# Canadian Bacon recipe



## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

Can't remember if this has been covered here or not, so here goes. 

Pork loin, thoroughly injected and wet cured for 12 days in the following:

1 Gal. water

1/2 cup sea salt

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup brown sugar

1 heaping Tbsp cure no. 1 pink salt (6.25% sodium nitrite)

After the 12 day cure I smoked at 225 degrees using apple and a little cherry towards the end until an internal temp of 145 was reached. (I wanted to use it as fully cooked lunchmeat)

Sliced and vac sealed at that point for future use in one pound packages.

The hole in the meat is from my temperature probe.


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## Paymaster (Jan 22, 2009)

Looks good!


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Rick, I haven't et that in years and don't smoke but my son-in-law does. I'll have one ready next time he fires up. Also loved smoked pork chops. Is the same recipe used for them and only sliced thicker or do you know? Thanks. That is on my list to do. What did you use to inject the lion with?


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## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

hey WD

Loin was injected with the same cure cause it is a big chunk of meat, in order to cure it from inside out as well as outside in. If I was gonna do chops i'd simply brine em in a similar mixture without the curing salt for maybe a day. That is a simple cure recipe, any additional flavor you want can be added to it(I did glaze that loin with true maple syrup in the last hour on the smoker, the cheap stuff doesn't work, it gets bitter, has to be real syrup).
Curing meat can be a bit dangerous, cause of the nitrites, so I posted a recipe within the lower tolerance. 
The salt can be adjusted to your liking, somewhere between 1/3 and 1 cup is common. I just like the ratio I posted. Here is a little further info on curing meats..this wet cure works for bacon(pork belly) as well as buck board bacon(both generally cold smoked). Additional info follows:


1 heaping tablespoon of cure is about 1 ounce. The maximum concentration allowed safely is 3.84 ounces per 1 gallon of brine (24 lbs.per 100 gallons: 16 oz. x 24 = 384 ounces, 1/100th is 3.84 ounces). You can experiment with different concentrations as long as you keep it between those parameters:


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Rick, is the pink salt, #1 cure, necessary for the canadian bacon? Reason being it won't last long enough to worry about it spoiling. 2 or 3 lbs. of meat jest don't last. If it was too much to eat up, I'd freeze it. Found it here.

http://www.sausagemaker.com/11000instacureand153no11lb.aspx


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Assume the pink salt gives it the color.


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## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

hey WD

Looks like you found the correct product, I had my local butcher order mine(same guy I buy my sausage casings from) , sausagemaker is a darned good site too. The cure really is necessary, think about the diff between a ham and an uncured shoulder. Totally different taste. Canadian bacon made this way has a hammy taste but obviously the texture is quite different than the processed and pressed stuff you buy in the grocery store. It does have just as long of a shelf life tho (will last forever in the fridge). Without the curing agent I don't think you could soak a loin for that long without it rotting instead of curing. We are basically just doin the same thing our parents/grandparents were doin back in the day when they hung side meat/streaked meat/fatback/and bacon out in the shed in a burlap sack to cure during the winter with pickling salt, we just do it a little safer these days. If I find a deal on pork belly i'll post up a dry cure recipe for makin bacon. Poor here, so I live off the sale papers.......

Any questions feel free to ask, what I have posted is perfectly safe if followed exactly.....

Rick


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Any questions on curing meat the ole timey way, just ask. Been at that for 50 years.


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## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

yessir, may just do that

Thanks
Rick


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Rick, the only Canadian bacon I remember wasn't smoked. Seems like it was fried. Been a long time since I et it, so jog my memory on how it was used after the curing was done.


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Found this while digging around. Since Rick mentioned to follow his recipe exactly due to the pink salt being high powered, I thought I'd put this up.

http://www.sausagemaker.com/11000instacureand153no11lb.aspx

And this added to what I have been asking.

http://www.meatwave.com/blog/homemade-cured-and-smoked-canadian-bacon-recipe

 Now to find a lion on sale and have at it. Been droolin since you put that post up Rick.


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## Kenmefish (Apr 21, 2000)

Might find one at the Food Lion


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## Oldscout2 (Sep 15, 2008)

Man that looks good Rick


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Rick, wonder how that would work with a big deer loin? Same cure.


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## bstarling (Apr 24, 2005)

wdbrand said:


> Rick, wonder how that would work with a big deer loin? Same cure.


That sounds like an idea I will have to try. I think there is a hunk of deer loin in the freezer that was going into jerky, but it just got diverted.

Bill


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Since the deer loin ain't near as thick or big as the pork loin, the reason I asked Rick was if you had to or could soak it for 12 days. Hope he checks back in cause I've got several vacumn packed also that was left over and intended for making jerky.


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## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

wdbrand said:


> Rick, the only Canadian bacon I remember wasn't smoked. Seems like it was fried. Been a long time since I et it, so jog my memory on how it was used after the curing was done.



Hey WD,

I trim the fat real close and hot smoke to 145, that way I can use it as lunch meat and just slice it and carry it outta the house as sammich meat if i'm in a hurry. Sometimes I'll fry up a slice for breakfast too, even tho it's fully cooked and ready to eat. As an alternative you can cold smoke it and still have a basically "raw" piece of meat with the smoke flavor in it, then you would want to treat is as bacon and cook it thoroughly. I'd leave the fat on if I was gonna do that, cause that crispy cured fat is just plain assed good


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## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

wdbrand said:


> Rick, wonder how that would work with a big deer loin? Same cure.



I don't see why not, prolly a lil small to need injected cause of the size, but it'd do it anyway to be safe. I can provide links, but everything I read about wet curing that deals with safety says to inject, so I follow the rules. Good links btw WD. Thickness of the piece of the meat does play a role but not as much if injected. This cure is safe, for a reason, a long slow cure is much safer than pushing the limits. So with that said there is nothing wrong with curing a deer loin for 6-10 days(or less depending on size) and takin a slice off to "fry test" before you smoke it(if its too salty at that point just soak or rinse some of the salt out of it before smoking). Just a guesstimation but i'd shoot for around the 6-8 day point and take a slice and see how it tastes. Let me find some other meats for you make your estimation by while using this brine:
remember to weight down with a partially filled 1 qt or 1 gal. ziploc bag or bags to keep meat immersed
Curing times follow:


Curing times vary with meat, but generally overnight to 2-3 days for chickens and turkeys, 8-10 days buckboard bacon, 10-14 days belly bacon, pork shoulder, whole butts, 3-4 weeks whole hams, 10-20 days corned beef (fresh beef roasts, briskets, rolled rib roasts, etc.) 

I'd treat a deer same as I do pork, about the 8 day point sounds good to me.......

Rick


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Thanks Rick. I'll post back when I finally get around to doing one.


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## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

Please let me know how it works out guys, come fall I plan on picking off some of the bambi's that are preventing me from hanging a bird feeder............ I'm simply overran with em in this area. Canadian Bacon backstrap sounds damned good.......

Rick


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