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[Mcjagger]

This was my first attempt at making regular bacon and Canadian bacon.  I would first of all like to thank everyone on this and other forums for all their post and answers to a newbies questions, without all of your post and answers I would never have attempted this. I purchased i whole pork loin from Sams club, trimmed it and cut it into 4 pieces so that it would fit into my brining bucket.  I followed "Pop's wet brine recipe," which can be found online, as closely as I could.  I also bought 2 skinned pork bellies from Sams club as well.  Using one of the online dry brine calculators, I was aiming for 160 ppm, 2.25% salt and 1.25% sugar.  On one belly I used brown sugar and on the other I used Maple sugar and used my food saver vacuum sealer and into the fridge the all went for 13 days.
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After day 13 I took the loins and bellies out and test fried up a few pieces.  I could have ate the Canadian bacon as is but decided to smoke it as that was my original plan.  Both the bellies and Canadian bacon were awesome with just the right amount of salt for my liking.
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I then put them back in the fridge for 24 hours to form the pellicle.  Next time I think I will leave them in the fridge for at least 48-36 hours to form a better pellicle as I think that would help with them taking on more of a smoke flavor.  Never the less, into the Masterbuilt electric smoker with cold smoker attachment, with a hickory and cherry pellet blend they all went for a 10 hour cold smoke, them back in the fridge overnight before going on the Memphis wood fire grill at 180' for about 3.5 hours until they hit an internal temperature of 145".
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After they came off the Memphis I let them cool, vacuum sealed and back into the fridge for a few days.  Then the final taste test....que the heavenly music, both kinds, in my humble opinion, were just awesome.  All in all not bad for my first attempt if I do say so myself !!
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I look forward to hearing any comments or suggestions for my next attempt.

[pmillen]

Looks and sounds like three home runs.

You wrote, "Not bad."  Were they better than commercial store-bought?  I would wager that they were.

[Mcjagger]

I'll never ever ever ever buy store bought again !!!!!   

[cookingjnj]

Great post Mc, and thanks for sharing your process.  Final picture looks awesome, can almost taste the goodness right from the pic.  Great job!

[hughver]

I'm going to start the dry cure of a Costco pork belly this morning and am considering doing half with maple sugar, did you get a distinctive maple flavor from the sugar? I've wet cured with maple syrup and the maple flavor was very pronounced.

[Mcjagger]

Not as much maple flavor as I would have thought. Next time I’ll bump up the percent of maple sugar or maybe add some pure maple syrup.

[hughver]

Thanks for the response, I used 1.5% sugar. I like your idea of pouring in a bit of syrup, I'm going to wait a few days and then unseal the bag and give it a shot.

[Canadian John]

 It does look good!

[Bentley]

To much sugar in the product might make it susceptible to burning when cooked.

[yorkdude]

To much sugar in the product might make it susceptible to burning when cooked.

The few times we have added sugar or maple syrup, that is exactly what we ended up with.
For us though we have always much preferred non sweet bacon, I did a fair amount for some friends and a little for us.
It was good otherwise though.

[Saddleman]

Your bacon looks very good.