How to Make Homemade Canadian Bacon - Recipe

[pkzipper]

Jonathon

Did you or anyone ever try the pea meal or corn meal version?
If so how and when is the meal added? (before or after smoke)

[johnsbrewhouse]

Have a loin curing right now in the fridge. Will be there for 14 days, used my California ham spice for the Canadian bacon as well and kosher salt. I inject the loin and pour the cure into a zip-lock bag, turn once a day in the fridge. Will light smoke it, like my hams. Has about 10 days left to cure.

[YooperDog]

pkzipper I have used corn meal and cracked black pepper. I place the loins in stockings and coat a little heavy with either and then smoke. I don’t water bath to cool down the corn meal version. The cornmeal gives a crunchy texture. The cracked black pepper gives a nice note. If needed you can brush down the black pepper if it is too heavy.

[Jonathon]

pkzipper Yes, I am pretty sure someone here has done that… I am trying to find the original post. @Parksiderwas it you who covered this in split corn?

[Jonathon]

Looks like it was raider2119 check out his post https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/500/cure-and-smoke-pork-loin-like-ham specifically the 7th one on March 15th of 2018

[pkzipper]

Jonathon

Got it thanks and it was a good read.
Looks like pea meal is the Original way to do it without smoking the Lion.
Thought as much. I was wondering how it would taste if it was coated and then all smoked?
Sounds like @Jim-Nowak has coated and then smoked and liked it.
Might try to inject it as above and use half as is, but the other half I might just before the smoke, coat with corn syrup or maple syrup and roll in pea meal than smoke.
Just curious what the smoke will do to the pea meal and also the corn or maple syrup flavours?

[Jonathon]

pkzipper I’m really not sure, raider2119 do you have any idea?

[raider2119]

Jonathon pkzipper Peameal bacon is generally not smoked, I have not tried doing it…
I have found using actual maple syrup to be messy… especially if injected… I have used both mayonnaise and mustard to bind the peameal to the meat… have thought about using an egg wash (like you would do when deep frying), but have not tried it yet…

best peameal bacon I have made, ground the peameal to fine flour, mixed w/ water to a slightly thickened consistency, then injected it prior to brining… after brine, made a thicker paste from peameal to cover the entire piece of meat… then put in oven to 145 internal temp.

injected peameal lost moisture during cook process and ended up the consistency (and mouth feel) of fat… but with a rich peameal flavor…

[craigrice]

raider2119 when I season my ribs I use olive oil to coat them then season and smoke

[raider2119]

craigrice Cool… many different items can be used to bind a rub to your meat, they each have a bit different result… I have played with a few, but there are oh so many more…

[pkzipper]

raider2119 Thanks for the info.
However, so I have this correct. You made a peameal solution and injected it into the Loin? “ground the peameal to fine flour, mixed w/ water to a slightly thickened consistency, then injected it prior to brining”

How did you do that?

[YooperDog]

pkzipper I will agree with raider2119 the ‘Candian Bacon’ I have enjoyed north of the border. It is not a smoked product and has a good taste and texture. The peameal coated loin I have had tastes more like ham than the CB we may be used to. I like the smoked flavor, so I while I coat mine in medium fine coating of cornmeal I don’t consider it peameal bacon. After my loins are cured, I put them in stockings, roll them in a coating and hand them to dry before smoking. After smoking I remove them from the stockings, slice and package. Throughout the post smoking process I lose a bit of the coating, but enough remains to give me my desired results. I don’t rub anything on them for the coatings to stick. If I were to make peameal bacon I would be inclined to use the roasting process. I would go with honey, maple syrup or mustard. Maybe even a mix. Unfortunately no store within 100 miles of me carries yellow peas so I work with what I have. Just sayin’.

[raider2119]

@Jim-Nowak If you have a chinese, middle eastern or indian grocery near you that would be your best bet for yellow peas… we are lucky enough to have a large selection of ethnic stores…

I am not an advocate of using maple syrup, it tends to be too “wet and runny”.

[raider2119]

pkzipper Yes sir, that is correct… make sure it’s liquidy enough to inject, but also as thick as possible…

[johnsbrewhouse]

johnsbrewhouse Put the Canadian Bacon in the smoker today after a short equalization soak in water. This was my first attempt with this recipe, definitely will need less salt and probably need to equalize longer, a tad bit salty but is still good. I sure some of the salt will cook out. Here is a before and two after photos. Enjoy.

[craigrice]

johnsbrewhouse I think that Johnathon soaked his in the video 2 times to take the salt off

[Jonathon]

johnsbrewhouse What craigrice said is correct, we soaked it for 20, put in freshwater and soaked for 20 more. Now that was with an 18% pump so maybe you don’t need that second soak if you are pumping to 10% but you definitely (at least in our opinion) need to soak at least once.

[johnsbrewhouse]

Jonathon Will definitely need a second soak or do what I do with my hams and give them a dunk in a hot water bath for 10-15 minutes prior to smoking, then to the cold water. The salt level is not real high, just high for me. I did a 20 minute cold soak, and this was a 14 day cure as well, so plenty of time for the salt to penetrated everything.

[johnsbrewhouse]

Gave the Canadian Bacon a second hot bath today before I sliced it up and put it to bed. Soaked it for about 20-25 minutes in just under 200 degree water. Much better results now, flavor is still there.

[pkzipper]

Made some Canadian Bacon in two ways, without pea meal and with.
I used the Blue Ribbon Cure and Taste Booster and injected the Lion to 18%. I interpreted that when injecting and then equalising in a 50/50 solution you do not have to rinse after the overnight equalisation, so I didn’t. After the overnight of equalisation I did notice that the Loin was solid as a rock across the whole lion, so to me it was well penetrated with seasoning. Then I took one part of the Lion and gently rubbed it with Maple syrup ( 1-2 TBLS) and coated with Pea Meal.
One note about the Pea that I made myself. I bought yellow split peas and ground them up in a coffee grinder, a food processor did not do the trick.
Followed the above smoke processes to 132.
Results:
As a lean smoked bacon it was excellent. Not to salty but not low sodium either.
As for the pea meal version it tasted the same as the none pea meal. (Go figure!) Inside it looked a bit rarer as I only put the temp probe in the none pea meal piece and perhaps the pea protected it form the heat a bit more.
The peal meal did not add any extra flavour but aesthetically it looked awesome, but not worth the mess unless you were to sell them. Would I do the pea meal version without the smoking? Maybe but not with the pea meal! to much mess for no extra flavour. A none smoked version is just that much quicker to make and the taste will be close. I’ll see in a few months after I go through these two batches!