# Canadian Peameal bacon



## jhend (Jan 25, 2016)

I decided to start some peameal bacon tonight. This is a first for me and thought I would combine a few recipes for what I think may /  hope to taste good. Thanks AK1 for some suggestions. Well this is what I ended up doing.

1 gallon water

74G Ready Cure

122G salt

2 TBS pickling spice 

1 TSP juniper berries

1 TBS pepper corns

1 TSP mustard seed

1 TSP whole cloves

1 TSP allspice

1 cup maple syrup

5 LBS pork loin

Cure for 10 days.

There are 2 X 2.5LB pieces so at this point I am inclined to coat one in cornmeal and smoke the second with either apple or maple wood.













swimming in brine.jpg



__ jhend
__ Jan 25, 2016


















first use of the injector I got for Christmas.jpg



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__ Jan 25, 2016


















submerged in brine.jpg



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__ Jan 25, 2016


















ready for bed and turn one a day.jpg



__ jhend
__ Jan 25, 2016


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## ak1 (Jan 25, 2016)

OK, your cure is good with the Readycure.

I would suggest to coat one in cornmeal, but coat the other in yellow pea meal. Then you will see the difference between proper peameal, and the other stuff.


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## jhend (Jan 25, 2016)

Peameal is it literally dried peas? Just put them in a food processor? I have never noticed Peameal in the store.


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## ak1 (Jan 25, 2016)

Yeah. that's it.. Last time I just bought the peas at Fortino's and ground them myself.


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## jhend (Jan 25, 2016)

OMG, I don't mean to be a pain just want to get it right. I assumed it was green peas like peas in the pod, you mentioned yellow pea meal do peas turn yellow when dried or are soya beans or something else used?

Thanks for all your help

John


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## ak1 (Jan 25, 2016)

Go to the grocery store. Get yellow split peas, grind em up.


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## jhend (Jan 25, 2016)

sorry for being so dumb. thanks


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## ak1 (Jan 25, 2016)

No worries. Peameal isn't as difficult as it seems.


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## jhend (Feb 2, 2016)

FYI, I messed up on my cure calculation I calculated for dry cured instead of a brine that takes into account the weight if the fluid.I have revised my recipe to reflect the proper cure and salt. I have added to my batch and will leave it to cure a couple of days longer.

John


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## daveomak (Feb 2, 2016)

John, morning....   I was interested in the "Ready Cure" (1% nitrite) amount on nitrite and calculated stuff...

At 1% nitrite and 120 Ppm ingoing nitrite for brined bacon, (USDA recommended for commercial applications)

5# x 454 = 2,270 grams meat... 

~8.5#'s water x 454 = 3,859 grams water...

3859 + 2270 =  6,129 grams total stuff...

6,129 x 0.000120 = 0.74 grams of nitrite needed for a 120 Ppm ingoing rate...

0.74 grams at 1%...  .74 /  0.01 = 74 grams of Ready Cure needed..

74 grams x 0.99 (% salt) = (73 grams salt / 6,129) x 100 (%) = 1.2% ingoing salt...

14 days or longer would be about right in the brine under refrigeration...  It will not be too salty or over cured...

You probably already knew this...   Not having used ready cure, I just had to run the numbers......

Thanks for your patience.....     Dave


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## jhend (Feb 2, 2016)

Thanks for your calculation Dave. I did the calculation as per package instructions.

4kg readycure 6kg salt to 100 liters of water for brine.

2kg readycure to 100KG for dry cureing.

John


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## daveomak (Feb 2, 2016)

jhend said:


> Thanks for your calculation Dave. I did the calculation as per package instructions.
> 
> 4kg readycure 6kg salt to 100 liters of water for brine.
> 
> ...


*  4kg readycure 6kg salt to 100 liters of water for brine*.     That works out to ~9.9% salt....  6% in the salt and 3.9% in the cure..  

Not included is the weight of the meat....   Could be they are expecting you to add 250 Kg's of meat to the 100 Kg's of brine....

That's a lot of salt....  Do they give directions for desalting the meat.... usually meat over 2.5% salt is pretty tough to eat....

I do recommend following manufacturers directions at all times...   just curious....


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## jhend (Feb 2, 2016)

Hi Dave I have attached the usage \ factsheet and have emailed the company regarding directions for desalting the meat. It seemed like a lot of salt to me as well.

John


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## dukeburger (Feb 2, 2016)

Been meaning to give peameal bacon a shot for some time now, I'll be watching


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## daveomak (Feb 2, 2016)

Got it.....   Read where they say "PUMP 15-20%"......    That is a commercial mix where they run the meat through a needle machine and pump the solution directly into the meat....  then the meat is put in carts in the refer for a specified length of time to "cure"...

At a 20% pump, the meat would have 2% salt .....

1% nitrite in 4,000 grams = 40 grams of nitrite....  then diluted to 100 liters or 100,000 grams

40 gms / 100,040 gms = 400 Ppm nitrite solution....  at a 20% pump the meat would have 80 Ppm nitrite... 

The common mistake folks make is...  Commercial mixes are usually destined for a specific method....  In this case, it is direct injection into the meat, at a specific rate, to meet acceptable ingredients concentrations in the final product...

These commercial mixes are not intended for "submersion equilibrium type curing"....  

We can back calculate the intended amount of meat to have been used with this 100 liter brine/cure mix...

100,000 grams of water + 6,000 grams of salt + 4,000 grams Ready Cure = 110,000 grams of stuff.....

110,000 / 0.2 = 550,000 grams of meat  or ~1,200 #'s of meat....

Direct injection at 80 Ppm nitrite is acceptable as there is no loss of curing agent and it works on the entire piece of meat instantly...   Not like we were waiting for the cure to work over a 14 day period...  (USDA regulations do state "Maximum Allowable" on all the specific rates of nitrite)

Hope this makes sense.....

Dave


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## daveomak (Feb 2, 2016)

I screwed that up.....  Disregard....  I will redo it......


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## jhend (Feb 2, 2016)

DaveOmak said:


> John, morning....   I was interested in the "Ready Cure" (1% nitrite) amount on nitrite and calculated stuff...
> 
> At 1% nitrite and 120 Ppm ingoing nitrite for brined bacon, (USDA recommended for commercial applications)
> 
> ...


Thank you for your insight Dave. So I assume the above calculation should be used for the submersion method of curing peameal bacon. I will have to read your second post again and may try injection method in the future.

John


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## daveomak (Feb 2, 2016)

12,000 grams Ready Cure = 120 grams nitrite/100,000 grams water.. = 1200 ppm...  injecting 15% = 180 Ppm nitrite in the meat..

Then submerging in the "cover pickle" of 400 Ppm nitrite.... 

That makes no sense to me...

I'm trying to figure it out but....  maybe the manufacturer can explain it..


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## daveomak (Feb 2, 2016)

If you want to try an injection method....  try the one I use.....

Weigh the meat in grams.... 

Weigh out 10% of the weight of the meat in water...

Weigh out the proper amount of, cure for the weight of the meat... 

Dissolve the cure in the water......   Inject ALL the water and cure into the meat...  I use 5 ml injections.....

Inject about every 1.5"....  refer for 6 days....   Done....

Ready cure...  6.8 grams per pound of meat.. for ~150 Ppm nitrite...


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## jhend (Feb 4, 2016)

DaveOmak said:


> John, morning....   I was interested in the "Ready Cure" (1% nitrite) amount on nitrite and calculated stuff...
> 
> At 1% nitrite and 120 Ppm ingoing nitrite for brined bacon, (USDA recommended for commercial applications)
> 
> ...


Hi Dave, am I reading this right? so 74g readycure and 74g salt for 120 ppm nitrite and a total  2% salt?

Thanks John


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## daveomak (Feb 4, 2016)

6129 grams of total stuff....  at 2%...  6129 x 0.02 =  122 grams...    or close enough realizing the cure is 1% nitrite..


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## jhend (Feb 4, 2016)

Thanks Dave


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## jhend (Feb 4, 2016)

DaveOmak said:


> If you want to try an injection method....  try the one I use.....
> 
> Weigh the meat in grams....
> 
> ...


