Original Smoked Canadian Bacon Recipe

This Original Smoked Canadian Bacon recipe is a modification of Morton Tender Quick recipe and curing methods. Also I followed Mallard Wacker’s cooking guidelines for Buck Board Bacon.

You can add or subtract as many spices and flavouring you want to this recipe, as long as you maintain the correct amount of Tender Quick.

The dark brown sugar gives it a nice distinctive flavour, but you can replace it with light brown sugar, regular sugar or use maple granules.

You can increase the amount of applied smoke, but I like my Canadian bacon and pastrami lightly smoked. Keep in mind that smoking a 225 F, your loins are going to reach 145 F -150 F in about 3 to 4 hours.

*OPTIONAL: At this point I used butcher’s twine and tied the loin every 2-3 inches. This helps the bacon maintain a more rounded shape, and the even shape helps all parts cook more uniformly.

Ingredients

Boneless pork loin (size will depend on how much bacon you want to make)

1 Tbl Morton Tender Quick (or Basic Dry Cure) per pound

1 Tsp dark brown sugar per pound

1 Tsp garlic powder per pound

1 Tsp onion powder per pound

Preparation

Trim fat and silver skin from pork loin.

Cut into 3 to 4 pound sections.

Weigh each section.

Make a note of the weight of each piece before measuring the dry ingredients.

Measure all dry ingredients for each section of meat based on the weight of each section, and thoroughly mix.

Example: if you have two sections; one weighing 4 pounds and one weighing 3 pounds, measure all the dry ingredients for the 4 pound piece and place that in one bowl’ Then measure all the ingredients you will use on the 3 pound piece and put that in a separate bowl.

Rub the entire mixture on to the loin.

Make sure to cover all surfaces, and work the dry cure into any crevices in the meat.

Place loins into separate one gallon sealable plastic bags, and remove as much air as possible.

Cure meat in the refrigerator at 36- 40ºF.

My refrigerator was at 38ºF.

Due to the thickness of the loin, you will need to cure them for 6 days.

Once a day turn meat over.

You do not have to open the bags, If some liquid has formed, give the bag a few shakes to redistribute the liquid.

When the loins are fully cured, remove them from plastic bags and thoroughly rinse off.

Soak loin pieces in about three gallons of cool water for 30 minutes; remove from soak and pat dry.

Refrigerate uncovered overnight, or long enough to allow to dry and to form pellicle on the surface.

You may also see an iridescent sheen on the surface.

Place loins into a 225ºF preheated Bradley.

Apply maple smoke for 1:40 to 2:00 hours.

Continue to cook until an internal temperature of 140ºF – 150ºF is reached. The higher you take the internal temperature, the less moisture will remain in the meat.

It is important to take the internal temperature of each piece of loin.

I now only take may Canadian Bacon to 140ºF. The texture and moistness is much better. If you decide to use the 140ºF temperature, make sure that your probe is in the thickest part of the meat.

After it the meat reaches 140ºF, slowly move the probe in and out. If there is a drop in temperature, leave the probe at that spot and continue to cook until the 140ºF internal temperature is reached. If you have a good instant read thermometer, also use that to get your final reading.

Remove loins from smoker, and tent foil until loins are cool enough to be handled by hand.

Wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate for at least two days.

Cut into  inch thick slices and serve

(If serving with crackers you may have to quarter each slice.)

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