First Canadian Bacon -- how's this plan sound


 
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Darren C.

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Started my first attempt at Canadian. I'm not too sure what I'm doing. So, all advice is welcome. I started by trimming pork loin to 3 pieces as close to 1 lb. portions as I could get. I mixed up 1 Tbsp of MTQ with 1 Tbsp of table sugar. I rubbed them as well as I could. But, it seems like I lost a good bit that stuck to the plate instead of the pork. I placed them in separate plastic ziploc bags.

I am loosely following 2 recipes, the one on Morton's site, which seems short on details and this one. I plan to flip the bags daily. According to Morton's site, 3 - 5 days is enough time. I think this is the part that I'm most unclear about. Which is it, 3 or 5? How can you tell for sure?

After the time period is up, I'll pull it out, soak it for 30 minutes in water, shave a piece off and pan fry it to sample it. If it's too salty, I'll repeat the rinse. If it tastes good, I'll smoke at about 200 - 225 F until it reaches IT of 160. The instructions at the second link suggest smoking at 180-200 until 140, if you plan to use it later (I guess freeze it?) or 160 if you plan to eat it immediately. But, cooking at 180 to a 160 IT seems like it would take a really long time, like 24 hours.

EDIT: I did a lot of research, including the post right before mine. I guess I read too many because I forgot about Bob's link as another resource.

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Darren C. said:
Cool. I'll be sure to post follow ups with thoughts and photos. I can't believe you haven't done it yet, though. Seems like you've cooked everything.
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Maribel said we had to finish the bacon I have first before doing Canadian bacon.
 
The longer the better to make sure your loin is cured all the way thru. It is not gonna hurt anything to cure it longer. The last time I did CB I cured the loin for 8 days, cooked it at 225 to an internal temp of 160*F
 
I've done mine cooking at 200-220 to an IT of 140, but I always slice and fry after smoking. I leave enough fat on the loin so that slices have a small ring of it which helps in the frying. I've found that leaving a small amount of fat on the loin does not interfere with a thorough cure right to the center
 
Except for Morton's recipe, everyone else suggests 7 - 10 days for cure time. Morton's says only 3 to 5 days. How do you really know that it has cured the right amount of time? And, what are the consequences of curing too long vs. not curing long enough? Are we talking food safety issues or quality of product? I started my cure on the 11th. I had planned to pull it out on the 16th or 17th and smoke it that day.

Something else that concerns me is the accuracy of the measuring. In my case, I know that I did not get all of the cure mix onto the loin. Some mix wouldn't stick and just ended up on the plate and ultimately down the drain. Most of what I have read stresses accurate measuring. I realize that some recipes use the pink salt that may not be as forgiving when it comes to measuring the correct percentages. Is Tender Quick more forgiving? Next time I'll avoid losing the cure mix by seasoning directly in the bag that I cure in. I can't believe I didn't do that this time. But, I'm confused about the need to measure so accurately. Again, is this a food safety thing or quality of product thing? And, how much room for error is there?

This is a good read.
 
Forget the precision measuremens. I put what I think is a tabelspoon of cure in my hand and apply all over the meat at 1 T per lb. Goes in a ziplock bag for 6 days, turning daily. You want to apply enough cure so as to get cure all the way to the center of the meat. If you use too much it'll just be salty. Since you are going to smoke to at least 140* and then probably fry, there is no safety issue. If your time was too short, the center of the meat might not have taken the cure and will be a different color than the rest, but even that is no disaster, it's just uncured pork loin. Do it once and you'll know for a lifetime. BTW, I've only used the High Mountain cure
 
Tonight will be 7 days on my CB. Will it be okay to wait until Fri or Sat (the 21st or 22nd) to finish it? After soaking, how long does it need to go back into the refrigerator?

When I get ready to cook it, how should I season it? Should I just use my favorite Boston Butt rub (minus the salt)? Or, maybe keep it simple and use something sweet like honey, maple syrup or molasses with a little black pepper? I've got 3 - 1 lb. pieces. So, I could do them all differently.
 
Day 9 -- back out of the fridge.... I flipped the bags every day.

They look pretty much the same to me in the bag.

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This one had a dark red spot on it. This piece was cut from the end of the loin and was a little different texture and color than the others to begin with. So, maybe that's the reason for the color. Does it look okay to you? Otherwise, they were all uniform in color.

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I'm soaking them in ice water for an hour. Then, I plan to do a fry test. If it tastes okay, I'll dry them well, place them on a wire rack and move them to the refrigerator until I can get home this evening to smoke them (maybe 10 hours).

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Here's another round of photos, with some questions. Please advise....

Here are a few more shots after soaking.

I've sliced a piece here for the fry test.

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My 18 year old Silky Terrior shared this (wish I had gotten a picture of that). I thought the flavor was quite good. He ate all of his, as well. For the final cook, which I plan to do this evening, I'm not sure how to season it. I think I'll go light on the smoke, maybe 1 piece of apple and/or peach and 1 hickory. But, given the flavor of the taste test, I'm inclined to either rub it down with a little oil and throw some black pepper on it, or possibly not season or oil it at all.


Here's my fry test piece:

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Getting ready for a day in the fridge. Note the red area that I mentioned in the last post. It's visible in the bottom right.:

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Here's one more photo of the red area. I used flash on my iPhone to hopefully get a little better look at it. I don't know if this has anything to do with it or not, but this is the end piece of the loin. The meat at that end has different texture fresh out of the package.

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