First time Canadian bacon

[blackened]

All the Canadian bacon talk has inspired me..

This is a 6# pork loin, rubbed up with TQ and into the fridge to cure for five days..

I probably should have trimmed off more fat, but it was already tied up so purdy, I just trimmed around to twine. Hopefully I won't regret that.

Followed the recipe at the Morton site, 6 TBS TQ, 6 tsp sugar.. Does 5 days sound about right?

Follow-up coming on Tuesday..

 

[beer-b-q]

I've never made CB but I will be watching how yours turns out... Looks like you are off to a good start...

 

[fire it up]

I think the rule of thumb is 1 day per inch? Someone correct me if I got that wrong.
I like to inject many of the thicker cuts of meat I do ever since I had a capicola not cure in the very center.
Be sure to massage and turn a few times a day to work that cure into the meat.
Good luck!

 

[mballi3011]

I have made it several times and I let it go for 7-10 days and remember the longer you let it cure the better it is. I have gone as far as 2 1/2 weeks and it was delish.

 

[ronp]

Not sure why it was tied.

Does it have the bone in?

If it is boneless 5 days is fine, but to be sure it is cured through out take a small plug out of the center and do a fry pan test from the middle and see if it is pink and not too salty.

 

[blackened]

Nope, no bone.. It's not uncommon to find loins tied up in a nice roll at my Costco..

 

[bmudd14474]

I norm do 1 day per 1/2inch to the center. so its like 5-6 days. This last time I did 10 days and it was the best I have made so far.

 

[blackened]

Thanks for the tip.. It's about a 3" roll, so I'm going to take it to 6 days..

 

[DanMcG]

Around here they'll take two loin ends and tie them together to make a loin roast.

 

[blackened]

Well it's been 7 days and I just cut it in half to make sure the cure had penetrated all the way to the center, and it hasn't.. Not by a lot.

I'm thinking that a lot of it has to with the fact that I didn't trim off enough fat, and the cure had a tough time penetrating it.

You can see the darker areas on the lean sides and where there is fat, it doesn't look like it has penetrated at all.

The question now is, where do I go from here? Do I just throw it on the grill now, which I'm sure it will be tasty, try it again on another loin?

Next time I will trim off the fat and inject the center, or do I trim it some more, rub it up with TQ again and let it go another week?

 

[DanMcG]

Maybe it's my monitor, but it looks good to me! I'd smoke it as planed and see what it looks like, worst case is you'll have a CB with a gray spot in the middle, still edible but that spot will be pork not bacon.
As far as recurring it. Don't! You'll have twice the amount of cure which is not healthy and twice the salt, which wouldn't taste to good.

You can also let it cure a couple more days, it won't hurt anything.

Don't forget the Q-view after you smoke it.

 

[blackened]

Thanks Dan, that's exactly what I did.

I decided to just go for it and see what happens.

So I rinsed it, rubbed some butt rub on it and smoked with apple wood..

You could actually taste the cure all the way through, maybe not an ideal amount, but it was very, very tasty.

This was actually two loins tied together, so next time I might do a single loin, or definitely trim more fat off to make sure the cure is able to penetrate.

 

[DanMcG]

That looks great Chris. I'm glad it worked out for ya. The nice thing this time of year is the loins are relatively cheap, so if first you don't succeed it wouldn't cost much to try again.