Bourbon Bacon / Canadian Bacon (q-view)

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nubyte

Fire Starter
Original poster
Jun 5, 2011
50
10
Winton, MN
So i'm re-stocking the freezer with bacon for the long winter up here, and decided to try my hand at Canadian Bacon, and figured why not try some bourbon on some of the pork butt. 

After curing for 10 days, i took a 3 pound slab of meat out and added bourbon to the bag:

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I put it back in the fridge for the day.  so now its been curing for 11 days, left in the fridge over night, and now into the smoker at a balmy 43 degrees.

I do have a concern with the Canadian bacon.  It cured as long as the pork butt, but as you can see in this picture, it didn't get any red coloration like the butts did:

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Is it normal for the Pork Loin to not get the nice red color, or should i be worried about this?
 
Take a thin slice off & fry it. It should turn bright red when it's cooked, if the cure penetrated it.
 
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I did the fry test yesterday, it never turned the nice bright red, but you would think that after 11 days the cure should have worked its magic?
 
It won't get bright red like pastrami but it should look like ham or bacon, not like a cooked pork chop. If your sure about the amount of cure that you used then I wouldn't worry about it. Just go ahead & smoke it.
 
I have it smoking now, of course more pictures to come. 

Thanks for the help Al
 
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Hey all, sorry about the wait, and lack of popcorn and beer, i'll stock up more next time.

The smoking went as smooth as can be, 12 hours of maple smoke and they came out looking like this:

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Slice shot of the Canadian bacon frying.  It did get a more pink ham looking color when done:

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Sliced bourbon soaked buckboard bacon (bbb?)

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And the fry shot:

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Overall the taste of the Bourbon really soaked in nicely, and added a great taste to the bacon.  I highly recommend any bourbon fans give this a go, you will not be disappointed.  Next time i might try the Red Stag Jim Beam, which has some cherry taste too it as well, just for fun.  Now to slice the entire load and freeze it
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It looks good & sounds like it tasted good too!

I just wonder why the color never changed on the 1 piece.

Maybe Pops can answer that.
 
Thats what i would like to know too Al.  Neither loins changed colors much, but at least the once slice i fried and tried got somewhat of a ham look to it.  Nobody has gotten sick yet, so it can't be TOO bad for us, or we're just lucky
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It looks good & sounds like it tasted good too!

I just wonder why the color never changed on the 1 piece.

Maybe Pops can answer that.
 
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