Oh, YUM!

Piggy goodness I guess! Only one thing wrong with the pan of Canadian Bacon, it is yours and not mine.

Our freezer has a couple packages left from last fall that we brined and smoked. That Canadian Bacon is heavenly. Makes such excellent quick sandwiches and a sandwich made of it along with homemade rolls cannot be beat by any restaurant anywhere. On our soon to do list.

One more example of what you can learn on the CF. The Canadian Bacon procedure is one of my all time CF favorites, followed by all the breads.

Good for you Annie.....

Thanks, Shirl, I was amazed how easy it was the first time we made Canadian Bacon.

AnnT, that's a good idea. Bacon and Tomato sandwiches for breakfast, yum. Maybe tomorrow, we have to go to a birthday party for Elery's youngest grandchild, it's her first birthday. I know they'll have a ton of food plus cake, so a nice toasted sandwich would be about the right sized breakfast.

Sleevendog, we'll have those tomorrow, LOL, after Ann T's Bacon and Tomato!

Cathy, come on up, I still have lots in the freezer.

Dcarch, I can't pig out too much on those, the packages are too small. (grin)

Angelaid, they ARE yum. I like it better than actual bacon, I think, although that may be heresy today, with the bacon worshipping going on.

Grainlady, take that package out and enjoy your breakfast. We had some for supper with pancakes.

I think the Princess comes here for the food, LOL.

Annie

I've booked my flight over!

Islay, I'll be waiting at the airport for you, come on over! I'll give you a ride from the airport AND a place to stay, and I'll feed you!

Annie

What hospitality!!! It just looks so delicious!

How long did you brine them and how long did you smoke them? I've never smoked a pork loin before, every other part of the hog, but loins have always been cooked intact. This looks great and I must try it. Thanks.

Annie I need detailed instructions please! My mouth is watering, and my smoker hasn't been used in a year.

That looks fantatic. I never thought to slice it thin like that before.

This makes me wish Kevin would eat ham/bacon. Turkey bacon is just not the same.

What did you use for slicing it?

I noticed that when I was in Canada and ordered bacon, I got what we call "Canadian bacon", but they did have "American bacon" on the menu.

I'm Canadian and have only ever heard it called Canadian Bacon by non Canadians. We call it Peameal bacon. Well at least everyone I know does. If I go out to eat and bacon is on the menu it's always belly bacon unless it says peameal.

That looks delicious, Annie! And I can't believe how big the princess has gotten! Such a cutie!

Linda

Linda!! I'm glad to see you here, I guess it took smoked pork to lure you out, LOL.

Littlemonkeys, I answered last night and I don't know where my reply went. Odd....but that's Houzz. Just odd. Anyway, Canadian Bacon here is smoked and cured, but the peameal bacon is just cured and rolled in peameal or cornmeal. Elery actually like the peameal bacon best, we'll make some of that next.

Tami, break out that smoker, I'll post the recipe, I got it from Charcuterie, by Michael Ruhlman. I'll look forward to seeing what you and fawnridge make from it.

Lars, we bought a used commercial slicer at the online auction, something less than $50 and it works like a charm. It's very heavy, though, and so it has a permanent place set up in the garage, we never want to move it if we can help it.

Canadian Bacon

For the brine:

• 2 liters water or 2 quarts of water
• 90 grams (6 tablespoons Morton’s) kosher salt
• 20 grams (1 tablespoons) sodium nitrite (I useDQ Cure #1)
• 125 grams sugar or 4 ounces (1/2 cup)
• 5 cloves garlic smashed with the flat side of a knife
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 large bunch of sage (optional)
• 7 or 8 thyme sprigs (optional)
• 1 lemon halved (optional)

1. Combine the brine ingredients in a pot and bring it to a simmer, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Remove it from the heat, allow it to cool, then chill it in the refrigerator.
2. Submerge the pork loin in the brine (or put it all in a large zip top bag) and refrigerate for 72 hours (give or take a few hours depending on your schedule).
3. Remove the loin from the brine, rinse it, pat it dry, and refrigerate it uncovered for 4 hours or up to a day.
4. For Canadian Bacon: hot smoke the loin to an internal temperature of 145 to 150 degrees F. or 60 to 65 degrees C.
5. For peameal bacon, roll the loin in cornmeal to coat. Cut into slices and saute or grill.
6. In both cases, refrigerate the bacon until ready to cut and serve, either cold or reheated.

