Canadian Bacon ???

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sawhorseray
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Canadian Bacon ???

Post by sawhorseray » Sat Oct 13, 2012 08:32

I've got 15 lbs of pork loin marinating in CW's brine solution, comes out Sunday night and goes on the smoker a few hours later. I didn't find a starting point in the tutorial as far as temp and time go, tho I know to pull off at 150° now. The manufacturer of my smoker gives these directives for smoked hams, tho I know a pork leg is a bit different body part than a pork loin. Does this sound right?

Smoking Procedure
Preheat smoker to 100 degrees F.

Hang product in stockinettes not touching each other then insert temperature probe not touching bone.

Run with dampers wide open for 2 hours.

Add 2/3 pan sawdust (moistened), increase temperature to 110 degrees F and smoke 8 hours with dampers 1/2 open.

Increase temperature to 130 degrees F; add pan of sawdust smoke 4 hours. Remove sawdust pan. Now close dampers.

Increase temperature to 175 degrees F; heat until internal temperature reaches 150-155 degrees F.

Turn OFF smoker and cool to 100 degrees F. Remove to cooler.

I'm thinking a loin being so much smaller than a leg I could go with those temps for five hours each on the smoke and then jack up the temp to finish it off. I want to have the Canadian bacon cooked enough to where it does not need to be fried to bring it up to temp but can simply be put in the micro for a minute and be ready for Eggs Bendict. I don't make Hollandaise sauce from scratch, Knorr's is plenty good enough for me. Would a pork loin for Canadian bacon require a ice-water bath when it's done, just as sausage does? Thanks in advance for the advice and help. RAY
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NorCal Kid
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Post by NorCal Kid » Sat Oct 13, 2012 13:54

One suggestion I'd make in the process is to thoroughly soak & rinse (repeatedly) the loins prior to the smoking process. I failed to do this adequately, and my CB came out a bit too salty for my preferences.

Good luck!

Kevin

Hangin' bacon:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/ ... dry_lg.jpg

Sliced:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v288/ ... ice_lg.jpg
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redzed
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Post by redzed » Sat Oct 13, 2012 21:07

The loin is probably the leanest and most dense part of the hog. Very lean and and with very little water content. In my experience in doing Canadian bacon (called back bacon in Canada), it's not very forgiving and it is very easy to over cook it in the smoker. I have done it more than a few times. Now I insert a my Maverick probe into the meat and carry the remote receiver the whole time the loin is in the smoker. Sometimes it is a matter of a few minutes between a properly done loin and one that is dry and resembles a piece of wood. If you are still going to heat a slice before consuming, I would take it to no more than 140F. If you are going to slice it for sandwiches, 150F is max. And I do give the bacon an ice bath immediately after it comes out to stop it from cooking any longer.
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Post by Chuckwagon » Sat Oct 13, 2012 21:50

Hey Sawhorse,
Your instructions are right on the mark and Kevin has a very necessary point about soaking out a bit of the salt. At the end of the process, eliminating the salt in water is called, "waterhorsing". I've often used my kitchen oven to finish the process after smoking. I can hold in moisture by wrapping it in tinfoil while it cooks to 145° (prep-cooking). Red is right about the lower temps. If the meat cooks above 150° F., it will begin to dry out.

There is no need to flood it with cold water at this point to cool it off because it does not have a casing as does sausage. But Kevin is right... a short soak in icewater will surely remove some of the salt.

Another thought here about the brining solution. Some people really like a maple flavored breakfast bacon. I've used "Mapeline" successfully and there is a thread on the forum about it. Also, a touch of sugar really improves the flavor. It is one of those substances that force its way into the cells of meat much as salt does. Be careful and do not use too much sugar or mapleine. Just a hint really goes a long way.

Shucks pal, if you need a little help with yer' thermometer or making ice... just let NorCalKid and me know and we'll be up there fer' breakfast first thing in the morning. :mrgreen: I'll bring eggs, Red will bring toast, and Kevin can bring an appetite! Good luck pal.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
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Post by sawhorseray » Sun Oct 14, 2012 00:02

Thanks you guys very much, I know what my course of action will be now. Sawhorse will waterhorse before and ice-dip after, the loin will be pulled at 149° and placed immediately in a ice-water bath for five minutes. I mixed a cup of Camps maple syrup with the brine solution when I started, so that should be good to go. I'll be wanting it fully cooked so as to be able to just micro-zap the slice for a few seconds before it goes on top of a lightly toasted english muffin and underneath a poached egg, all to be covered with Hollandaise sauce and some freshly ground black pepper. You three can feel free to stop by for brekky anytime your near my hood, I'd be honored. RAY

PS: The Kolbasz came out better than all expectations, the cayanne worked out better than maybe the hot paprika would have. Too spicy for my wife and FIL, I just cant seem to stop eating it, micro'ed, sliced, honey mustard and a beer. YUMMM !!!
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Post by Chuckwagon » Sun Oct 14, 2012 06:52

