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[hughver]

I picked up two 5+ Lb. pork loins and two pork tenderloins. After I cure them, I'm going to give Canadian bacon a shot. This will be my first cook with the new Smoke Daddy heat shield. I have several recipes for cure from the old site. Some use Pink Cure 1 and some use Morton's Tender Quick. Additionally, some use dry brine and some use wet and the cure time varies widely. I've read BigDave's post here and will use it for guidance but if anyone else has suggestions they would be greatly appreciated.

[urnmor]

Curing meat is not something I do however I am an advocate of dry brining meats.  I find it works very well is easy to apply and is not as messy or as wasteful as wet brining

[Bar-B-Lew]

Be sure to share pics with us.  I am interested to see how you utilize the pork purchase.

[Bentley]

I think dry curing is easier then wet (less space & mess), but they both work well.  And the only real difference between Cure#1 and TQ is strength!

[Bar-B-Lew]

And the only real difference between Cure#1 and TQ is strength!

Can you elaborate on that?  What do you mean by strength?  Changes flavor?  Keeps meat from getting moldy for a longer period of time? Other?

[Bentley]

Cure#1 has 6.25% sodium nitrate.  TQ has .5% sodium nitrate.   TQ is primarily salt, so you need about 12 times as much to do the same job.  But it works pretty much the same.  For those that like to control the salt in the meat, the Cure#1 is sometimes a better choice.

[hughver]

After more research I've decided on pink1 cure and kosher salt. But I had thought about using maple syrup in a wet brine, I wonder if maple sugar in place of brown sugar in a dry brine would yield the same result.

[Bentley]

I would think so.

[BigDave83]

yes it should work. You may want to play with your percentages to get the flavor you want. That is the nice thing with percentages of meat weight vs volume measures.

[hughver]

OK, I did it. Dry cure with .02% pink1 cure, 2% kosher salt, 1% maple sugar. After complete trim, I cut the larger loin into two 2.3 lb. pieces, applied cure and vacuum packed. I also took the larger tenderloin package (two 1.2 lb. tenderloins) and did the same thing. I'll turn daily and smoke next Friday.

[BigDave83]

You are on your way to something good.

[Bentley]

Just incase you don't have.

Handy Universal Cure Calculator

[hughver]

Thanks Benley, I did not have it.

[hughver]

Tomorrow I will smoke cured  pork, any recommendations as to what type of wood should I put in the smoke Daddy heat shield? I have Hickory, Apple, and Cherry chunks.

[Kristin Meredith]

A mixture of all 3 sounds good with pork.