I left out the "cure", although I do buy pink salt from Detroit Butcher and Packer, great on-line service. Anyway, I figured with 72 hours of brining it was safe without the cure, it went right into the smoker and then into packages for the freezer. I also left out the lemon, my mother is allergic to lemons and I knew I'd have to share, LOL.

It was very, very good, and I'd shave a bunch of it again, it makes great sandwiches. I can taste it now with Ann T's toast and tomato, yum.

Annie

I've only been to western Canada (British Columbia), and I wonder if the name is different further east. I do not remember seeing Peameal bacon on a menu in Vancouver, but I really did not eat out that much, since I always stayed with friends and bought food at the market and cooked it myself - or my friends cooked it.

I pretty much like any kind of smoked ham - as long as it is not sweet.

Lars the location could definitely be a difference for sure.

Annie, peameal is smoked as well.

Thanks Annie. I will have to get the special salt before I can try it, and the wind will have to cal m down! I have only been able to use the grill a couple of times because it has been so windy. I have no way of shielding either the grill or the smoker.

Tami

Smoking this weekend so i'll try a loin. I use the same brine recipe but usually use pork tips. (some new name recently but about the size of a softball).

Loin would be better for slicing and i'll watch the internal temp more carefully. I've never used a cure, so not a traditional curing, but do brine, then roll in a spice mix before smoking. Then eat, Freeze the leftovers but i'll slice this time.

How long is your smoking time and temp?. I think i could improve on that note.

My favorite market will have tomatillos. Can't wait to smoke some of those.(my favorite thing all winter from the freezer)

Rhubarb smoked tomatillo salsa!

Littlemonkey, hate to corect a fellow Canadian but peameal bacon isn't smoked , it is cured in a wet brine and rolled in cornmeal. The end product is still raw Ave must me fried or baked.

Some call it back bacon but, to me, back bacon is the smoked version of peameal. What Annie made is what I would call back bacon......agree that it's never called Canadian bacon here

https://en.m.wikiped

Chase, I suppose you are right since the stuff in the grocery store is never smoked. I hadn't thought of that. We do smoke our own though and we'd get some strange looks if we say, "would you care for some Canadian bacon?"

I thought it was pea meal, not corn. I brought back dried yellow peas from Canada...i also thought it was slow, low heat, smoked. And a longer brining than i usually do. (2-3 days) ....oh well.

Sleevendog it did used to be peas and you can still use peas but it's more expensive. Commercial it's prepared with corn because corn is so heavily subsidized that it is cheap. I've never seen one in the store without ground corn. Oh and we cold smoke ours and then cook it.

I'll try my yellow peas. I sprouted them, then dried. I'll grind them like corn flour. Maybe coarse. It is all fun experimenting. We built a cold smoker but i use that for cheese. I have and off-set barrel smoker so i do have a less hot far end. I use the old fruit tree cuttings and only use wood. Some small splits i soak. I'm going to try a less smoky smoke if that makes sense. And less heat. So that would be more of a 'cold' smoke. (not really i know)

We stopped in Bethel NovaScotia and picked up smoked salmon from a cold smoker famous for it. He has been at it for 30yrs. It is an art to do it well. We always spend a night in that area with the crazy BayOfFundy 23ft tide changes.

I also picked up some smoked back bacon. A fist size un-cut hunk. Saving that for our first tomato harvest so put that in the freezer for the seasonal BLT's in mid July. (my garden is a mess being left un-tended) but it will bounce back soon. A neighbor did his best but i did not want anyone to tend too much. It is what it is. Not a worry. I'm elder enough to let thing happen as they will.

Not sure of the true definition of cold smoke but we always keep ours under 100 (I'll have to check the smoker to see if that is F, or C) I have to say, I love the way Annie's looks though so I may have to give it a try with heated smoking. I think I have one more loin in the freezer that we froze without brining, when we butchered our pigs. I also have some coppa that I froze fresh. When I cold smoked one of the hams, I did a apple/hickory and the flavor was great. I do think I smoked it a little long though, was very smoky. I'd love to trying doing something like a prochuitto (not sure how you spell it). Maybe one day.

