Hi Mountain Buckboard Bacon

Thanks to a very gracious member, thirdeye, and his very informative blog is here. He acquired some Hi Mountain Buckboard Bacon cure, and put one box up as a contest. I somehow won, and I received it (with some maple and cherry :-D). Got a 2.25 LB Hatfield tenderloin, halved, Tuesday afternoon and rubbed in some cure, a tablespoon + 1/4 teaspoon per pound, and rubbed the cure in. Fast forward to late Friday night, and I put the cured (more on this later) tenderloin in water to remove some of the salt, per thirdeye's directions on his blog (check them out for Tenderquick or Hi Mountain methods)... next morning I rubbed one part with rosemary and ground black pepper, the other light brown sugar. Six hours later, onto the ECB, which hovered from 240 F to 190 F back up to 215 F down to 165 F.. four chunks of maple... ECBs are a little tricky, but ehhh... a dozen briquettes an hour is really efficent with my new method of ECB modding.


I let them rest for half hour then cut them longways, keeping smaller pieces and scraps for a gumbo/chili. Right now, I admit, it looks nothing like bacon (Canadian bacon isn't our version of bacon), and it doesn't look appetizing, but I bet it'll be good tomorrow.

By the way, Hi Mountain cure is a flavor cure, that is, with my understanding, it doesn't cure the meat but gives it a cured flavor. Thirdeye's blog really helps with detailed instructions. I'll post cooked pics tomorrow,