I tried my hand at making homemade Canadian bacon! Yes! It came out brilliantly! It’s the perfect recipe if you want to get into curing and don’t want a huge time commitment or if you just want the best damned Canadian bacon on the planet!
Bold statement, but true. At least I think so.
When I told my wife I wanted to make some homemade Canadian bacon, I saw her soul die a little bit. She hates Canadian bacon. But I finally convinced her to give up a little bit of room in the fridge for a few days to make it happen.
It didn’t take long, it was really easy and it was just a short smoke at the end. Let me tell ya, when I sliced that baby up it blew my mind. It was unlike any processed, nasty Canadian bacon I’ve ever had. My wife tried it and I saw her soul come back and might have even fluffed up a little bit!
We ate on this a bit for breakfast but we sliced the bulk of it, vacuum sealed it into servings for two and froze them. We thought man, we have enough Canadian bacon here to last a good while….um, WRONG! It was gone before we knew it.
I mean we ate every bit of it – for breakfast, in collard greens, on pizza, in soup, on sandwiches. It’s a work horse, I’ll tell ya.
So, don’t be afraid, cure that meat! Seriously, this is a great beginner curing recipe. You don’t need any special equipment, except for a vessel large enough to hold the loin and the liquid and Insta Cure #1, and it doesn’t take too much time.
Homemade Canadian Bacon
Ingredients
- 5 pound pork loin, cut in half if you need to fit it in vessel
- 1 gallon filtered or distilled water
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 cup white sugar
- 3/4 cup kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon Insta Cure #1 (Prague Powder)
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 tablespoon onion powder
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup
Instructions
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Mix all ingredients together in a small pot, except the pork loin, over medium low heat until dissolved.
Once it's dissolved, let it cool a bit. Use your meat injector and inject the brine about every 1 inch or so, from the top, about halfway down.
Place the meat in the brine, and top with a saucer to keep it from floating up out of the brine.
Brine in your fridge for 12-14 days.
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After 12-14 days, you'll want to test the salt level: Remove the loin and slice of a piece and fry it up. If it's too salty, soak it in filtered water for a few hours. Test it again. With the mixture above, it was perfect without soaking, but you should test it to be on the safe side.
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If you like what you taste, it's time to smoke it. Fire up your smoker, however you do your smoker, and smoke the loin at 225° for about 1.5 hours, or until the internal temperature reaches 145°. Remove from the heat.
That's it! Enjoy!
Want to see how it’s done? 👇
What are your thoughts on this working with pork tenderloin cut? Thanks!
Gave your recipe a try, After 14 days the brine is very cloudy brown , not sure if it smells right. Meat is still soft, not stiff and looks still raw. This is Nov. 30, 2023. does not smell like bacon at all. May be the onion garlic in the mixture? What say Ye?
If it’s a question if it smells it probably does. Your nose will never steer you wrong.
What is the cure #1 (Prague powder) and where can we buy it??
To do 80lbs at once do I just increase all the recipe ingredients including the water? Or can we make the brine using less water and more salts with us rotating the meat around in the brine twice daily. Will everything brine correctly before smoking
Man, I’m gonna be honest…I don’t have experience with that amount of meat and brine.
If I have a 2.5 pound pork loin could or do I reduce the brine by half?
After smoking meat and reaching an internal temp of 145 degrees will you be able to eat the meat right from that state or will it require additional cooking, like frying, before eating?
Thank you.
No ma’am, since it’s cured, you can eat it just like that when you pull it from the smoker. I do like to fry my in a skillet before eating, but not necessary.
On a 4 – 5 lb loin cold smoke it at temperatures below 70 degrees for 20 – 24 hours. 12 hours one day, put it in the refrigerator overnight, smoke again for 12 hours, put in refrigerator overnight. Then sous vide it for 3 hours and 45 minutes at a temp of 142 degrees. Don’t worry about bacteria because the prague powder #1 will kill it, plus cooking it in a sous vide will eliminate any bacteria.
Your recipe is for a 5 lb pork loin, if the loin is say 8 to 10 lbs do you increase the ingredients accordingly?
It depends on if you can submerge your loin. There is a lot of brine, I think one batch of brine may be enough, but if you put your loin in there and it’s not fully covered, then you will want to make another batch of brine – but test it first to see if you have enough with one batch.
Your recipe calls for 225 degree smoking, but in your video you did 325 degrees. Did you decide 325 wasn’t required? Also, I’ve not mastered smoking but will meat stall at the lower temperatures? I thought it stalled at a higher temperature, but maybe that’s just for beef. Looks good!
ETA, beef like brisket. I’ve been watching some beef brisket smoking videos.
Not necessarily. The smoking temperature doesn’t really matter all that much. In the video, the smoker I was using runs hot. My other smokers can get low. You want to cook it to the correct internal temperature, so the only real difference the temperature makes is how long the meat will be in the smoker. You can smoke it at 200 if you want and can get your smoker that low, and it’ll have a big smoke flavor from staying in smoke for so long. I’ve done at the 220-ish mark and more in the 300-ish mark and they’re both crazy delicious.
In regards to the stall, I’ve had every kind of meat stall on me. Sometimes I can power right through it, sometimes it takes a bit and honestly, I have never paid attention to when the stall comes for different types of meat.
Thanks for the reply. I’m very new to smoking and from what I’ve seen brisket stalls at about 170 – 175 degrees, so that’s why I asked. I thought maybe pork was different because you only raised the temp to 145 so it never got near the stall stage. I’m just learning.
By the way, I’ve always loved your beard but it is getting even more impressive.