Canadian Bacon - Recipe
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How to Make Canadian Bacon - Recipe
Meat Block
10 lb Pork Loin
Additives
Blue Ribbon Maple Bacon Cure
Bacon Taste BoosterProcess
Before we prepare our solution, you need to be sure that you are using water that is between 40° and 45° and the water cannot be hard water; it must be potable and low in microbial levels. You can either buy distilled water, or you can hold water in a cooler overnight to allow any gasses to bleed out.
Injecting -
We are going to inject our pork loin with the Blue Ribbon Maple Bacon Cure, and we will add Bacon Booster to increase the bacon taste and to help fight off rancidity in the cooler. For regular Bacon, we would use 2 lb of this cure for 100 lb of bellies for a 10% pump, but since the fat content of a loin is so much lower than a belly, we actually want to pump it to 18%. Our pork loin weighs 10 lb, so we need to pump it until it weighs 11.8 lb, and since we need a cover solution anyway, we are going to dissolve 1 lb of cure and 3 oz of bacon taste booster in 2 quarts of water for our injection. After we inject it, we are going to cover it in a 50% strength solution to allow the cure to equalize within the meat and make sure it fully cures.To make a 50% strength solution, we have two options, we can either dissolve another lb of the cure in 1 gallon of water or we can weigh what we have left over from our injection solution and add that weight in water and use that as our 50% strength cover. Since we injected it and this cure contains Sodium Erythorbate, we only need to hold this product overnight in a stark bucket liner, and then it will be ready to smoke.
Brining/Pickling -
If you want to brine/pickle, we recommend you use Country Brown Sugar Cure. You just have to modify the usage a little to get the correct parts per million. You will want to use 1.52 pounds of the cure to a gallon of water to get 120 PPM of ingoing nitrite. Fill the container with the cure before you put the pork loin in; this will allow it to suspend and cure evenly. Move to a cooler at 38° degrees and hold for 3-5 days. After it has sat for 3-5 days, fill a meat lug with clean cold water, let it sit in that for 20 minutes, empty the container and fill it up with more cold water and let it sit for another 20 minutes to rinse off any excess salt. If you try and skip this step, your bacon is going to be too salty. If you are wanting a less salty product, then repeat this step a 3rd time.Note
The Smoke Schedule will be the same for either curing method. There are 2 ways to smoke Canadian Bacon; we can cook it to 132° if it is going to be pan-fried or cooked again before serving; if you are not going to cook it again before eating, then cook it to 145°.
Thermal Processing & Smoking
Stage 1 - 120° with no smoke and dampers closed for 30 minutes
Stage 2 - 135° close dampers down and add smoke
Stage 3 - 150° for 30 minutes
Stage 4 - 165° for 30 minutes
Stage 5 - 180° until internal temp reaches 132° or until 145° 1Cooling
Once it has reached the desired temperature, remove it from the smoker, put it in an ice bath for about 20 minutes, and let it sit out for an hour at room temperature before moving it to the cooler. Now you can slice it into pieces as thick as you want, and all it needs is to be reheated in a pan or oven to be enjoyed at any time.
Wrap up
Making Canadian Bacon is very easy; it’s actually a fair amount simpler than making regular bacon, as Pork Loins are more available to most people than pork bellies are.
Foot Notes
1. We realize we said 158° in the video, but I meant 145°. So to be clear, if you are not going to be pan frying this or heating it again before eating, then you need to cook it until it is 145°. (Return to text)
Additional Tips
- Try different rubs on the outside of your loin, doesn’t matter if you add heat or something sweet; either one will add a nice kick to the taste.
Other Notes
Next time we make this we are going to take the meatgistics user Raider2119s advice and try to coat the outside of the loin with ground-up yellow peas; this would make it peameal bacon which is traditionally how the Canadians Make it.
What Is Canadian Bacon?
Canadian Bacon is made from a pork loin that is cured, smoked, and then used in everything from breakfast dishes to pizza toppings. It’s simple to make, and when done properly, it will keep about as long as regular bacon, but for best results should be used in about a week if kept in a refrigerator or 6 months in a freezer; after that, it will start to break down. Some people will make this without a cure, but doing this is not recommended, and it won’t be true Canadian Bacon at that point.
