Pork Loin Ham? Pork Loin Bacon? Same Thing???
 

Hey all. I'm wanting to do a pork loin for Christmas as if it were a ham. Not looking to slice and fry as bacon. Just want to be able to slice it up and serve it as if it were ham.

Will Thirdeye's Buckboard method accomplish this? If anyone knows it would be greatly appreciated.

Or if someone has another method thy want to share that would be great too.

I can't imagine how they are any different, unless you want to add different flavorings to the cure for one as opposed to the other.

If you followed Thirdeye's instructions there is no reason you can't slice it and serve it like ham. The only modification to the instructions I would suggest is to smoke it up to cooked temp, 160 or higher, instead of 140, which requires you to fry it up before eating. I just made loin bacon and brought samples to work. Everyone saw it and assumed it was ham. The flavor is different and it wouldn't technically be ham but there's no reason you can't replace the Honey Baked with a home cured and smoked loin. Cure it, smoke it to 160, then serve and you'll be good. :thumb:

Thanks guys. I'm gonna give it a shot. I guess my only concern was whether or not it would be too salty. After my way too salty smithfield ham from Thanksgiving, I have decided that if I want something done right.....

The loin bacon I just made was not salty at all. Make sure you give the soak out a good 8 hours and you should be fine.

Buickboard Bacon
 

It seems to me that what you are asking is good old buckboard bacon just sliced, not fried. If you do it rinse a few times to get the salt out.

http://www.eggheadforum.com/index.ph...754371&catid=1aht

I think that curing and smoking a pork loin to a fully cooked temp may produce a dry product.

I had just intended to cook it to 145. Thats what I normally do with pork loins. I think FDA lowered the recommended doneness temp for pork to 140* for 10 minutes. Not 100% sure on that but I think thats it.

I'm thinking if you brine/cure it, it will be more like ham & if you dry cure it, it will more resemble Canadian bacon. Just be sure to season/spice your ham brine with popular ham flavors such as cloves, black pepper, bay leaves etc. then add your own touch. That should give you the "ham" flavors you are looking for or "expecting". Also I think if you pull the loin at 150-155, you should have no problem with dryness as long as its smoked evenly. JMHO. I was actually thinking of doing the same thing myself.

Cheers

I have found that when I do my loins I always inject them to get a more even pink cure. When I dry cured them it took much longer and didn't always get totally through to the center.
I'm not really sure, what is the difference between "Canadian bacon" and "Ham"? Can anyone enlighten me?

I agree. I know I said 160* before, but I honestly have no idea what I was thinking. I never cook loins past 145* tops. Brain fart, I guess. :doh:

Canadian bacon is cured loin, while ham is from the leg. Colloquially, any cured pork may be called ham.

If you do it with a Buckboard Bacon cure, it will be a dry cure and it will be more intense in flavour and will slice more like a harder bacon than "ham" because of the lower water content.

If you do a brine instead of a dry cure, like you would do for a leg of pork, to turn into a "ham" then you would get it to be closer to what you really intend.

I know this sounds a bit confusing because of the terminology. Ham and Bacon do have some interchangeability, but to me, if you want to turn a pork butt into ham, you brine it. If you want to make it into bacon, you dry cure it. I could be wrong....

I think you just convinced me to do a brine cure.

I thought that "bacon" is typically made from the belly of the pig, If you ask a Canadian they don't have a clue what "Canadian Bacon" is. they would call it "back bacon"
as someone has said earlier, ham is cured from the leg, ok. So then anything else on the pig would be cured with a ham-like taste/texture?
I'm just trying to define what things are here, and I'm just going on what I have found out here and in other places. Am I close?
:pray: