Canadian Bacon
Canadian Bacon! I’m a woman on a curing kick and I just can’t help myself. Picked up a pork loin at Roma for $3.99 per pound and mixed up a cure from Ruhlman’s blog.
30 g pink salt
70 g kosher salt
125 g sugar
2 bay leaves
some sage
5 crushed garlics
1/2 lemon
Add the above ingredients to 2 quarts of boiling water. Cook until the sugar & salts have dissolved, then let it cool down for a while.
2 lbs, 2 oz of pork loin. All mine for the curing!
And now the loin is combined with the brine in a Ziploc baggie (freezer, gallon sized).
It gets to sit for a few days to cure, then it gets a trip in the hot smoker. It came out SO awesome!! Smoked it with maple wood chips for a few hours.
I’d say this is the best “value” smoking-wise. It ended up gaining weight from the liquid brine, and didn’t lose much during the smoking. Fattier cuts shed a LOT of weight while smoking, but it seems like hot smoking a leaner cut with a wet brine = way less weight loss.
Inspired I am. Thanks much! Now I know what I'm doing next weekend.
I think you might have caught that curing bug… I just picked up a pork butt at the Farmer's Market. I've got to start scheming. Been too long since something was hanging in the basement.