I have been wanting to do Canadian bacon for a while now. So of course I turned to SMF for my research. When I did my belly bacon I use Pop's brine, but I really wanted to try my hand at a dry cure. After reading SQWIB's 10-10-10 tutorial I had found my method, now onto the madness. I had a loin in the freezer that was right at 6 lbs
After cutting and trimming I ended up with two pieces just under 3 lbs each
I mixed 3 TBS of Morton's Tender Quick together with 3 TBS of brown sugar for each piece. Placed the loins into ziplock bags and coated well with the brown sugar/TQ mixture then the bags went into the fridge for 11 days.
I did the old "squish and flip" almost everyday during the curing process. I was amazed how much moisture was pulled out of the loins during this process. On day 11 I took the loins, I guess it is technically Canadian bacon now, out of the bags. Gave each a good rinse and placed them into a nice water bath for one hour. Then rinsed again, patted dry, and sliced off a piece from each for a fry test. Perfect, salty but not too salty. I then placed them back into the fridge on a drying rack for pellicle formation.
My project fridge is in the garage and is holding at 22°, thanks to Mother Nature, so to my wife's displeasure I had to use the fridge in the kitchen.
After 36 hours I got them out today and the pellicle looked great. So I brushed the tops with maple syrup and shook on a healthy layer of coarse black pepper.
Preheated the MES 30 to 170° and lit my AMNPS with a mix of cherry and apple pellets. Once everything was set they went into the magic box.
After 6 hours and 22 minutes the CB was at an IT of 145° and the color was amazing. I moved it back to the drying rack for 30 minutes and then back to the fridge. I will give it a day or two before slicing.
Thanks again for all the information freely shared here, I think this is going to be a big hit at the superbowl party Sunday. Thanks for looking everyone.
After cutting and trimming I ended up with two pieces just under 3 lbs each
I mixed 3 TBS of Morton's Tender Quick together with 3 TBS of brown sugar for each piece. Placed the loins into ziplock bags and coated well with the brown sugar/TQ mixture then the bags went into the fridge for 11 days.
I did the old "squish and flip" almost everyday during the curing process. I was amazed how much moisture was pulled out of the loins during this process. On day 11 I took the loins, I guess it is technically Canadian bacon now, out of the bags. Gave each a good rinse and placed them into a nice water bath for one hour. Then rinsed again, patted dry, and sliced off a piece from each for a fry test. Perfect, salty but not too salty. I then placed them back into the fridge on a drying rack for pellicle formation.
After 36 hours I got them out today and the pellicle looked great. So I brushed the tops with maple syrup and shook on a healthy layer of coarse black pepper.
Preheated the MES 30 to 170° and lit my AMNPS with a mix of cherry and apple pellets. Once everything was set they went into the magic box.
After 6 hours and 22 minutes the CB was at an IT of 145° and the color was amazing. I moved it back to the drying rack for 30 minutes and then back to the fridge. I will give it a day or two before slicing.
Thanks again for all the information freely shared here, I think this is going to be a big hit at the superbowl party Sunday. Thanks for looking everyone.