Hi Dave me again please don't come out shooting 
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






In the injection the brine works out to 3%  salt and nitrite

.454 X .068 = .03

My question is should the brine solution be closer to 3% ?

Thanks John


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## daveomak (Feb 5, 2016)

6.8 grams / 454 grams x 100 = ~1.49% salt

Because the nitrite is 1% of the salt, and we want about ~150 Ppm nitrite in the meat, 454 x 0.000150 / 0.01 = 6.8 grams per pound of meat...

Ready cure is unique in that at 6.8 grams addition to 1# of meat, or 1# of stuff, will yield a product that is safe in nitrites and at 1.49%
salt, that's a fair/good amount of salt for the palate....

This is what I would use for injecting a turkey or Canadian Bacon...   I'm cutting back on salt....    For adding to fresh sausage, I would use the 6.8 grams per pound for the same reason...

Now for a rub on some meats, for a dry cure, like in a controlled atmosphere, a minimum of 2.5% salt, usually 3% is rubbed into the meat to aid in bacterial control as the meat dries..   Some dry rub curing you can add additional nitrite....   up to 625 Ppm nitrite because it dissipates over time.....  and those methods usually call for 2, to sometimes 3 rubbings of salt and nitrite over a several week period of time...  150-200 Ppm ingoing nitrite per rub using 3 rubs.....   not to exceed 625 Ppm in total......     like country hams..    of course it depends on which recipe you follow...   dry curing some products at a temperature of ~50ish deg. F you should use cure #2..   the nitrate reacts with bacteria in the meat to convert to nitrite over time, thus keeping the meat safe to eat.....  The first step in this type curing calls for refrigeration...  the nitrite in the cure #2 takes care of the short term bacterial control...   the nitrate then takes care of the long term bacterial control along with the salt.....

There is no one cure recipe that fits all scenarios of curing...   One has to be familiar with different techniques and follow those recipes specific to those parameters...

Seems each country has developed certain guidelines for each process...  EU, Canada, US etc...  that's why there are different amounts of nitrite in each countries cures.... 

I pay particular attention to regs. here in the US and sometimes I'm not sure if I'm getting confused with all the different terminologies etc...  Our government seems to like to muddy the water by over regulating, having more than one agency in charge and the agencies have no inter agency communication, so they don't know what the others are doing...   FDA, USDA, FSIS and HAACP, all control food in one way or another..    OK, there's my disclaimer as to WHY I seem to get confused....


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## jhend (Feb 5, 2016)

Hi Dave I am still confused, but you have cleared up a lot with the different curing techniques.

Thanks again

John


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## daveomak (Feb 5, 2016)

You can't mix and match curing methods...   there is more to it than that.....

For curing a pork loin,  rub with 6.8 grams of Ready cure per pound of loin, plus any additional salt for your personal taste....  add a bit of sugar if you wish and any additional spices for flavorings....   Place in a zip bag and in the refer....   turn daily or so for 14 days.....

If you wish to try an injection....  6.8 grams Ready Cure per pound of loin + additional salt if you wish...  + any sugar or spices....   Water at 10% of the weight of the loin.....  Heat the water to extract the flavor of the spices... add the salt and sugar.....   Cool the water to room temp and filter to remove chunks of stuff...  add the Ready Cure and inject at 5 cc's per injection every 1 1/2" to thoroughly cover the meat chunk...   Zip bag for 7 days... 

I use this needle.....  or a syringe from the farm store works also... they are cheap.....













SYRINGES 2.jpg



__ daveomak
__ Feb 5, 2016





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Syringe3.png



__ daveomak
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Then dry and smoke if you wish...


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## jhend (Feb 17, 2016)

Question, I know you can not refreeze without cooking if I thaw out a frozen loin and cure it can I refreeze it without cooking?

Thanks john


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## daveomak (Feb 17, 2016)

Yes, as long as the meat has been refrigerated and kept under 40 ish deg. F.....


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## jhend (Feb 17, 2016)

Thanks for the reply Dave.


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## ak1 (Feb 19, 2016)

Actually, according to the USDA it is safe to refreeze raw meat & poultry thawed in the fridge. Although there may be a loss in quality.


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