You might know that "Canadian Bacon" sold in the USA is a light approximation of actual Canadian back bacon... but did you know the real thing is easy to make, and SO much tastier than what you can buy there? Here, I show you how!
It’s been a few years since I’ve moved home after 12 years in the United States.
Barely a day goes by where I don’t feel utterly spoiled by living in the GTA, whether it’s the amazing food, radio that actually plays the music I love, great customer service, or just.... the CBC.
Life really is better with having easy access to CBC comedies, I’m just saying.
While I was living in the USA, I was shocked by some of the wild differences in - what I considered to be - pretty basic foods.
Bizarre interpretations of poutine, tomatoes with no flavour whatsoever... the “Indurrito” incident... eggs not frying up the same way, etc.
The "Canadian Bacon" Confusion
The bacon thing came up again recently, so I figured it was time to write a post specifically about our bacon. I address it a bit in my Peameal Bacon post, but it really deserves its own, IMHO.
Anyway, the first time I went looking for it in a (Minneapolis) local store, I was in for a rude awakening.
No one had any idea what it was! When one clerk realized what kind of bacon I was asking for, they said “OH! Canadian Bacon!”, and proudly led me to... ham.
Folks, this was not anything resembling any kind of proper bacon I’ve ever seen, much less even an approximation of the good stuff from back home!
They were little formed rounds of a processed ham product, and looked like mini black forest ham slices, maybe just thicker?
Nothing at all like the real thing!
Real "Canadian Bacon" is sliced from smoked, cured pork loins. Thick slices, brown it up in a frying pan with a little oil and some eggs - it’s the perfect Sunday morning breakfast!
This... was not that.
Anyway, let’s take a closer look at this bacon, “Canadian bacon”, and just different styles of bacon in general... then, on to my back bacon recipe!
Types of Bacon
If you ask random people what real bacon is, the answer is going to vary wildly based on which parts of the world they’re from.
Same goes for asking which is the best bacon, btw!
Anyway, the biggest distinguishing feature between the various types of bacon is the cut of meat that it’s made from, though there are also differences in the curing and cooking.
American Bacon
This is what most people in North America think of as “bacon” (when no modifier is present).
This is the regular style of bacon sold in grocery stores here, streaky bacon strips made from curing pork belly. You know. Regular bacon, bacon rashers.
”Canadian Bacon”
In the USA, a very rough, vague approximation of our pork loin bacon is sold as “Canadian Bacon” - but it tends to lack flavour, and is more like basic ham than anything.
I suppose technically ours is “just ham” as well, but it definitely has a different flavour and texture profile than what I would consider “just ham”.
“Canadian Bacon” looks like formed, processed ham, rather than anything identifiable as an actual pork loin, and it doesn’t have much flavour.
Does American “Canadian bacon” just not flavour the brine?
Is it just that the meat they start with isn’t as good? I don’t know.
Anyway, while it’s sold in stores along with other breakfast-style meats, you’re most likely to see “Canadian bacon” on pizza.
Fun fact, on that note: The meat isn’t the only thing Canadian about “Hawaiian” pizza - the pizza itself was invented by a Canadian!
Back Bacon
The legit stuff is made from a chunk of boneless pork loin that’s been cured in a flavourful brine for at least a few days before being smoked.
It’s great bacon: it has a lot of flavour, and is a nice, meaty bacon with very little fat.
Says my husband (who recently passed his Canadian citizenship test, I might add!): "It has a better texture than the stuff I've had - firm but not stringy or chewy. Much better flavor, more character. I definitely see a big difference, and I'm not going back".
It’s closely related to peameal bacon, which starts out the same way - pork loin being cured in a brine - but then it’s rolled yellow cornmeal, sliced up, and fried.
(Traditionally, it was coated in dried yellow peas. Cornmeal is a lot easier on the teeth!)
Depending on where you live in Canada, peameal bacon can be a LOT more popular than "Canadian Bacon" - here in the Greater Toronto Area, for instance.
Anyway, this can be served as-is, though it’s usually reheated in some form: fried as part of breakfast or in a sandwich, or thinly sliced and used to make pizza.