Watch WaltonsTV: How to Make Canadian Bacon
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltons.com youtube page at https://www.youtube.com/@waltonsinc
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sausage king Looks good! Have you ever tried putting a rub on the outside? I rubbed rehydrated jalapeno flakes on one I did a while ago and it gave it a nice little hit of heat!
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tundra Yes. In the video it mentions mixing the remaining full strength solution with an equal amount of water (for a 50% solution) to help distribute the cure more evenly. I use a turkey bag or bucket liner to do this. I have made a large amount of Canadian Bacon lately using this recipe and it turns out great!
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YooperDog Team Orange Masterbuilt Big Green Egg Dry Cured Sausage Sous Vide Canning Power Userreplied to Jonathon on last edited by
Jonathon can I use the Blue Ribbon and Bacon Taste Booster for a pickle solution? I have done the injection process in the past and want to try the pickle method as I used to. I will be gone for a few day and that process will work better for timing. It says that it will need 2lbs/100lbs to impart a 120ppm. Do I need to bring the solution up to 200ppm? Thanks
YooperDog -
@Jim-Nowak We actually recommend you use Country Brown Sugar Cure when pickling bacon. The instructions on how much to use to get the correct PPM can be found in our How to make Homemade Bacon article and video. We recommend this because the Blue Ribbon Bacon Cure contains sodium erythorbate which is a cure accelerator which makes it better for use as an injection. However, there are many people who use the Blue Ribbon Bacon Cure as a brine and enjoy the results.
The 200 ppm is for dry rub not injection or brining. When brining or injecting it doesn’t matter as the 120ppm is what you are looking for!
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johnsbrewhouse Team Blue Regular Contributors Traeger Power User Sous Vide Canning Washington Gardening Veteran
Have a loin curing right now in the fridge. Will be there for 14 days, used my California ham spice for the Canadian bacon as well and kosher salt. I inject the loin and pour the cure into a zip-lock bag, turn once a day in the fridge. Will light smoke it, like my hams. Has about 10 days left to cure.
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YooperDog Team Orange Masterbuilt Big Green Egg Dry Cured Sausage Sous Vide Canning Power Userreplied to pkzipper on last edited by
pkzipper I have used corn meal and cracked black pepper. I place the loins in stockings and coat a little heavy with either and then smoke. I don’t water bath to cool down the corn meal version. The cornmeal gives a crunchy texture. The cracked black pepper gives a nice note. If needed you can brush down the black pepper if it is too heavy.
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pkzipper Yes, I am pretty sure someone here has done that… I am trying to find the original post. @Parksiderwas it you who covered this in split corn?
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Looks like it was raider2119 check out his post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/500/cure-and-smoke-pork-loin-like-ham specifically the 7th one on March 15th of 2018
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Got it thanks and it was a good read.
Looks like pea meal is the Original way to do it without smoking the Lion.
Thought as much. I was wondering how it would taste if it was coated and then all smoked?
Sounds like @Jim-Nowak has coated and then smoked and liked it.
Might try to inject it as above and use half as is, but the other half I might just before the smoke, coat with corn syrup or maple syrup and roll in pea meal than smoke.
Just curious what the smoke will do to the pea meal and also the corn or maple syrup flavours? -
pkzipper I’m really not sure, raider2119 do you have any idea?
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Jonathon pkzipper Peameal bacon is generally not smoked, I have not tried doing it…
I have found using actual maple syrup to be messy… especially if injected… I have used both mayonnaise and mustard to bind the peameal to the meat… have thought about using an egg wash (like you would do when deep frying), but have not tried it yet…best peameal bacon I have made, ground the peameal to fine flour, mixed w/ water to a slightly thickened consistency, then injected it prior to brining… after brine, made a thicker paste from peameal to cover the entire piece of meat… then put in oven to 145 internal temp.
injected peameal lost moisture during cook process and ended up the consistency (and mouth feel) of fat… but with a rich peameal flavor…
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craigrice Power User Canning Team Orange Regular Contributors Veteran Masterbuiltreplied to raider2119 on last edited by
raider2119 when I season my ribs I use olive oil to coat them then season and smoke
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craigrice Cool… many different items can be used to bind a rub to your meat, they each have a bit different result… I have played with a few, but there are oh so many more…
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raider2119 Thanks for the info.
However, so I have this correct. You made a peameal solution and injected it into the Loin? “ground the peameal to fine flour, mixed w/ water to a slightly thickened consistency, then injected it prior to brining”How did you do that?
