Canadian Bacon 1st attempt

[NDKoze]

I had some loins in the freezer from the two hogs that we butchered during sausage making season last year. Since I do not particularly care for grilling them (I haven't tried smoking yet) and I love bacon and ham, I figured this could be an excellent way to use the loins.

My brine is cooling out on the deck right now (at 19 degrees it is colder than my fridge).

So, I figured as I am going to be in for the long wait, I would start a thread for day one of the 12 day brine to see if I can get some tips from you guys that have already done this.

Do you have any suggestions on things you would do different from your Canadian Bacon smokes?

I am pushing it on time as the twelve day will be Sunday 3/2 and I am flying to Atlanta for 5 days on Monday (3/3) morning.

The loins are probably about 10 inches long or so, so I figured I would just cut them in half and end up with four pieces. One loin is a bigger than the other, so in order to prevent overcooking the smaller pieces, I plan on probing one of the smaller loin pieces and also one of the larger pieces instead of using one of the probes for the smoker temp.

Other than that I think I will plan on rotating the pieces in the brine every four days to ensure even coverage. I noticed when I brined my Pork Butt this last weekend that there was a section of the meat that was resting on the brining container that didn't change color like the rest. So, hopefully this will work to get an even soaking in of the brine.

Any tips you guys can provide will be appreciated.

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[DivotMaker]

Gregg - great project!  You probably read my Canadian bacon post here.  What brine are you using?  The 12 day wait is tough!  If you're using Pop's brine, I find it just a bit heavy on the garlic.  When I use it again, I will halve the garlic (at least for my taste).

I smoked very slow, with lots of smoke, and it came out very tasty! 

[NDKoze]

Hi Tony,

I used Pop's brine. I like lots of garlic so left it as is. I actually use Johnny's Garlic & Spread Seasoning as a substitute for Garlic Powder in all my recipes. It has a few extra ingredients to the core garlic powder that I like.

http://johnnysfinefoods.com/products/garlic-spreads/garlic-spread-seasoning-18oz/#

Yes, I did read your post as well as Shomesmoke's, and Pop's thread on SMF.

So, it looks like you smoked for:

"4 hours @ 140, then bumped it up to 175 for an hour, and just upped the temp to 200"

Is this still your recommendation?

I plan on using split hickory dowels for my wood.

 

[DivotMaker]

That temp seemed to work well, and it came out really good.  I'll repeat the same process next time.

[NDKoze]

Just three more days until I get to smoke my Canadian Bacon.

I am way more excited about this than the pulled pork that I am going to start this evening.

[DivotMaker]

I know exactly what you're feeling, emotionally, right now, Gregg!  The only anticipation I've had that was worse was the 21-day wait for the dry-aged ribeyes!

[NDKoze]

Yeah, that would be quite the wait, but well worth it I am sure.

[DivotMaker]

Both are definitely worth the wait!!    What's the saying?  "All good things come to those who wait!" 

[NDKoze]

Finally got to smoke my Canadian Bacon today.

My 12th day was supposed to be on 3/2, but I got caught up with packing for a trip to Atlanta for the week and didn't have time to do it.

So, I took the loins out of the brine last night (18th day in the brine), rinsed, cooked a slice to verify it was not too salty, and let them dry in the fridge overnight.

I put them in the smoker this afternoon at 140 for 4 hours, and hour at 175, and then another hour at 225 for the smaller pieces and 2nd hour for the larger ones. Cooked to IT of 155.

They are cooling in the fridge right now. Here are some pics (the butchering job done by my family and me on these loins wasn't the best, but they'll get eaten):

[NDKoze]

Here are some more pics.

I vacuum-packed three pieces and one into the fridge in a Ziploc.

I am calling it a success!

[DivotMaker]

Those look really nice, Gregg!  Great job!

[NDKoze]

I originally thought I may have over smoked them a bit since they look a lot darker than your pics Tony. But they seemed pretty moist and tasted really good.

When we butcher, I usually take the loins off, but as bad as these were mangled, I don't think I did them. My Dad tends to chop away where I take my time with a little more precision.

But hey, I think it was a good first effort. I don't think I have any more loins in the freezer. So, the next ones will be from Sam's or Costco. I have found the Sam's/Costco meat to be way better than what I can find in my local grocery stores or Wally World. I am guessing I could get good cuts from my butcher too, but they charge a fair amount more to get the quality that I can get at Sam's/Costco.

[DivotMaker]

They are darker, which may be the wood...Did you stick with the hickory?  I used hickory.  Apple or cherry will definitely make it darker.  It may also be the 1-2 hours at 225.  I topped-out temp at 200 to avoid cooking the outside too much.  I don't think it really matters, as yours looks really good; I was just going for a lighter exterior (kind of like the store-bought stuff).  Did the extra 6-days make it more salty than you thought?

Next time I smoke some, I'm going to figure an equilibrium brine.  That way, the salt content will be very controllable, and easily modified.

[DivotMaker]

One more question, Gregg...how much wood did you use, and did it "taste" too-smoky? (OK, that was 2 questions).

[NDKoze]

I stuck with hickory on this one. I may try a hickory/cherry combo on my next batch, but I thought for the first batch I would stick to the tried and true hickory.

I think I used 3.2 Oz if my memory serves me correctly.

I split the dowels in half and spread them evenly in the smoke box.

Yeah, I think I should have went from 175 to 200 instead of 225. But in the end I am not sure how much that really affected the outcome. The next time that I do this, I am going to try to get a more equal set of chunks. Two of my chunks were significantly smaller than the other two (because of a smaller loin) and really got to temp faster than the larger ones.

It was kind of cool though to watch the bigger ones catch up to the smaller ones during the 4 hour at 140 segment. The smaller ones pretty much reached their max internal temp and the bigger ones eventually caught up to the smaller ones until I bumped the heat again.

I don't think that the extra days added any extra salt to it. I just tried another slice (cold) after it has sit in the fridge for a day and I don't think it is at all too salty. I just rinsed the loins and let them dry in the fridge overnight. I did not soak them at all.

This stuff is just awesome to eat cold as a snack. Even though it was not technically an equilibrium brine, based on my results it seemed like it did kind of equalize to some degree.

I think I'll try some fried a bit with some eggs as well as a Hawaiian pizza too.

On a pizza related note, I am pretty bummed after trying to order a plain cheese pizza with BBQ sauce instead of pizza sauce. Evidently around here they don't make BBQ Chicken pizza anymore. And they told me that their franchise agreement would not allow them to sell me just the dough. So, I guess I can use Papa Murphy's for my Hawaiian pizza, but not the BBQ Pulled Pork one. I guess there are other types of premade pizza dough's I can buy, or I could just make some dough in my bread maker.