made some canadian bacon

[bigben]

i have a soft side for bacon.  I mean comeon what sane guy doesn't.  well I put myself on a diet back in January and I do love bacon.  which is bad for ya unless you plan on eating turkey bacon.  I know canadian bacon isn't exactly the best stuff for ya but it should give me my fix.  the worst part is how expensive it is.  if you have ever tried pricing it in stores you should know how much it costs.  I got a smoker a few months ago and I got the crazy idea of smoking my own bacon.  So.  heres how it started out.  a 9lb pork loin, mortons tender quick, brown sugar, and a weeks worth of time. 



I cut the loin into three reletively equal sized sections.  I then measured out a tbs of each the brown sugar and tender quick per lb of meat.  so that meant 9 tbs of tender quick and 9 tbs of brown sugar.



I then placed them each one into a gallon baggie and stuck em in my fridge.  each day for the week I would flip the bags over so the cure would get to all sides of the loin.  it actually formed a juice in the bag and I had read to leave the juice in there. 

after a week I took the loins out of the baggie and rinsed them off with cold water.  then soaked the loins in water in the fridge for two hours to leach some salt out.  then drained and let em chill in the fridge till today. 

I got em out and I love pepper bacon so I put olive oil on the outside of one and rubbed coarse ground black pepper on it.  On the second one I had the idea to drizzle maple syrup on the outside of the loin while cooking and then got to thinking it would burn to bad on the outside.  so I mixed up 50/50 apple juice with maple syrup and  injected it in the loin.  the third section I left plain to see which one I would like.

I was using hickory wood for smoke and was smoking at 225.

Here they are just on the smoker after a bit of time 


here they are done.


the ends sliced off to check out the color.  the left one is the injected loin.  the center is the plain and the right is the pepper bacon.  not sure why the left injected one is so much more darker then the other.  all three have pink centers but the injected one is almost ham color. 


pic of the injected one.


of course I tried all three and I like the injected one the most.  the pepper bacon is good but is a bit dried out.  the plain one was dry also.  the injected was still moist.  next time I plan on injecting all of em with applejuice.  it makes a difference.  now they will chill in the fridge and then get sliced tommarow.  then packaged in small packages that when I want some i thaw a pack out.  with cooking till a internal temp of 160 I can eat it without cooking also.  so this will make a good compliment to my morning breakfast. 

[coyote101]

Those REALLY look good Ben.  I may have to try the apple juice injection.

Pat

[Okanagan]

Bigben, you are killing me with this fabulous food you are concocting!  I started losing weight on purpose a couple of weeks ago and you are not helping!  Thanks for the pics and the how to info.

[iahntr]

Ditto to the above 2 posts !        
                 

[bigben]

Bigben, you are killing me with this fabulous food you are concocting!  I started losing weight on purpose a couple of weeks ago and you are not helping!  Thanks for the pics and the how to info.

yeah I know what ya mean.  everything I make I tend to give to friends and reletives.  I have lost 40 lbs so far since mid january.