I have now made several batches of back bacon (Americans call it Canadian bacon). I have enjoyed them all and they are better than the commercial products. However, one of the downsides of the home made version was it seemed to over brown in the frying pan and was easy to burn. I blamed this on the sugar content in the dry cure or brine in the recipes I've tried but I like a sweet overtone in my back bacon. I decided to try a different sugar combination and take some out of the recipe. I noted others have used molasses on their bacon and it has a lower sugar content than an equivalent amount of brown or white sugar. So, I modified Pop's Brine by taking some brown sugar out and adding some molasses. It worked!
Pop's brine recipe is in the post:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110799/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine
I changed it to:
1 gallon water
2/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 tbsp Prague powder #1
The pork loin I had was quite thick so I started by injecting it every inch or so and then put it in the brine for 14 days.
I took it out of the brine and rinsed it well. I dried it with paper towel and put it in the fridge overnight. I put it in a 140 F smoker for 2 hours without smoke to develop the pellicle. I took it out of the Bradley and left the door open for it to cool down. When it was cool, I put it back in the smoker with my AMNPS loaded with apple dust to cold smoke. I also had picked up a block of cheese so I threw it in to smoke too. After 3 hours, I took the cheese out. At four hours the one channel of dust had burnt out. I turned the heat up to 200 F and loaded the AMNPS with a mixture of Oak and Cherry pellets. It took another 6 hours to get to an internal temperature of 145 F.
I put it in the fridge for a day and then sliced it up. It had a great texture and a nice pink colour. I sliced it up with my trusty old ham slicer knife, wrapped it in cellophane and the put it in large Ziploc bags.
I fried it up with a slice from my last batch. The last batch is on the right. They were both put in the pan at the same time and you can see the sugar caramelizing on the prior batch while this batch just browned nicely. I love the taste too!
Disco
Pop's brine recipe is in the post:
http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/t/110799/pops6927s-wet-curing-brine
I changed it to:
1 gallon water
2/3 cup kosher salt
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 tbsp Prague powder #1
The pork loin I had was quite thick so I started by injecting it every inch or so and then put it in the brine for 14 days.
I took it out of the brine and rinsed it well. I dried it with paper towel and put it in the fridge overnight. I put it in a 140 F smoker for 2 hours without smoke to develop the pellicle. I took it out of the Bradley and left the door open for it to cool down. When it was cool, I put it back in the smoker with my AMNPS loaded with apple dust to cold smoke. I also had picked up a block of cheese so I threw it in to smoke too. After 3 hours, I took the cheese out. At four hours the one channel of dust had burnt out. I turned the heat up to 200 F and loaded the AMNPS with a mixture of Oak and Cherry pellets. It took another 6 hours to get to an internal temperature of 145 F.
I put it in the fridge for a day and then sliced it up. It had a great texture and a nice pink colour. I sliced it up with my trusty old ham slicer knife, wrapped it in cellophane and the put it in large Ziploc bags.
I fried it up with a slice from my last batch. The last batch is on the right. They were both put in the pan at the same time and you can see the sugar caramelizing on the prior batch while this batch just browned nicely. I love the taste too!
Disco