Canadian Bacon by ED, on Flickr
Buckboard Bacon by ED, on FlickrHomemade Canadian Bacon
Lean pork loin rubbed down with sugar cure. It will make Homemade Canadian Bacon for around 2.50 per pound. I use Morton Tender Quick home meat cure. It is available in most grocery stores and online. HEB in Lampasas has it in stock.
The way I do it:
Measure
1 Tablespoon Tender Quick for each pound of meat.
1 Teaspoon Brown Sugar for each pound of meat
I add garlic powder, Allspice and cloves to taste (Not much Allspice or cloves as it goes a long ways. You can use maple syrup or liquid smoke if you like those flavors. Or not season at all if you want it plain.
Rub down meat with mixture until covered and all mixture is rubbed in to the meat. Place in a zip lock bag in a pan or bowl in the refrigerator. Turn the bags once a day for 7-10 days till it reaches the firmness you want. I leave big pieces at least 7 days. You can do smaller pieces for less time. Pork chops cured for 24 hours and smoked are juicy and have a wonderful taste.
This next step is very important and if left out your bacon or cured meat will be so salty you cannot eat it. Rinse the meat until all the cure is removed. Place the meat in a container of cold water in the refrigerator for 24 hours. Remove and rinse one more time. At this time the meat is ready to smoke or cook. I rub course ground black pepper on my bacon and smoke in a wood smoker to an internal temperature of 150 degrees. You can also do this on a rack in a pan in the oven it just will not have the real smoke flavor. Let the meat cool and it is ready to eat or fry up however you like. It makes wonderful Canadian bacon at a lot less than the grocery store bacon cost and you will have made it yourself.
I will post the finished product in the future. One piece will be sliced as Canadian Bacon the other I will continue drying, after smoking, to make a dried cured pork loin charcuterie that will have the texture of jerky or a dried sausage. The butterflied pork butt will be smoked for Buckboard Bacon.
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