slooooow smoked loin bacon

Canugghead

Cured a 7-lb boneless loin with Charcuterie basic dry cure (curing salt and dextrose) for 10 days, rinsed and soaked twice about 45 min each time, air dried 2 days in fridge (1 day extra due to poor scheduling).  Smoked with mix of apricot twigs, pecan chips and sugar maple pellets for 4 hours @180 and 2 hours @200 till IT 150, next time I'll just go 200 all the way.  Tastes good cold or fried, lots of bacon for next little while!  Nice complex smoke and the saltiness is just right since we're not big salt fans.

underside fat cap:

Sardonicus

Damn.

=D>

Dawnl

That is some pretty fine lookin bacon!  I'm just about to cook some of my batch up to make a fritata.  Did you baste with anything?

Canugghead

@Sardonicus - thanks, love your sig line!

@Dawnl - thanks, no I didn't baste, just added more twigs/chips/pallets half way. It took way too long, next time it'll be 200F all the way, should come out moister but not sure about the smoke.

tulocay

that looks great.

theyolksonyou

Good looking bacon there friend.

bigphil

Nice cook looks great . have a pork belly curing now never thought of using a loin gonna have to try that 

SGH

It looks awesome brother. Question if I may. How do you like that slicer?

Little Steven

Gary,

I seem to remember a 3 to 5 day cure for loins?

rtt121

Nice work.  How does the loin bacon compare to the belly bacon?

Dawnl

I cooked mine for 5.5 hrs @200.  Turned out awesome.

Little Steven

rtt121 said:

Nice work.  How does the loin bacon compare to the belly bacon?

It's a lot leaner. We are used to what we call back bacon or peameal bacon which is cured and fried. Canadian bacon is cured, smoked and fried.

Canugghead

@tulocay and @theyolksonyou - thanks

Canugghead

@Bigphil - thanks, ya shoulder or loin are easier to find and cheaper, less fat too.

Canugghead

@SGH - good eye my friend! it's real fashioned (antique?) hand cranked, made in Germany. I picked it up from a thrift store for few bucks.  The blade is sharp, sturdy and in good shape.  The fence is also quite straight. Two small problems ... the sliding tray is kind of flimsy and the rubber suction cup feet are hardened, need to get a deep clamp to anchor it on the table.  I'm guessing it must be around 50 years old.   Decided to use this for the first time since I just sent the tray of my big heavy electrical slicer to a friend for a small fix since I don't have a tap n die set.

bigphil

Thanks @Canugghead gonna have to try it my local butcher gets bellies all the time in fact i just ordered a whole belly at $2.89 a pound the other night for bacon guess i'll be doing that and a loin 

SGH

Canugghead said:

@SGH - good eye my friend! it's real fashioned (antique?) hand cranked, made in Germany. I picked it up from a thrift store for few bucks.  The blade is sharp, sturdy and in good shape.  The fence is also quite straight. Two small problems ... the sliding tray is kind of flimsy and the rubber suction cup feet are hardened, need to get a deep clamp to anchor it on the table.  I'm guessing it must be around 50 years old.   Decided to use this for the first time since I just sent the tray of my big heavy electrical slicer to a friend for a small fix since I don't have a tap n die set.

Brother SGH doesn't miss much. He all seeing and all knowing

Canugghead

Little Steven said:

Gary,

I seem to remember a 3 to 5 day cure for loins?

I used dry cure, I believe wet cure for Canadian bacon is shorter.  Charcuterie says 7 days to dry cure belly, I figured I'd go ten since the loin is much thicker than belly.  I also judged by the firmness of the meat day by day.

Canugghead

rtt121 said:

Nice work.  How does the loin bacon compare to the belly bacon?

Thanks. Quite different because it has hardly any fat.  When cold it taste almost like ham, more like bacon after frying. Give it a try, cheaper and healthier too!

SGH

@Canugghead‌- Just kidding above. I am all knowing but not all seeing. Just kidding again. I really like that slicer. I had a hunch as to what it was. I would put it up and preserve it. Might be worth a little something one day. Again great job on the grub.

Canugghead

@Dawnl - good to know, thanks.

Canugghead

@SGH - I've picked up a few small nostalgic stuff over the years.  

Incidentally, earlier this week, I gave away the biggest and oldest piece (see photos) to a good friend because I don't have the skills and energy to restore it, got it from CL few years ago for peanuts.  Found out IBM had connection with Dayton scale way back when.

(excuse the mess!)

SGH

That is awesome. I would have kept that!! I have a saw from the 1890's I will post a pic of. I like old things from a time gone by.