Leslie Bartosh, CEC, AAC, FMP

  Ahh.   Canadian Bacon!   When it comes to eating high off the hog, this is one of my favorites! What is not to like?   Lean pork loin cured and smoked.   Think about very lean, smoked ham!   This is a longish post.   But there is a lot of good information in it.   I urge you to take the time to read it through.   If you are only used to seeing Canadian Bacon in the meat section of your grocery store this is probably what you have seen.   This type of Canadian bacon is widely used in restaurants and hotels as a part of the classic dish Eggs Benedict.   It is made from chunks of pork loin that are packed into a synthetic casing (think red plastic), the cure is injected, and it is cooked.   It is typically perfectly round.   It may or may not be smoked.   I like the smokiness, so I smoke mine.   But “real” Canadian Bacon can be made from whole pork loin muscle that has been trimmed of all fat.   It is not perfectly round.  

  Curing:   EQ Curing When I started this blog, I referenced EQ curing in my first post.   Many of you may not know what EQ curing means.   EQ curing stands for Equilibrium curing.   EQ curing is used to cure meats.   It is based on the ideas that we can control the salt/sodium level in a cured meat product and the fact that salt is one of the few items that can penetrate the interior of a flesh-based protein item.   We control the amount of salt in the item by calculating the amount of all cure ingredients, based on the weight of the meat.   Ham, and bacon, are two examples of cured meat items that this type of curing is applicable too.   So why cure meats?   In the beginning, curing was done to extend the shelf life of meat items.   In essence to keep it safe for consumption.   Mechanical refrigeration was not widespread until the 1920’s.   Prior to this, we kept food safe through the use of cellars, ice and snow.   And in the early frontier days, in the USA, houses were buil