# Turkey Bacon Help



## galahir950

I love turkey bacon and I was wondering how you would go about making turkey bacon as opposed to pork bacon? I need to keep the fat down medically, so the leaner the better. We own a Masterforge Electric Smoker.

Regards,
Ryan


----------



## pops6927

You can cure Turkey breasts and smoke them and slice them, then bake in the oven sliced for 10-15 minutes to crisp devoid of any external fat.  

To make variegated white/dark turkey bacon strips would be more difficult.  You would have to tear apart, then re-form the meat fibers and create a pressed loaf that would be cured and smoked, much like a loaf of spam.  I have studied the composition of it and seen that it is just that, a chopped and formed product.  I'm sure not impossible to do, but not easy, either.

It should be noted, in commercially produced turkey bacon, it has approximately half the fat as real bacon, but almost twice the sodium, which can be just as unhealthy.

Might I suggest making your own buckboard bacon; it is much much leaner than regular bacon and you can control the salt content and sugar content too!  At the bottom of this post, check out Buckboard in my sig line, you'll see sliced buckboard made from pork butt.  I am a 4 time stroke survivor and have to control my fat and salt and sugar content too.


----------



## galahir950

Pops6927 said:


> You can cure Turkey breasts and smoke them and slice them, then bake in the oven sliced for 10-15 minutes to crisp devoid of any external fat.
> 
> To make variegated white/dark turkey bacon strips would be more difficult.  You would have to tear apart, then re-form the meat fibers and create a pressed loaf that would be cured and smoked, much like a loaf of spam.  I have studied the composition of it and seen that it is just that, a chopped and formed product.  I'm sure not impossible to do, but not easy, either.
> 
> It should be noted, in commercially produced turkey bacon, it has approximately half the fat as real bacon, but almost twice the sodium, which can be just as unhealthy.
> 
> Might I suggest making your own buckboard bacon; it is much much leaner than regular bacon and you can control the salt content and sugar content too!  At the bottom of this post, check out Buckboard in my sig line, you'll see sliced buckboard made from pork butt.  I am a 4 time stroke survivor and have to control my fat and salt and sugar content too.


Thanks for the help! I do have a few questions though, can the turkey breast bacon be made in a pan with a bit of olive oil spray to substitute the lost fat instead of using the oven? Do you remember how many slices of bacon you got out of your buckboard bacon, i.e. 35 slices per 1 lb of uncooked bacon? Could you use a different cut of pork for the BBB? Is there any "formula" for how much sodium from the brine (and also marinades) is absorbed when you brine it for x amount of hours? And I do agree, "turkey loaf" seems far to complicated. One of the reasons I have to monitor my fat and sodium is because I am up for a heart transplant. Again, thanks for all the help.

Regards, 
Ryan


----------



## daveomak

Interesting article ....    Dave

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4509390&page=1


----------



## galahir950

DaveOmak said:


> Interesting article ....    Dave
> 
> http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Healthday/story?id=4509390&page=1



The Internet's love of bacon is finally being vindicated.

Regards,
Ryan


----------

