Curing and Cooking with Ruhlman & Polcyn's "Charcuterie" (Part 6)

[Magictofu]

My Canadian bacon is ready. I left it in the brine for about 72 hours and smoked it for a bit less than 3 hours.

The result is a bit too salty to my taste and the smoke flavour too pronounced. Then I am more used to unsmoked peameal bacon than what Americans call Canadian Bacon.

It is not the first time I got this very pronounced and a slightly bitter taste after smoking in my Bradley Smoker. I think I smoke things for too long in there... or is this something about this type of smoker?

[Andrew Fenton]

It is not the first time I got this very pronounced and a slightly bitter taste after smoking in my Bradley Smoker. I think I smoke things for too long in there... or is this something about this type of smoker?

Sorry your Canadian bacon was oversalted. I hope I didn't steer you wrong!

I've noticed the same thing with my Bradley. Smoking anything for longer than an hour or so results in a slightly bitter, almost astringent or chemical taste, very different than the mellow smoke flavor I'll get from my outdoor smoker. My wholly unscientific hypothesis is that the sawdust oversaturates the outer parts of the meat but doesn't penetrate the inside. Food that doesn't require prolonged smoking (fish, chicken wings, fruits and vegetables) work fine, though.

It's a shame, because especially in cold weather, it's so much easier to use the Bradley than to bust out the big smoker. Before I moved, and was still living in an apartment with no outdoor space, I used workarounds like smoking a small pork butt for 45 minutes or so, then finishing in the oven: once I'd pulled the meat and mixed it together, the result was fine, if not as good as what you'd get from a bigger smoker. I imagine that for Canadian bacon, a short smoke followed by a visit to Lower Ovenland would work okay.

[Chris Amirault]

Huh. I've never had any astringent or bitter taste from (many, many) Bradley sessions. One thing to note: I replaced the water pan that came with the unit and now fill a larger hotel pan with lots of water to check it. Are your pucks smoldering in the overfull pan?

[jmolinari]

Chris, i think they mean the bradley stovetop smoker

[Andrew Fenton]

Chris, i think they mean the bradley stovetop smoker

I can't speak for Magictofu, but I actually meant the CAMERON stovetop smoker: the cold weather has scrambled my brains. And hey, there are seven letters in each, right?

[jmolinari]

oh yeha... Cameron..sorry:)

[Magictofu]

No, I have a regular electric Bradley Smoker. I also replaced the pan with a larger one.

Do you keep the damper completely open? I only leave a crack to keep some of the heat inside since I have only been using my smoker in the winter so far... yesterday the temperature dropped to -30C (-22F) so I thought closing the damper was the right thing to do.

[Chris Amirault]

Sometimes yes, sometimes no, but I've never had a problem with astringent smoke flavors.

[Magictofu]

I sent an email to the manufacturer about the bitterness I was talking about, they responded almost immediately (impressive!). Here's their answer:

How long do you smoke your meat for? We suggest only smoking for the first half the time it will take to cook your meat. For example, if you are going to cook something for 6 hours, smoke it for the first 3 hours. When the smoke is running, always make sure the vent in the top is at least ¼ way open. When you are finished smoking, you may close the vent. Closing the vent keeps the moisture in. Opening it more will dehydrate your meat (good for making jerky).

Another reason you are getting bitter taste is if the drip bowl isn’t being emptied enough. You should empty the bowl and re-fill it with water every 2-3 hours.

I hope this helps. If you have further questions, please feel free to contact us. Thanks and have a great day!

I never smoked anything for more than 3 hours but I think I'll cut the smoking time on my future experiments, it has the added bonus of saving me some money on bisquettes.

[VDPloeg]

My Canadian bacon is ready. I left it in the brine for about 72 hours and smoked it for a bit less than 3 hours.

The result is a bit too salty to my taste and the smoke flavour too pronounced. Then I am more used to unsmoked peameal bacon than what Americans call Canadian Bacon.

