Hot Smoked Loin Bacon

Canugghead

Time to replenish my bacon supply -
Cured two pork loins for seven days with Ruhlman basic dry cure + bay leaves, garlic cloves and black pepper; rinsed and soaked couple of hours with two water changes to reduce saltiness; rested one day in fridge for pellicle before smoking with pecan and hickory chunks.

Just came off the XL after 7 hours at 185-200F, IT 150'ish. To be rested in fridge overnight and sliced/packed tomorrow. Sample tasted good as usual, not overly salty even when eaten 'naked' ... 

bgebrent

Bellies?  Or loins?

Canugghead

Loins.  Will post sliced pix tomorrow.

bgebrent

Noice!

JacksDad

Looks great! Do you have a sliced pic? I've made belly bacon, which is really fatty obviously, and shoulder bacon, which had some fat in it, but loin bacon should be just about all muscle, right? 

Canugghead

@JacksDad I plan to slice tomorrow.  I usually use loins for bacon, you get a mix of all muscle (lean) and some fat layers, will find out tomorrow. This batch has more fat layer outside that I didn't trim off, they were smoked fat down most of the time, flipped near the end when I cranked up temp to 200.

caliking

That looks good already

paqman

JacksDad said:

Looks great! Do you have a sliced pic? I've made belly bacon, which is really fatty obviously, and shoulder bacon, which had some fat in it, but loin bacon should be just about all muscle, right? 

@JacksDad That's what we call Canadian bacon.  Around here, it is often coated with cornmeal and sold raw (not smoked/cooked at all), we call it peameal.

Canugghead

@JacksDad  Just hand sliced some for Banh Mi, picked a nice end with decent fat ratio. Other parts may be more or all lean. Since it was hot smoked to 150+, great as cold cut too without frying. 

 Firming up all of the rest in freezer for easier slicing later.

JacksDad

Canugghead said:

@JacksDad  Just hand sliced some for Banh Mi, picked a nice end with decent fat ratio. Other parts may be more or all lean. Since it was hot smoked to 150+, great as cold cut too without frying. 

 Firming up all of the rest in freezer for easier slicing later.

Wow! That looks beautiful! Thanks! 

I think most loins I see around here have much less fat in them, but I will look around...

Canugghead

All sliced up.  Got lucky this time, both loins have good fat ratio. 
@paqman Peameal bacon is totally void of fat AFAIK, not sure which part of pig that comes from!

WeberWho

That looks wonderful! 

Photo Egg

Canugghead said:

All sliced up.  Got lucky this time, both loins have good fat ratio. 
@paqman Peameal bacon is totally void of fat AFAIK, not sure which part of pig that comes from!

That does look great. I have never found a loin with that much fat. Perfect.