Pea Meal Bacon
It's a regional thing from Ontario, I learned to eat it when I was a kid, visiting my Great Grandmother in Buckhorn. Elery got his first experience with it when we went to Toronto to visit Sharon/Chase, and liked it. You can't buy it here, though, and I've never seen it anywhere else. Most people haven't even heard of it, so we make our own.
Pork loins have been on sale here, so we got a couple, mixed up the brine and waited. One loin was brined two days, then smoked, it became Canadian Bacon:
The other loin was brined an extra day, rolled in cornmeal and left to dry in the refrigerator overnight, then sliced and packaged. That's the pea meal bacon, it used to be covered with ground peas, as the name suggests, but cornmeal is commonly used now. It's not smoked, so it's not cooked, we package it, freeze it, and it cooked in just a few minutes when we want it, usually for breakfast.
Elery has a pork butt in the refrigerator in brine, it'll go into the smoker tomorrow to become "ham", or a good substitute, while I have to get started on a brine for corned beef, St. Patrick's Day is coming up!
Annie
Comments (14)
9 years ago
9 years agoRelated Discussions
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Comments (9)My husband's parents used to celebrate the English way, or what they thought was English (they're from Hong Kong). A full dinner at 6p on Christmas Eve, putting up the tree, opening presents at midnight, and then eating a full meal AGAIN at 2am in the morning Christmas Day! This really wasn't very enjoyable for me, and since my MIL worked it was pretty stressful for her, too, doing all that stuff! They would make roast leg of lamb (Chinese will eat meat in huge quantities if they can afford it!), shepherd's pie, several Macanese (Portugese recipes adapted from Macau cuisine) dishes, and one little lonely package of Green Giant creamed spinach for 8 people. Eventually over the years, they stopped doing these parties, due to ill health and just getting tired of all the work involved. I was secretly relieved, although my husband STILL misses opening presents on Xmas Eve, LOL! My family of third-generation Asian Americans, celebrates Christmas Day. We never have a set menu, as all of us, including my now-grown-up nephew and niece, are dynamite cooks and love to experiment. Although we do a mostly traditional Thanksgiving, Christmas is always different. Sometimes we do "theme" ethnic cooking; sometimes we do more traditional stuff. This year it's slow-roasted salmon and prime rib, because my nephew is anxious to try cooking his first Big Piece of Red Meat :)) I make a smoked salmon sushi appetizer that the family really likes, so I offered to do the hors d'oeuvres this time. My BIL is vegetarian so he'll do a Greek salad and we'll have a couple of desserts -- probably a tiramisu and a fresh strawberry tart with lemon curd filling. My sister is in charge of the starch this year, could be pretty wild as she approaches cooking as a science experiment! New Year's we celebrate individually. My sister and her family do a buffet drop-in. My husband and I usually make ourselves a nice festive brunch -- blueberry French Toast or Chocolate Pancakes, and then maybe rack of lamb or filet mignon for dinner....See MoreRECIPE: Fettuccine with Bacon & Vegetables
Comments (4)Thanks, Sharon! I will definitely try this one. I am interested in light pasta recipes right now that lean more to the mostly vegetables type. I tried this the other night for dinner using mini penne pasta and regular broccoli and it was very good. Of course, I cut the amount way down for just one person and it still turned out well. I added just a little of the pasta water near the end of the cooking time so everything remained moist. Penne with Garlicky Broccolini Submitted by: SKILLETZILLA on the AllRecipes web site Rated: 5 out of 5 by 19 members Prep Time: 5 Minutes Cook Time: 15 Minutes Ready In: 20 Minutes Yields: 8 servings "A simple, delicious dinner using up the glut of wintered-over broccoli from my parents' garden. You may use sausage or veggie sausage instead of bacon, substituting olive oil for the bacon fat." INGREDIENTS: 1 (16 ounce) package dry penne pasta 6 slices bacon 3/4 pound broccolini, cut into 1 inch pieces 12 cloves garlic, minced salt and pepper to taste 1/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese DIRECTIONS: 1. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the penne pasta, and cook until tender, about 8 minutes. Drain. 2. Meanwhile, place the bacon in a large skillet over medium heat. Turn frequently to cook until browned and crisp. Drain on paper towels. 3. Add half of the garlic to the bacon grease, and cook over medium-low heat for 3 minutes, stirring frequently. Add the broccolini, and continue to cook and stir for 3 or 4 minutes, or until the broccolini is tender but still bright green. Stir in the remaining garlic, salt and pepper. Add the pasta to the skillet, and stir to coat. Remove from the heat and mix in the Parmesan cheese, and crumble in the bacon. Toss again, and serve!...See More- 9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
Chas, I actually have two meat slicers. I have one small household type slicer, but the "deck" isn't big enough, so I can only get a 6 inch slice of bacon or whatever. It's easy to use, difficult to disassemble and clean but works nicely for small projects.
