Makin' bacon...how to do it?

[pictonguy]

I've made Canadian bacon. It's pretty easy. I only made it once, just for fun.

CD

In Canada we call it back bacon and also peameal bacon which originated in Toronto in the late 1800's and was exported to the UK, so yeah that where it got it's name. Back bacon has been around long before peameal, the Toronto version though and the one in the US is probably smoked but still referred to as Canadian bacon, it's confusing.

 

[pictonguy]

I've also used pork shoulder for bacon instead of the loin, more fat more flavor.

 

[grumpyoldman]

got it !!

 

[Chef Odin]

I've also used pork shoulder for bacon instead of the loin, more fat more flavor.

That is buckboard bacon if memory serves. I have made that and back bacon but still prefer belly.

 

[grumpyoldman]

do you vac seal it or just use a zip lock bag ?

 

[grumpyoldman]

is there a way to tell when the pork belly is fully cured ? or do you go strictly by the number of days ?

 

[Chef Odin]

is there a way to tell when the pork belly is fully cured ? or do you go strictly by the number of days ?

Not without a complex analysis. It is better to overcure than under cure as far as timing goes. If you under cure, you will have grey patches in your meat after you smoke/cook it. It helps if you massage the meat daily as well. That will help get cure into the meat. I have cured pork belly for bacon for as little as 9 days up to 14 days. I got great results in both cases.

Chef Odin

 

[Chef Odin]

do you vac seal it or just use a zip lock bag ?

I use a bag roll and cut it to size. I evacuate most of the air out but not all of it.

 

[grumpyoldman]

i think i'm starting to understand the process , i'm getting which meat slicer narrowed down and will soon be ordering it. after that gets here i will find a pork belly and get started on trying to make it

 

[grumpyoldman]

i'm sure what you have told me works , not questioning that a bit , but there is one part of these process that i don't understand and thats how the "cure" can penetrate all the way through a 4-5 inch pork belly

 

[pictonguy]

Basically without getting too technical its from osmosis, google it if you want to find out more. So if the meat is uniformly pink with no grey center and no indication that it's raw then it's fully brined. Not sure If I've ever seen pork belly bacon 4 or 5 inches wide and generally 1-2" is pretty normal. Bottom line is your not eating raw bacon and whether the pork belly isn't totally brined won't matter, it's cooked. If your have doubts about making bacon there's some pretty decent bacon available commercially.

 

[grumpyoldman]

no doubts whatsoever, it was just something that i kinda wondered about
i'm looking forward to doing it

 

[taxlady]

Now I'm curious. I have corned beef. It is very similar to what I'm reading here about curing the pork belly. Do you think one could make beef bacon from a different cut of beef. Looking at charts, it looks like the flank would be the cut of beef that corresponds to pork belly.

 

[pictonguy]

Now I'm curious. I have corned beef. It is very similar to what I'm reading here about curing the pork belly. Do you think one could make beef bacon from a different cut of beef. Looking at charts, it looks like the flank would be the cut of beef that corresponds to pork belly.

Beef plate from the rib section is normally what's used. You need to remove the skirt steaks and the ribs. Anyway, definitely not flank.

 

[Chef Odin]

i'm sure what you have told me works , not questioning that a bit , but there is one part of these process that i don't understand and thats how the "cure" can penetrate all the way through a 4-5 inch pork belly

The osmosis effect causes the salt levels to equalize between the meat and the brine. In this kind of brine, you cannot overcure the meat. It is also known as an equilibrium brine. Once the brine and meat reach equilibrium salt levels, the meat is fully cured.

Now, to make things even more complicated. An equilibrium brine is the easiest to calculate and understand but you can also brine meat using a much stronger brine that can cure meat in a much shorter period of time. For this type of brine, you will need a salinity meter and a brine table. This method is more complicated and pretty much yields the same results.

In both cases, you can inject the brine into the meat to speed up the cure. If you use this method, be careful of cross contamination.

Chef Odin

 

[grumpyoldman]

in the past while i was having back problems , i needed to find a way to smoke sausage without really smoking them . what i found was something called " powdered smoke ' ( yes it really does exist haha ) it is very strong and it worked great so here is my question , could i add that to the cure mixture and be able to "skip" the smoking of the pork belly ? or is that something you would advise against

 

[pictonguy]

Do whatever you want, it's your bacon journey and most commercial bacon does exactly that, use smoke in liquid form or now, powdered smoke. Personally that never crossed my mind.

 

[Chef Odin]

in the past while i was having back problems , i needed to find a way to smoke sausage without really smoking them . what i found was something called " powdered smoke ' ( yes it really does exist haha ) it is very strong and it worked great so here is my question , could i add that to the cure mixture and be able to "skip" the smoking of the pork belly ? or is that something you would advise against

It will work but you pretty much just made store bacon.

Chef Odin

 

[grumpyoldman]

well it all depends on a couple of things if i do it that way or not
(1) if i have something else i'm smoking that day or not ( just a waste of wood if that were the only thing in the smoker )
(2) what my back is feeling like that day ,
i just wondered if it would work in case i needed it to
i just checked sam's club pork bellies and they are $ 4.77 ib not a bad deal , cheaper than buying bacon

 

[pictonguy]

Well if you do eventually make some bacon let us know what you think. Cheers.