Chase, you need the pink salt and/or stuff like it in cured and semi-cured sausages/hams/bacon/etc. Things that you hang to air dry, stuff that will be kept in the rafters all year. So, today's home smoker needn't worry about it too much, I don't think. Except I'd be leery of omitting it from a recipe that had it in. Morton sells a cure mix. If you go to their website there is a smattering of info on it. Sorry, just re-read your post and see that I'm not answering it, heh. No, pink salt is not pink...that is a reference to the fact that it maintains pink in the meat it is curing. So you don't get the grey sausage or bacon. Except when it (the salt) is artificially dyed pink so you don't fill your salt shaker with it I guess. Pink salt is a mixture of table salt and sodium nitrate or nitrite. Nitrite is most common. Its also called Prague powder, probably only in the trade tho. Oh, and for those worried about amount of nitrates/nitrites, pink salt is 94-95% salt and 4-5% nitrites. So very little goes into a batch of whatever. Sodium nitrate and or nitrite is water soluble so any plant grown in soil that uptakes a lot of water has naturally occurring nitrites/nitrates. Lettuce is one. As I said earlier, your Caesar salad probably contains more nitrates/nitrites than your bacon and eggs, no matter who makes the bacon. Celery is another veggie with lots of nitrates/nitrites. Of course depending on where it is grown...the soil it is grown in specifically. Man, I ramble on and on when its late and I'm tired,eh? Here is a link that might be useful: This is what I use.

Finally getting back to the Canadian Bacon. annie I did follow thru...ordered the book "Charcuterie" by Chefs Polsyn and Ruhlman. Found it very interesting. Interesting enough we first cured and smoke one pork loins cut in half. Turned out so tasty and by the time 3 kids and families visited we had not enough left to freeze. This past week we did two whole loins cut in half giving us 4 pieces. Again they are so good and enough for each kid and families to have a meal and plenty to freeze. Next a try at Peameal bacon and the Spicy Dry Rub loin. Oh yes did want to mention the book I received was the revised and updated verison. Our smoker setup on first try our first loins done Our second smoking session done And the best part of all.... time to enjoy

Here in Canada, we call it Peameal bacon. We just slice it and fry it. We eat it for supper (like ham) or for breakfast like bacon (it has no fat). We like ours with maple syrup! When I fry it, I add a little water to the pan after it's browned a little on both sides...so it doesn't dry out so much. Here a recipe for an oven roast. I've never made peameal roast in a slow cooker. REAL Canadian Bacon Classic Whole Roast So easy and quick to prepare, this makes an attractive and delicious meal to serve with scalloped potatoes and baked acorn squash. 5 lb unsliced REAL Canadian Bacon whole roast ¼ cup maple syrup ¼ cup apple juice 1 tsp lemon juice 1 tbsp flour 1 tsp dry mustard Cut roast into thin slices, then reassemble into original form by tying together with butcher's twine. Place on rack in a shallow roasting pan. Bake in a 350° F oven for 1 hour. Pour ¼ cup water into the pan to prevent bacon drying out. Combine maple syrup, apple juice, lemon juice, flour and mustard in a small saucepan; mix well. Heat to boiling. Remove bacon from oven. Brush maple syrup mixture over bacon and drizzle some between the slices. Return to oven for approximately 20 to 25 minutes (166° F internal temperature) and baste occasionally with remaining glaze. Place on a platter. Cut string, then pull it away carefully to allow slices to fall neatly in a domino effect along the platter. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Wow, Madonna, that's a great buy on that little propane smoker, I wouldn't have been able to pass that up either. My stepsons are big fans of grinding bacon into our grassfed burger, it's a little too lean for their taste. They got the idea from a restaurant in California where the burgers are half beef and half ground bacon. Nothing you can buy, of course, is as good as home grown or home made. Pork bellies never go on sale here, so we make Canadian Bacon more than we do the traditional stuff. Pork loins are often on sale here for less than $2 a pound so you'll be much more likely to find that. We use more of it than I thought we would. Toss a slice in the pan and in a minute it's ready to put on a breakfast sandwich. The grandkids love it on pizza and in homemade "hot pockets" with pizza sauce and mozzarella. I chop it up and add it to corn waffles along with cheese, we use it in a lot of things. Congratulations on that jam, it's going to make great gifts for some very lucky recipients. I'm more than happy to get other people "hooked" on my own personal addictions, LOL, so can away, then smoke something, then make some sausage. At our age we deserve the "good stuff", so much better than I can buy here!! Annie