I promise you, making a pizza with this - the real deal - will wreck you for all other “Canadian bacon” pizzas.
I make my own spicy version of Hawaiian pizza - this bacon, pineapple, thinly sliced jalapenos, and a drizzle of Sriracha.. spectacular!
Anyway...
British Bacon
British style bacon is kind of a combination of American and Canadian Bacon - it’s a cured loin with part of the pork belly still attached.
So, picture a slice of our bacon, but with a second of the pork belly extending out from one of the shorter ends.
Also, where our "Canadian Bacon" tends to have a lot of the fat trimmed off, English bacon tends to leave that mostly intact - probably to help support the pork belly extension.
Either way, in Great Britain it’s commonly included as part of a full English Breakfast, and used in bacon butties - a bacon based sandwich with HP Sauce.
Irish Bacon
Irish Bacon is sort of like British Bacon and Canadian Style Bacon, but may or may not be cured. Smoking is also optional.
Ingredients
These are the food items you’ll need to make a small batch - about 4 lbs - of bacon.
Boneless pork loin or pork tenderloin.
Prague powder #1 cure (Salt and sodium nitrite)
Garlic cloves, pressed
1 Lemon
How to Make Canadian Bacon
The full recipe is in the recipe card at the end of the post, this is the pictorial walk through with more tips.
Cut pork loin into 2 approximately equal-sized chunks (crosswise, NOT lengthwise!).
Trim most of the visible fat, if you’d like. Some people don’t bother, but I don’t like the extra fat on mine.
Wrap and chill until ready to use.
Measure 4 cups of water into a large pot, add remaining ingredients, aside from pork and rest of water.
Bring to a boil over medium heat, then reduce heat to low, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add remaining water, stir to combine.
Allow to cool to room temperature.
Place one chunk of pork loin in each of 2 gallon sized freezer bags.
Note: I like to manually divide the lemon wedges and bay leaves equally between the two bags before pouring half of the brine into each bag.
Push out most of the air, seal the bags, and put them in the fridge – I put both bags into a 9 x 12 cake pan, just in case of leakage, etc.
Allow the pork to brine for 5 whole days, turning once daily to ensure the pork loins are completely submerged.
After 5 days, discard brine, and rinse pork loins with cold water. Use a few pieces of paper towel to pat dry.
Hot smoke with your choice of wood chips until it reaches an internal temperature of 145-150 F. (62.5 - 65.5 C)
Note: The nutritional information provided is for the entire batch, and... isn’t quite accurate.
The recipe software calculates nutritional information based on the ingredients listed, and has no way of even estimating how much of, say, the maple syrup is actually absorbed by the meat while marinating.
As such, it WILDLY overestimates the amount of added sugar from the maple syrup.
How to Serve "Canadian Bacon"
SO, after all of my smack talk about American “Canadian bacon” on pizza... my favourite way to serve this IS on pizza.
Sure, you can fry it up and serve it as a breakfast bacon - same as any other bacon - or in a sandwich (fried or not - it’s fully cooked, so you can serve it cold!)... but IMHO, pizza is where it really shines.
And yes, that includes on “Hawaiian” pizza... which is actually a Canadian invention!
Sometimes I’ll use candied jalapenos... augh so good!
Anyway, if you’re looking to use it as a breakfast food, it also makes the BEST eggs benedict.
More Canadian Comfort Food!
Whether you’re a Canadian in the US or not, we could all use some comfort food these days. Here are some Canadian Favourites!
Beep
Canadian Popcorn Seasoning Recipes
Clodhoppers
Confetti Bars
Dill Pickle Dip
Elk Bourguignon
French Canadian Pea Soup
Homemade Deep N Delicious Cake
Homemade Wunderbars
Maple Butter Tarts
Montreal Bagels
Peameal Bacon
Persians Recipe
Poutine, My Way!
Puffed Wheat Squares
Replica Swiss Chalet Sauce
Tiger Tail Ice Cream
Looking for even more Canadian recipes? Check out our full Canadian Recipes list!
Canadian Cookbook
This recipe is one of many fantastic Canadian recipes in my cookbook, "More Than Poutine: Favourite Foods from my Home and Native Land”.
