Had been wanting to make some bacon, but locating good pork bellies around here, have been few and far between. So I found some pork loins on sale and decided that I'd try and make Canadian bacon. After reading and searching thorugh the threads of what people have used and seemed to have good luck with, and enjoyed their results, I decided to use Pop's brine. Had 10lbs of loins that I trimmed and portioned so that I could try several different add ons with.
Then I soaked them for 14 days and then tried a slice/fry test for saltiness, but they were fine. Actually I only used 1/3 cup of the salt in the recipe to see where I would end up with in taste. They were good and know I will increase the salt on the next bacon batch to 2/3 cup. (I have since found some pork bellies for my next go round) Let them dry in fridge to form the pellicle and seasoned some with Tony's cajun seasoning, some with cracked black pepper, and even tried some of Uncle Chris' steak seasoning that I like to use when grilling pork chops, so I thought that it would work on bacon too.
Using an equal amount combination of cherry, apple, and pecan pellets in the amznps, I cold smoked them for about 4 hrs. then adding heat and slowly brought the internal temps. to 145 degrees. Ended up being a total smoke time of 9 1/2 hrs.
Finished product, they were all good and tasty, but I liked the 2 that I rolled in Tony's cajun seasoning the best. So I definetly will be using that seasoning for bacon again.
I would like to thank all of the folks on here who have posted pictures of their cooks and wrote in threads what they did, so those of us who come along later and want to try some of these many different recipes and the variations of them, can benefit from them, like I did. Couldn't have done it as easily or with the "happy ending" results without your input.
My next cold smoking project is smoking up some nice belly bacon that I have finally crossed paths with and have in the fridge now waiting to be portioned and brined this weekend for a smoke in a couple of weeks.
To the moderator's...if I have over sized my photos and used too big of a resolution, my apologies and understand if they are taken down or resized. Thanks for all the help...
Then I soaked them for 14 days and then tried a slice/fry test for saltiness, but they were fine. Actually I only used 1/3 cup of the salt in the recipe to see where I would end up with in taste. They were good and know I will increase the salt on the next bacon batch to 2/3 cup. (I have since found some pork bellies for my next go round) Let them dry in fridge to form the pellicle and seasoned some with Tony's cajun seasoning, some with cracked black pepper, and even tried some of Uncle Chris' steak seasoning that I like to use when grilling pork chops, so I thought that it would work on bacon too.
Using an equal amount combination of cherry, apple, and pecan pellets in the amznps, I cold smoked them for about 4 hrs. then adding heat and slowly brought the internal temps. to 145 degrees. Ended up being a total smoke time of 9 1/2 hrs.
Finished product, they were all good and tasty, but I liked the 2 that I rolled in Tony's cajun seasoning the best. So I definetly will be using that seasoning for bacon again.
I would like to thank all of the folks on here who have posted pictures of their cooks and wrote in threads what they did, so those of us who come along later and want to try some of these many different recipes and the variations of them, can benefit from them, like I did. Couldn't have done it as easily or with the "happy ending" results without your input.
My next cold smoking project is smoking up some nice belly bacon that I have finally crossed paths with and have in the fridge now waiting to be portioned and brined this weekend for a smoke in a couple of weeks.
To the moderator's...if I have over sized my photos and used too big of a resolution, my apologies and understand if they are taken down or resized. Thanks for all the help...
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