Homemade Back Bacon [Canadian Bacon]

4.91 from 20 votes

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!

Prep Time10

Cook Time2

Curing Time5

Total Time5 2 10

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: Canadian

Diet: Gluten Free, Low Lactose

Servings: lbs of Back Bacon

Calories: 862kcal

Author: Marie Porter

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)

Notes

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.

Nutrition