My goal was/is to combat the increase in pork prices by using pork loin for a variety of foods. Pork loin can be used in many different ways, and the effective yield per pound, given limited surface fat, is the best of all pork cuts. Beyond that, pork loin is the meat used to make Canadian Bacon.
My intent relative to the Serious Eats® recipe is to add a pressure steaming step after the pork is cured and smoked. The idea is I want to moisturize and tenderize the pork before frying it. I liken this to making ordinary store bought hams commercially, where brine is injected due to the thickness of the meat, and then the ham is cooked in a steam environment. This accomplishes both curing and cooking while keeping the meat moist throughout.
Note that I have increased the number of days to cure the pork loin from 5 in the Serious Eats® recipe to 10. That guarantees complete penetration of the curing brine to the center of the meat. Also, the standard amount of Prague #1 pink curing powder to use in brine curing is one teaspoon per pound of meat, but the Serious Eats® recipe only called for 1/2 teaspoon per pound of pork. I decided to overrule them on that point.
My first Food Nirvana recipe for making ham from pork loin was/is good, but that recipe lacks the benefit of smoking the pork loin and the benefit of pressure steaming it to make it moist and tender. For that recipe I got smoke flavoring from a liquid smoke product. And, in my opinion, the final ham product was not as moist as I would have liked. But it was fine for thin slicing for making sandwiches. And now? Add in a final step of pressure steaming on high pressure for 15 to 30 minutes and the moistness and tenderness sought will happen. I will change my original ham recipe to add the pressure steaming step as well as the smoking step.
Given the Serious Eats® advice to smoke/cook the pork loin to a low internal temperature of 140°F, which is intentional undercooking of the pork loin, the pressure steaming step should make my steaming change fail to give a good result, by making the Canadian Bacon stringy.
So, we'll see what happens ... for I have two pieces of pork loin that together weigh 4 lbs. One I will process according to the (modified) Serious Eats® recipe and one I will further process with pressure steaming. Doing a comparison will be easy as I will fry some of each and do a taste and texture test.
Ingredients: (12 to 16 servings)
1 gallon of water, divided
1 cup of kosher salt
1 cup of maple syrup (or, one tsp. of concentrated maple flavoring [Mapleine®] plus 1/2 cup of brown sugar)
1/3 cup of light brown sugar
4 teaspoons of pink curing salt (Prague Powder #1, one teaspoon per pound of meat)
4 bay leaves
3 medium cloves of garlic, diced
1 tablespoon of black peppercorns, cracked
1 boneless pork loin, trimmed of excess fat (about 4 pounds), cut in half crosswise
1 to 2 cups of of light smoking wood chips, such as apple or cherry
Directions:
To make the curing brine, combine 1 quart of the water and all of the kosher salt, maple (flavor) syrup, brown sugar, pink curing salt, bay leaves, garlic, and peppercorns in a two gallon pot.
Bring the contents to a boil over high heat, stirring to dissolve the salt and sugar. Boil for 1 minute, then remove the pot from the heat.
Stir in the remaining 3 quarts of water. Refrigerate the pot contents until the curing brine is completely chilled.
Fully submerge pork loin halves in the curing brine and let them sit in the refrigerator for 10 days.
Alternatively, put each loin half into a 10" x 16" vacuum seal bag, pour half of the curing brine into each bag and then vacuum seal the bags. Then put them into the refrigerator for 10 days.
Remove (or cut out) the pork from the curing brine, discard the brine, rinse the pot and place the cured pork loin halves into it. Add enough fresh water to fully submerge the pieces of pork loin. Let it sit for 30 minutes, then remove the pork loin halves from the water and pat them dry with paper towels. That step removes excess salt.
Put one to two cups of apple or cherry wood chips into the smoke tray.
Put a disposable aluminum foil pan on a low smoker shelf. That will capture moisture dripping from the meat during smoking, and help keep the smoker clean.
Pre-heat the smoker to 275°F.
When wood is smoldering and producing smoke, reduce the heat to 225°F.
Place the cured pork loin halves in the smoker on a high shelf and smoke them to an internal temperature of 140°F, using a wireless thermometer inserted into thickest part of the pork loin. This will (maybe) take 2 to 3 hours.
Here is my added step to moisturize/tenderize the smoked pork loin:
Pressure steam the pork loin on high for 15 to 20 minutes, long enough to heat/moisturize it through to the center, then remove it from the steamer.
Let the pork loin cool for 30 minutes, wrapped tightly in aluminum foil to retain all moisture.
Alternatively, put the hot pork loin pieces into vacuum seal bags and vacuum seal them. Then put them into the refrigerator until you are ready to use them.
Cut the Canadian Bacon into 1/4" thick slices and pan fry it in a hot cast iron skillet, coated inside with a small amount of peanut oil or canola oil.
Fry it only on one side for two minutes, using a bacon press to keep the slices flat during frying, then put the slices on a plate in a 150°F warming oven.
Repeat the frying step for the rest of the slices you cut.
You now have a plate full of warm, delicious Canadian Bacon.
Serve it along with other cooked breakfast foods. One excellent choice is to put it on half of a cut, toasted, buttered English muffin, top it with a poached egg, and cover that with hollandaise sauce and a sprinkling of chopped chives. That delight is called Eggs Benedict. Try it.
Enjoy!