smoke until internal temp is 155F or higher for Canadian bacon and 165 for regular bacon. When done, remove from smoker, place on a rack on a cookie sheet and refrigerate over night.
Then slice and vacuum seal. For regular bacon, be sure and slice the right direction, across the grain. Easy on a pork loin, but you have to know which way the grain is on pork belly. The grain runs the length of the belly, so slice perpendicular to that, end to end across the length.
Canadian bacon only needs to cooked until hot, not crispy. Regular bacon cooks longer as I'm sure you know.
The belly bacon recipe is tried and true, been making it for a couple years now. Best bacon I've ever had.
This was my first time with loin bacon so I made a small batch, 5 lbs., and am experimenting with how long to cure it. Mine were 2.5 lbs. each and 4 days was perfect. If I get thicker loins, I may go an extra day or so.
Good luck!