"More than Poutine" is a Canadian cookbook like no other - written by a Canadian living away, it includes both traditional home cooking recipes, as well as accurate homemade versions of many of the snacks, sauces, convenience foods, and other food items that are hard to come by outside of Canada!
Order your copy through Amazon, or through any major bookseller!
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Homemade Back Bacon [Canadian Bacon]
Equipment
- 1 Large pot
- 2 Large Freezer Bags
- Smoker or Grill
Ingredients
- 1 Pork loin about 4 lbs
- 12 cup Cold water divided
- 1 cup Maple syrup
- ½ cup Pickling salt
- 2 tablespoon Mustard seeds
- 2 teaspoon Black peppercorns
- 2 teaspoon Prague powder #1 cure
- 4 Garlic cloves pressed
- 3 Whole cloves
- 2 Bay leaves
- 1 Lemon sliced into wedges
Instructions
- Cut pork loin into 2 approximately equal sized chunks (crosswise, NOT lengthwise!).
- Trim most of the visible fat, if you’d like. Some people don’t bother, but I don’t like the extra fat on mine.
- Wrap and chill until ready to use.
- Measure 4 cups of water into a large pot, add remaining ingredients, aside from pork and rest of water.
- Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, add remaining water, stir to combine.
- Allow to cool to room temperature.
- Place one chunk of pork loin in each of 2 gallon sized freezer bags.
- I like to manually divide the lemon wedges and bay leaves equally between the two bags before pouring
- half of the brine into each bag.
- Push out most of the air, seal the bags, and put them in the fridge – I put both bags into a 9 x 12 cake pan, just in case of leakage, etc.
- Allow the pork to brine for 5 whole days, turning once daily to ensure the pork loins are completely submerged.
- After 5 days, discard brine, and rinse pork loins with cold water. Use paper towels to pat dry.
- Hot smoke with your choice of wood chips until it reaches an internal temperature of 145-150 F. (62.5 - 65.5 C)
nancy
thanks for clarify what Canadian Bacon is. didn't know it was such a discussion ha
Bernice
I missed a lot of things when we lived in Australia but the CBC was not one of them lol. Fortunately, the Aussies have amazing bacon and I grew to love it as it is very similar to British 'rashers' as they are called. They also sold Canadian bacon and I could buy chopped bacon bits to fry later to add to dishes. I could go on...
Anyway, we have done our own pork belly bacon but I've never thought to give the old Canadian bacon a try. I have a giant container of that Prague powder so I may as well use it.
Colleen
I learned a lot about bacon from this post! As a Canadian, I've only ever had the "American" bacon on visits to the USA, never Canadian bacon, but it sounds like we're pretty spoiled on the bacon front. I'm definately excited to give this one a try.
Kristen
Who knew Canadian bacon was so interesting, haha!
I would love to try this, but I don't have a smoker, I wonder if I could somehow do this over the BBQ. It sounds incredible.
Marie
How many times did I hear about the war of bacon between USA and Canada. Strangely in the Quebec we use mostly the American type but I'm so glad I can try out the proper "Canadian bacon" now. Especially for brunch season, it's gonna be a must at the table this holiday season. Thanks for sharing all the info!
Al Harris
Great Canadian bacon recipe! I’ve tried several recipes curing the pork loin with dry ingredients and they are no match for this brining process. Smoked it to temp in a charcoal smoker with apple wood chunks for a couple hours, wrapped it in plastic food wrap, stuck it in the fridge for a couple days, then fried some up. Absolutely fabulous! Great smokey flavor and tender!
Marie Porter
Glad you enjoyed it!
Jay
Most Prague #1 powders recommend using one teaspoon per five pounds of meat. Are two teaspoons necessary for this recipe?
Marie Porter
Feel free to try it with less!
Jay
Thanks. I’m starting it today, will smoke on Friday. I’ll post the results after I’ve tried it.
Myrna Braitenbach
How was it? Very interested. Thanks!
Cindy
This was my first attempt at curing and smoking meat and I’m hooked! The recipe was easy and the results are fabulous. I will never buy Canadian bacon again. I never knew it was so easy. Thank you for a great recipe.
Marie Porter
Glad you enjoyed it!