Do I need to dry my Canadian Bacon overnight before smoking?

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meandmytwodogs

Smoking Fanatic
Original poster
Feb 27, 2008
414
10
Beaver Lake/Plattsmouth, Nebraska
I seem to recall reading a post where someone said that they let their CB dry in the fridge overnight before smoking. And to go along with that a friend of mine asked me if I knew that I should be doing that as well. I've read every CB post I could get my eyes on here and another site and can only recall reading this once. My first batch of CB was not dried overnight and it came out great. So is this really necessary? My other question is that if the meat developed a dry skin, wouldn't that inhibit the smoke penetration?
Let me know what you experts think! I have two 3lbrs curing since 1/20 that I am planning to smoke on Saturday so if this is the case, I will need to pull them out of the vac seal tomorrow.

Thanks guys.

Dave
 
I recall this.
It was not so much drying I think. Rather it was to let the salt levels equilize after you rinsed/soaked the cure off.

Not sure that it matter, but I generally let it sit overnight.
 
Morton calls it letting your meat equilibriate. Once you pull the meat out of the cure and rinse they recommend letting the meat sit in the fridge 24 to 48 hours for this process. I have taken up the practice and I think it actually lowers the saltiness a bit. I wouldn't let it stop me from smokin a CB out of the rinse if I didn't have time but I usually let it stand in the fridge.
 
I always let mine sit unwrapped in the frig long enough to dry the outside of the meat, 12-24 hours. You will notice the surface meat developes a tacky, sticky feel to it. Then I put it in the smoker without smoke for at least an hour at 100° to dry it more, once the meat is dry it will take on the smoke better. thats my story and I'm sticking to it.
 
When I do belly bacon there are times that I will air dry with a fan-when I'm trying a new flavor-seems to (set) what I'm useing at the time.Other times I don't,with no noticable affects.Right now I have 17.5#s of loin in cure to smoke sunday-I will soak for an hour-change water and soak again,pat dry and hit the smoker-like I have done so many times before.I've never gotten a complaint from a customer either way.
 
I decided to rinse the meat this evening, patted nice and dry and then wrapped in saran wrap till Saturday's smoke. Will do a fry test Sat a.m. and see if it needs a soak or not. Took some pics but not sure if I'll be able to post as my only computer right now does not have a disc drive (business field laptop) therefore i cannot load the software for our camera. I'll work on that though. Thanks for all the support.

Dave
 
Meanddawgs,
I've done two batches of CB, and smoked them both for 8hrs. There is no way that smoke CAN'T penetrate! I let mine hang dry for about two hours prior to smoking and it went just fine.

My only suggestion is not to wait until Sat. to test. If it's too salty, you can take care of that now, then you're good to go on smoke day.
Tracey
 
I agree with Walle. Soak and check. I let my buckboard set overnight to dry. Not sure if you have to, but some folks said it helps it pick up smoke. This was important to me because I was using small (2 lb) prices of pork butt and I knew it would only be on a couple fo hours to hit 140 internal temp.

My 2 cents...........
 
I agree with walle also. I always dry it soak it for a couple of hours to remove as much of the salt as I can then try the fry test. Then smoke it.
 
After the cure I soak mine for 2 hours changing the water every 30 minutes. Then fry test. When satisfied with the flavor, I let it dry in the fridge overnight. I've only done 3 batches now but this has worked for me everytime.
I am getting ready for batch #4, it amazes me how fast it gets used up.
 
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