So I ordered some spices online to try a spiced bacon that I had seen elsewhere, but to do it with a pork loin instead of belly. If I didn't like it I'm not out a lot... but this turned out pretty good so I'm happy.
Standard cure, I went 1% sugar 1.75% salt and .25% #1. Got out the mortar and pestle to crush a mix of bay leaves, coriander, juniper berries and my peppercorn melange. Mixed that in with the cure and some Hungarian half sharp paprika and vac sealed it for what turned out to be 15 days. Was gonna do it yesterday but it was rainy so this morning it was. Couldn't sleep at all so this went on at about 0430.
Out of the vac bag waiting on the pellet pooper to come up to temp. Started at low smoke for 1 hour then went high smoke for the finish. Used plum pellets. The paprika turned it a nice shade of red. I gave it a quick coat of fresh ground peppercorns before putting it on the smoker.
Took about 3 hours total. Just pulled it.
Cut shot. Had a slice off one end and I must say it turned out quite nicely. A more subtle flavor than I was expecting, but the paprika and peppercorns provided a very small touch heat. I throttled back the amount of spices from the original recipe and it still turned out well. Maybe next time I'll up the amounts a little to see how much of a difference it makes.
I'm gonna slice this stuff thick before vac sealing the portions. The crust is super tasty.
Thanks for looking!