Fakin bacon a'la Bear and Disco's bacon sausage loaf.

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mdboatbum

Master of the Pit
Original poster
OTBS Member
Apr 22, 2011
4,076
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Washington, DC
Having a family member who as given up pork ( I know, it's inconceivable) I wanted to try and make some homemade turkey bacon. I had seen Bear's and Disco's threads on the sausage loaf breakfast strips, so I figured is give it a try with turkey. After consulting with Disco I settled on a plan. The recipe I ended up with is 2lbs 85/15 ground turkey, 1tb each salt and ground pepper, 1 tsp maple syrup, half a teaspoon cure #1 and about a half ounce of meat glue. I formed it into a loaf and let it sit in the fridge for roughly 36 hours. It's now cold smoking over apple pellets in my home made smoke tube.
 
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All sounds about right if not using TQ.

I guess the meat glue will make up for a little low in fat???

What temp you taking it to, or are you gonna stay cold smoked & Fry it to a safe temp before eating it?

Be Back!!

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Bear
 
Gonna cold smoke it til I get bored (3-4 hours)and then take it to 165 over charcoal and pecan at 200-220. By the way I mistyped it was a quarter cup of maple syrup.
 
And yeah, I'm hoping the meat glue will hold it all together and help with the low fat content. It's an experiment so we'll just have to see what happens. Trying to come up with an alternative to store bought turkey bacon which I suspect is no healthier than regular bacon.
 
Gonna cold smoke it til I get bored (3-4 hours)and then take it to 165 over charcoal and pecan at 200-220. By the way I mistyped it was a quarter cup of maple syrup.
Awesome!!
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Great Plan!!!
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How do I get mine?  Want my Fax Number??
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Bear
 
And yes I'm using Prague powder not TQ.
I typed that wrong:

I should have said "Since you aren't using TQ" not "If you aren't using TQ" because I knew you were using cure #1 when I said sounds about right.

I was wondering about the tsp of MS, but the important ingredients sounded OK.

Bear
 
Yeah I brain farted while typing. It has 1/4 cup maple syrup. Ok, truth be known I was too cheap to buy real maple syrup, it's Mrs. Butterworth's. I'm not proud of it, but I had it on hand.
 
Well it ended up cold smoking for a little under 4 hours with apple pellets, then hot smoking for about 2 hours with pecan. I just sliced some and the aroma and color is awesome. The texture is very much like turkey bacon you get in the store. The meat glue did what I was hoping in that it solidified the ground turkey so it can be sliced very thin. Of course now I'm reluctant to eat it, due to the longish cold smoke. Ambient temps went from the mid 70's to the mid 60's during the course of the smoke. It is cured so I don't think I'll have a problem, but I'm still a little wary of it. Maybe I'll try some for brunch later.
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I couldn't wait. Just fried up a slice. Not bad. Definitely "bacon-ish". Slice was a little thick but the texture is pretty much identical to turkey bacon, sort of leathery but fairly tender. Flavor is ok but s little heavy on the pepper and lost all the maple flavor. Definitely not too salty.
As an experiment I'll give it a 10. As a meal, maybe a 5. It is after all turkey bacon, so how good can it be?
 
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And yeah, I'm hoping the meat glue will hold it all together and help with the low fat content. It's an experiment so we'll just have to see what happens. Trying to come up with an alternative to store bought turkey bacon which I suspect is no healthier than regular bacon.
And tastes like a napkin with a little salt on it as well LOL! Glad to see this turned out well. Store bought T bacon is just something else to sell us.  What you gain in fat savings you lose in sodium savings . My heart doc of course says don't eat either on a regular basis but when I do to just go ahead and eat the pork bacon as the  few grams of both fats won't make any difference and the pork has more vitamins. Plus it tastes a lot better.
 
Morning Bum...... Hey..... that looks awesome... I'd eat it.... at least once anyway.... I haven't found store bought turkey bacon worth buying a second time.... Did buy it once about 25 years ago.... It may have improved but yours looks A#1..... The cure has taken care of the "B" word and cooking will take care of any other health related bugs.... It should be good to go on a plate with eggs, or what ever floats your boat.... pun intended.....

Dave
 
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