Off topic - I lived very close to the Bay of Fundy for a few years growing up. Amazing tides!

Tami, I didn't use the "pink salt", since the refrigerated brining is such a short period, but it IS a preservative, so safer to keep longer if you use it.

Sleevendog, Elery put it in the smoker until it reached an internal temperature of 150F. It took about 3 hours, but his electric smoker didn't like getting banged around in the move and he couldn't get it to regulate heat, so he used his wood smoker, with no heat setting other than the amount of fuel and distance from the heat source, so he watched it pretty closely and moved it around to keep it from becoming charcoal before it was smoked.

Annie

Annie, so that means you used regular table salt?

I think I was having a duh moment regarding my comment above about C or F. It's 100 F. I asked my husband which one we cold smoke at and I got this puzzled look. Then I clued in to how and why it was ridiculous.

Annie, so is it an internal 150F temp for the pork or for the smoker?

Tami - you can get course sat or non iodized salt. I believe table salt has iodine in it, which I had always read not to do. When we did our smoked meat we did salt rubs using coarse salt and some recipes that had nitrates in them. The ones that don't have nitrates will be more brown and you generally (at least in my experience) need more salt if you don't use the nitrates. Also don't let it soak for a long time or it does get super salty, but you can always soak meat in cold water prior to smoking if it is. I have now learned to cut off a piece and fry it before smoking after we did some disgustingly salty belly bacon.

Thanks LM3. I can get both iodized and non-iodized table salt, but I think I have some course salt also.

Tami, I just used plain old kosher salt, not table salt and not iodized, just that stuff in the blue box I buy for making sauerkraut, etc. I didn't use the sodium nitrite, i.e. "cure" or "pink salt", and I didn't substitute anything else.

LM3, that was the internal temperature of the meat, I'm unsure of the temperature of the smoker, since he used his grill as a smoker, he has a Camp Chef and uses it for all kinds of stuff. He even has a grill top pizza oven! Anyway, he put the loins on the grill/smoker over indirect heat and smoked it until the internal temperature was 150F.

Annie

Thanks Annie

You are very welcome. I hope you make some and enjoy it, we had some for breakfast this morning.

Annie

Thanks Annie. We have been at a RV rally for the weekend, and I only had access on my phone, which is not signed into Houzz, so I couldn't answer until now. That was what I needed to know. It was the "cure" that I would have to order, so if you didn't use it, I won't worry about it, but will make sure I don't use iodized salt. Now to get the wind to die down so I can use the smoker!

Smoked this past Saturday. Market did not have a loin, just pencil thin tenderloins so i bought a, um, chunk. Not sure what it was called but it came out really nice. Had some of it Sunday morning griddled cast iron with eggs.

The rest we will have tonight with a kale salad. Very tender and slices nice. Not enough to freeze but i'll do that with a large loin over the 4th weekend. A successful test while we were smoking other things.

Sleevendog, I'm glad it worked, even with an unnamed chunk of pork, LOL. It's relatively simple and pretty fast, as smoked meats go, and easy to pull a package out of the freezer and just flip it onto a griddle for a few seconds to heat.

Tami, good luck on that wind, it was blowing up a regular gale today, a couple of big trees came down and we had a tornado spotted on the ground just a few miles south of the farm.

Annie

I am glad you are safe, Annie. It has just been a very windy spring. Usually by now, I am grilling almost every night, but not this year! I did do steaks last night. Yum! DH did give me a suggestion so I don't have to worry about wind. Now to find the time to baby sit the smoker..... I will get it done one of these days! I promise!

Annie, does the loin have to be totally covered in the brine? I am having a discussion with a certain NON cook who is telling me that I am going to need 3-4 GALLONS of brine to cover them in the containers I have to put the 2 loins in in the refrigerator. I will also need to cut each loin in half to put them in the smoker. I bought the loins, and will probably smoke them on Sunday, hopefully while he is at work!

