Alright, after seeing several recent threads about curing pork loins for Canadian Bacon, I decided to give it a go myself. I mixed up a batch of Pop's Brine and tossed about 9 lbs of pork loin into three ziplock bags and covered with brine (and got the air all out of the bags) and put the bags into a cake pan and into the fridge. Today was the 11th day they have been in the brine, so I figured it was time to take them out (they were about 3" thick at the largest part, so according to Bear's calculations, that's a minimum of 8-9 days). I rinsed them off and popped them into some cold water to soak for 1/2 hour. Took them out, patted them dry and cut the thickest one in the center to make sure the cure got all the way through. Here is the picture (which looks like it did...but then there's the REALLY dark area on the outside that looks weird):
I cut a couple of slices for the fry test and my wife says that it tasted a bit too salty - but I told her to wait until after it's smoked to see if she still thinks that's the case (especially since she told me before I started this adventure that she likes her ham like she likes her husbands: salty!). Since I don't have a "taste baseline", I don't know if the salty flavor now will meld with the smokey flavor so it doesn't seem as salty later...but in the future, if I think it's too salty after I take them out of the brine, is there any way to de-saltify them a bit? Would soaking in regular water for awhile remove some of the salt?
One lesson I also learned is that I should've put them in the brining buckets that I have instead of the ziplocks. I figured ziplocks would take up less of the valuable shelf space in our fridge (until I can get a project fridge for the garage) - but they inevitably leaked like I was worried about. Lesson #1 for me: just use the brining buckets, that's what I got them for.
The pieces are in the fridge to form the pellicle, or at least dry the outside a bit, which seems to be the prevailing process. I plan on smoking either tomorrow or Friday.
I cut a couple of slices for the fry test and my wife says that it tasted a bit too salty - but I told her to wait until after it's smoked to see if she still thinks that's the case (especially since she told me before I started this adventure that she likes her ham like she likes her husbands: salty!). Since I don't have a "taste baseline", I don't know if the salty flavor now will meld with the smokey flavor so it doesn't seem as salty later...but in the future, if I think it's too salty after I take them out of the brine, is there any way to de-saltify them a bit? Would soaking in regular water for awhile remove some of the salt?
One lesson I also learned is that I should've put them in the brining buckets that I have instead of the ziplocks. I figured ziplocks would take up less of the valuable shelf space in our fridge (until I can get a project fridge for the garage) - but they inevitably leaked like I was worried about. Lesson #1 for me: just use the brining buckets, that's what I got them for.
The pieces are in the fridge to form the pellicle, or at least dry the outside a bit, which seems to be the prevailing process. I plan on smoking either tomorrow or Friday.
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