The second slicer comes from my local online auction, a local deli went out of busines and just sold all their equipment. Most of it was old, like this slicer, but it still works like a charm. It's just like the one Elery used when he worked for the Italian grocery when he was a teen, so he uses it. It weighs a LOT, so we keep it on a stand in the garage and use it there. It's a Globe brand, and came with an old Dayton scale. The scale isn't super accurate, can only be adjusted to 1/4 pound increments, but's good enough when weighing things like a bucket of potatoes or cabbage for 50 pounds of sauerkraut.
This is today's project, ready to go into the smoker, it's been brining for 4 or 5 days now. It's a butt/shoulder, but for all intents and purposes it'll be ham after smoking:
Normally we grow our own pork, but with Elery's knee replacement in the fall, we had to find a farm with a pig for sale! Right now several of the local meat packaging places are having their yearly "pork sale", where you can buy a whole or half hog, packaged, for $1.49 a pound, sometimes less. You do have to pay more if you want things like bacon and ham smoked, that's usually about 60-90 cents a pound.
Twofur, I like this recipe and I actually had fresh thyme and sage, so I used that. It's still fine with dried herbs, just extra good with the fresh ones!
Twofur, I use this recipe:
Canadian Bacon or Peameal Bacon
For the brine:
2 liters water or 2 quarts of water
70 grams or 2.5 ounces (5 tablespoons Morton’s) kosher salt
30 grams or 1 ounce (2 tablespoons) sodium nitrite (I use DQ Cure #1) or Insta cure.
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)
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.
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).
Remove the loin from the brine, rinse it, pat it dry, and refrigerate it uncovered for 4 hours or up to a day.
For Canadian Bacon: hot smoke (230 degrees) the loin to an internal temperature of 145 to 150 degrees F. or 60 to 65 degrees C. (Usually takes me 2 to 3 hours)
For peameal bacon, roll the loin in cornmeal to coat. Cut into slices and saute or grill.
In both cases, refrigerate the bacon until ready to cut and serve, either cold or reheated.
Remember, though, that the peameal bacon isn't cooked, as it spends no time in the hot smoke, so you have to cook that before consuming. I just toss a slice or two into a hot pan and it's done in a minute or two, before the eggs are done!
I did leave out the lemon, as Mother is allergic, and I didn't use the "cure" or "pink salt", as I knew I would slice and freeze it right away, I didn't need the preservative qualities that provides. I brined the Canadian Bacon for 48 hours, the Peameal for one day longer, and both in the refrigerator, so there was no chance of spoilage.
Annie
- 9 years ago
9 years ago- 9 years ago
Shirl, we put the smoker out in the pole barn, it's not attached but close enough that a trip out to check on things isn't too bad. Elery definitely put on a coat and gloves, though, it was 15F this morning when he started that smoker. There's nothing quite like the homemade stuff, though, is there? I'm sorry you missed out on a season's worth of "curin' n smokin'" though. I wish you were closer, I'd be happy to share!
I think of all the cookbooks I have, "Charcuterie" is the one I use most. I think fondly of Larry Engelhardt when I use it, his wife Janet posted at the old Forum before she died, and he came to a couple of forum get togethers. It was a gift from Larry, who lived close to the restaurant owned by Brian Polycyn. Unfortunately, that restaurant closed, but the book is wonderful.
Today's "ham" came out nicely too, a little salty so the next one will be brined 3 days instead of 5, and see if that's better. Still yummy and amazing, and glazed with local maple syrup.
Lizbeth, the pea meal bacon doesn't taste like bacon or ham, it's more like a slice of pork loin, but there's that cured flavor, it doesn't really taste like anything else I've had.
Annie
9 years ago- 9 years agolast modified: 9 years ago
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