Tami, I'm sure Annie will pop in with how she did her loins, but all I do is turn my pork so as the juices leech out of the meat it actually creates more brine. I put my meat inside large Ziploc bags so they can be thrown away afterwards, but it also keep air off the meat. I squish out as much air as I can.

Your brine needs to cover. Your meat can be cut or packed into you container of choice. But does not need gallons. For a 2-3 lb pork tip in a gallon zip-lock with the air pushed out i don't think i use more than a 1/2 gal. More like a qrt.

I just set the zip-lock in a bowl and flop it upside down every few hours or when i see it. When i use the big pasta pot without a bag, i just make sure it is covered with brine. I make a bit more brine to add if it is not covered.

Thank you LM3 and Sleevendog for the quick answers. I did get the responses read soon after posting, but read them on my phone and have not logged in on it yet, so couldn't answer. I made a double batch of brine per Annie's recipe. As soon as it is chilled, I will put the loins in, probably in zip lock bags. I will see how it works. I was hoping to put them in the RV refrigerator to brine, but may have to just use the house fridge so I can turn them. For as big as my fridge is, it's a $%#$^ side by side, and just has NO room in it!

Pictures of how we do our brining......We are relatively new at this...got interested after reading Annie 92's posts a very few years ago. She recommended the book, Charcuterie by Michae Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn..we bought, read and adapted our own technique from them.

We cut 2 loins in half...marinate each half in 2 gallon plastic bags in brine 2-3 days, use the pink salt (ordered thru Amazon)... at same time we smoke two halves on top rack and two on lower shelf.....slice....vacuum seal ....very happy with results. Thanks to Annie 92's post....

Next pic... each I/2 loins in brine on top and bottom shelf... weighted down

Thanks for the photos. I have 2 just under 10# loins in brine in the RV refrigerator. I have them in 2 gallon bags one in the veggie bin, one in a small dishpan. I will go out and turn them over in a little bit. They are covered in the brine. I will smoke them on Monday.

Sorry, no photos, but I got my loins smoked. They were sliced and vacuum packed, with a little kept out for use now. I ended up with 11# plus a little bit of scraps to put in baked beans. I think it came out really good. DH thinks it could use more flavor next time. He is thinking about injecting it with something. I think it needs left alone! We had some for supper tonight with eggs and pancakes. And REAL maple syrup, of course! Made by my cousin.

Yum, Shirl that looks delicious.

Tami,. your's sounds delicious too. We had some for breakfast, Elery's grandsons are here from California and they seemed to like it. At least there was none left over!

Annie

Annie, am I correct that you didn't use the salt with sodium nitrate? I have two beautiful loins in the fridge and would love to smoke them, but can't find the Cure #1. Can I brine, smoke, slice and freeze like you did without the Cure #1?

That is what Annie told me to do. I didn't have the Cure #1 either. Our first pound is all gone! 10 more to go, then I will have to do it again. It was sooo good!

Madonna, since it's only in the brine for 3 days/72 hours, and that's in the refrigerator, then sits still refrigerated for another handful of hours, I am comfortable not using the "cure", I just leave it out and otherwise follow the recipe. I'm also diligent about slicing and freezing the meat promptly after it's smoked. I found some other people on a couple of smoking forums that said they left out the pink salt and had good results, so I went ahead. Good luck!

Annie

Thank you Annie and Tami. I am going to start mine brining tomorrow. Annie, you've instigated so many of us doing things we never thought about and my DH just looks at me like "what now". Then he thoroughly enjoys the results. Now all I have to do is find my smoker out in the storage building and put it together .

Thanks for the recipe! The Traeger smoker hasn't been used for a while.

bcskye, I hope your Canadian Bacon came out well. I read the other thread about your hubs, he's in my thoughts and prayers, and so are you.

Suzi, fire up that smoker!

Annie

annie, I bought a pork loin yesterday. I'll start brinning it this week for a nice smoking after that. Can't wait! We live rural, and the closest town has one grocery chain. It's really hard to find any Canadian bacon there, and we love to make Egg McMuffins! Now we can just make our own Canadian bacon. At least the store has Thomas English Muffins!