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I'm in Southern Ontario and find the Canadian bacon recipe in Charcuterie to taste nothing like what we call in Canada "back bacon": Charcuterie's version tasted just like ham.

To make back bacon or more accurately smoked pork loin I apply Charcuterie's smoked bacon recipe to a five pound pork loin: turns out exactly like back bacon.

[Magictofu]

VDPloeg, I actually wanted to try the american version of Canadian Bacon knowing very well that this is not what we, Canadian, are used to. I agree with you that the Charcuterie recipe tastes like ham.

However, I can't recall eating "smoked" back bacon here... could it be a variation mostly found in Southern Ontario? Is it different rom peameal bacon?

[golfchef13]

I was going to say something about this. I am a born and raised Canadian boy and never have I had "Canadian bacon" that was smoked. Peameal as I call it is just pickled pork loins rolled in cornmeal.

I have had smoked pork loins but that was called Kassler pork. To me Canadian bacon (peameal) is NOT smoked, but I could be wrong.

[Chris Hennes]

American-Style Brown-Sugar–Glazed Holiday Ham (1st ed., pp.93–94)

Well, I've managed to make a ham without killing myself. As I mentioned up-topic, I could not fit the brining ham in my refrigerator: a quick look at my brining vessel makes the reason obvious:

The outside temperature was generally between 30°F and 50°F, so just a bit on the warm side (my refrigerator is generally in the 35°F to 40°F range). The uncured ham weighed in at 23 lbs: it has a lot of thermal mass, so will not respond quickly to temperature changes. Here it is out of the freezer:

My strategy was to first off, double the amount of brine (Ruhlman calls for one gallon, I made up two). Secondly, I added a couple of ice packs and covered it with plastic wrap:

Finally, 8 hours out of every day, I put it in the chest freezer in my garage (set temp is -5°F). This brought the temperature down to between 20°F and 25°F (still mostly liquid due to the salt). The highest brine temperature I recorded over the ten day curing process was 41°F, or about the temperature of my refrigerator, so I felt pretty good about this strategy (OK, it wasn't great for the freezer, but that freezer is pretty full, I don't thing I had much effect on the stuff in it).

After removing it from the brine it gets a quick rinse:

In then into the refrigerator for 24 hours:

The next morning I put it into the smoker at 200°F:

It smoked for 12 hours: here it is partway through—

After twelve hours it was still about ten degrees too low (around 140°F), so I pulled it out of the smoker and put in the oven, set to 200°F:

About two hours later it finally reached 150°F and I pulled it out:

Overall the ham is very good. I skipped Ruhlman's mustard glaze because I suspected this ham was going to take a lot longer than his to cook, and I didn't want the sugar to burn. This was probably a good call: I actually made the glaze later and brushed it on before reheating, which worked very well. The brine penetration was pretty good, but not perfect; there were still some spots internally that were not quite seasoned enough. My ham was much larger than what Ruhlman quotes as the weight of his: I'm not sure what gives there, since the hog was average sized, so I'm not sure his half-day-per-pound rule of thumb was adequate for this behemoth.

Now I just have to figure out what to do with a 20 lb ham.

[JaneMC]

Chris,

That is one beautiful ham!

Jane

[Mallet]

Out of curiosity, how big was the hog?

[Chris Amirault]

Chris, did you inject brine into the ham at all, and if so with what? Forgive me if you've explained this uptopic.

[dougal]

A mighty achievement Chris!

My question: you pulled it out of the oven when it hit 150F (65C). Did the core rise much while it was 'resting'? With my very much smaller pieces, I've tried to aim for a 65C peak as being 'cooked' without being 'overcooked'.

[Chris Hennes]

I did not inject any brine, I just did a standard "soak-method" brine, estimating at half a day per pound. I actually brined for eleven days for this big hunk, and I think 15 would have been more appropriate (see here for info on the hog). This may have been affected by the temperatures involved, and/or the large temperature swings, but I don't know that for a fact.