Ray, I believe you are enjoying your hobby! :wink: Nice goin' pal.
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Chuckwagon
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Post by Big Guy » Sun Oct 14, 2012 14:32

redzed wrote:Canadian bacon (called back bacon in Canada),

I have to dissagree with this statment. they are two different products, Back bacon also called peameal bacon is a cured pork loin rolled in corn meal and is not smoked, it is sliced and fried, Canadian bacon is a cured pork loin which is hot smoked then cooled sliced and fried very different tastes. In either case they both are very good enjoy what ever you make.
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Post by sawhorseray » Sun Oct 14, 2012 16:57

Chuckwagon wrote:Ray, I believe you are enjoying your hobby! :wink: Nice goin' pal.
Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon
I truely am lovin' it, as much fun as I've ever had with my clothes on! I've been doing most of the cooking for a little over 40 years now, but sausage making and meat smoking go way beyond just cooking. I think about different things to make all the time, this hobby is really very interesting to me and it fills my slate. Later this week the order from the boss is already in, eight more smoked chickens. The end of the month will be slated for maple bacon, just finding where to procure and price a pork belly is fun to me, can't wait to get my hands on one. Your advice and the folks on this site take away a lot of the doubt that comes with doing something a person isn't familiar with. Yep, I'm lovin' it!
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Post by ssorllih » Sun Oct 14, 2012 17:59

When pork loin was as nicely marbled with fat as beef prime rib I loved smoked loin. But now I much prefer rolled and smoked pork butts like this. Image
Ross- tightwad home cook
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Post by redzed » Sun Oct 14, 2012 18:49

Big Guy wrote:
redzed wrote:Canadian bacon (called back bacon in Canada),

I have to dissagree with this statment. they are two different products, Back bacon also called peameal bacon is a cured pork loin rolled in corn meal and is not smoked, it is sliced and fried, Canadian bacon is a cured pork loin which is hot smoked then cooled sliced and fried very different tastes. In either case they both are very good enjoy what ever you make.
Big Guy, I certainly did not make a "statement" in my reply to Sawhorse and I don't disagree with what you described above. But let me clarify a bit. My interjection was intended to point out that that the origin of the name for a cured and hot smoked pork, sold in the US as Canadian Bacon is attributed to the Americans. This is not to say that they discovered the process, since curing and smoking loins probably has been practiced for more than a thousand years.

Yes, a cured (not smoked) pork loin rolled in corn meal is called peameal bacon (another misnomer) and a uniquely Canadian take on preparing a boneless pork loin. Some current marketers tout it as the "real Canadian bacon". In fact, peameal bacon was a regional Ontario product (conceived by Toronto meat processor William Davies in the latter part of the nineteenth century), and until the big supermarkets came along, it was unknown in other parts of Canada, certainly not in the Western Provinces. But then, many Ontarians consider their province the center of Canada, and Toronto as the center of the Universe. :lol: I spent five years in that universe so I draw on my observations from that experience. :mrgreen:

A cured and hot smoked boneless pork loin was traditionally sold in Canada simply as "back bacon". Only since the late 1970's and 1980's when large hog producing operations were established in Canada, and mass export of hogs and pork products began, did some producers start labelling this product as Canadian Bacon. So like in many other ways, we have succumbed to the influence of the elephant next door. But even today you will be hard pressed to find a packaged product labelled as Canadian Bacon in Canadian supermarkets. More often than not, it's still sold as Back Bacon. And to confound things even further, some of it is also rolled in corn meal.

I hope this clears up any misunderstanding to my brief utterance that you judged to be disagreeable.
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Post by sawhorseray » Sun Oct 14, 2012 19:07

That looks absolutely gorgeous Ross, and I'd bet it tastes out of this world. I saw on another thread you are scoring pork butts at a unheard-of price, 89≠ lb. I might see $1.29lb a couple of times a year at best and I usually try to strike when I get butts for $1.49lb. I want to smoke a couple of hams in the near future but I'd like to not pay more than the price of a 270 Weatherby magnum bullet. Now that I think of it I really don't want to shoot a huge hog either, something in the range of 160 pounds on-the-hoof would be just perfect. That'd get me a couple of 10lb hams to smoke and more sausage than I'd want to try to make in a day, figuring wild hog sausage needs to be cut with domestic pork butt 40%, maybe 50%. It's funny, the older I get it seems I look forward to sitting at a swamp-bar at a pool in Ixtapa,Mexico, smoking a Cuban cigar and drinking a pina colada a lot more than dragging some dead animal up a hill. There's no ticks at the swamp-bar either!
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Post by ssorllih » Sun Oct 14, 2012 19:23

Just as we need the fat in the sausage, the fat in the bacon makes the sweet taste and pleasing mouth feel.
Maybe you could get a pickup truck load of ear corn and start feeding it about a mouth before shooting season and get a hog finished on corn.
Ross- tightwad home cook
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