I pulled it out at 150°F because that's what the recipe said to do. I let it rest for a half hour before cutting into it, at which time is was 152°F at the core. Considering the size, it was probably not fully rested at that point, but I needed it to cool down faster so I cut it into chunks (it was getting late, I wanted to get it packed up and into the freezer). I don't know how much overshoot I would have gotten if I had let it fully rest, but the oven temp was only 200°F, so probably not too much. No proof of that, of course.

[VDPloeg]

I was going to say something about this. I am a born and raised Canadian boy and never have I had "Canadian bacon" that was smoked. Peameal as I call it is just pickled pork loins rolled in cornmeal.

I have had smoked pork loins but that was called Kassler pork. To me Canadian bacon (peameal) is NOT smoked, but I could be wrong.

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It's all in what you call it and where you are. Kassler is smoked and salted cured pork in German cuisine; Wiki Entry. Back bacon around here is cured and smoked pork loin, Peameal bacon is bined pork loin rolled in cornmeal. I've heard back bacon and peameal bacon referred to as Canadian bacon. Harvey's (a Canadian burger chain) offers "Canadian Back Bacon" as an option on their burgers: you get two slices of smoked pork loin. Of course being in Canada no bacon is referred to as "Canadian"

If you get a chance please try a pork loin in place of belly for the bacon recipe: it's very nice.

[OliverB]

that ham looks gorgeous! I can almost smell it over here :-)

I just cured my first ever pork belly (love my newly discovered Asian supermarket!) with a basic dry cure and some crushed garlic, pepper, juniper berries and a bay leaf. The meat is a bit over 2lb and has to sit in the fridge for 7 or so days now, can't wait to have a taste end of next week! I don't have a smoker (yet) so I might either put it in the oven or in my trusted Weber once it's done curing for some added smoke taste. I'll report back once it's done

I must say, this book is one of my top 10 favorite cookbooks! If there'd be pictures in it I'd probably eat a slice of it~~~

[mkayahara]

I must say, this book is one of my top 10 favorite cookbooks! If there'd be pictures in it I'd probably eat a slice of it~~~

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Yeah, I'm almost certain that's why they left the photos out.

[lancastermike]

I just took delivery of half a hog on Saturday. I have the belly in the fridge and I used the cure from the book. As of this morning there is not much liquid at all in the bag. They say it should give up a lot of liquid. Should I add more cure or am I rushing the issue?

It is lovely to see Chris ham as I am planning to do one as well. And there is no way it will fit in my fridge either so temperature control is a concern of mine as well. I have brined pork butt and turkeys for 18 or so hours and even in the summer I can ice it enough to have no concern. But for the 8 to 10 day I expect this to take that is a concern of mine. As Chris says no way is one gallon of brine going to be enough for my ham.

Chris A. Do you advice injecting brine into the ham? As Chris H. did I was not planning on doing so. Please advice as I do have an injector. It is one big hunk of pork some some injection makes sense. For the soaking brine to do its job deep in that hunk o hog worries me.

I am finally getting around to trying this and don't care to spoil the hog or kill those eating it.

Thanks guys for any input.

[Chris Amirault]

I have never made a ham before so I'm not a good person to ask. However, in my conversations with ham makers they've all said that they inject brine. Damned things are just too big.

[mkayahara]

I just took delivery of half a hog on Saturday. I have the belly in the fridge and I used the cure from the book. As of this morning there is not much liquid at all in the bag. They say it should give up a lot of liquid. Should I add more cure or am I rushing the issue?

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I wouldn't worry about it, Mike. I've never really noticed considerable liquid from the bellies I've cured.

[lancastermike]

. However, in my conversations with ham makers

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Thanks for the help, Chris. and BTW i find that quote to be very funny for some reason. " My Conversation with Ham Makers" would be a great title for a book

Edited February 3, 2009 by lancastermike (log)