1/7 My Recipe for Peameal Bacon

Two foods I grew up with are pasties and peameal bacon.  Peameal bacon is what is sometimes called “real Canadian bacon,” but nearly all Canadians call it peameal bacon. You can buy it almost anywhere in Ontario and a few other provinces. Note that I posted some of these same photos way back in January, 2016, but did not include a recipe then.   

There are two problems with the name “peameal bacon.”  The first is that it is rolled in yellow corn meal, not peameal as it was originally, and the second is that it is really not bacon!  Real ground meal made of peas is just not very available anymore, and I have no idea why the name included the word “bacon” because it is made of boneless pork loin.  I had heard that it got that name in WWII because the Canadians sent it to the British who had little meat available during and immediately after the war.  This article gives more details:  https://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/great-canadian-cookbook/blog/the-history-of-canadian-peameal-bacon/

 

In any case, the important thing is that peameal bacon is preserved by brining, not by smoking, as other bacon is.  This means you need to cook the brined meat, just as you would any unsmoked or precooked pork product.  It makes wonderful sandwiches or breakfast meat with eggs if you just pan fry it in a little butter.  It can also be roasted, although I have never done that.  The point is that this meat does not resemble the smoked and sliced stuff you can buy in this country that is called “Canadian Bacon.”  (Clarification: You can buy the real peameal bacon in a few specialty stores in cities that border Ontario, like Detroit and Buffalo.)

It took some internet searching for recipes and some experimenting to get a recipe that tasted the way I knew it should.  (Hint: If the recipe tells you to smoke it, forget it!)

The pork loin it is made from is the chunk of meat that the pork chops come from, except without the bone.  Do not cut it up or trim off the layer of fat on one side—it is so lean that it needs this fat!  If you don't find a pork loin in the meat case, ask the butcher.  It should look like this and weigh about 3-4 pounds:  

Next, you need a large plastic container with a lid that will hold the meat in one or two chunks and still fit into your refrigerator.  Because I have a very small refrigerator, I cut the pork loin in two pieces and stuff it in a small, square container that will fit.  

Then you need to get some pink #1 curing salt. This is an absolute requirement and cannot be substituted!  You will probably have to go to a specialty spice store to get the pink salt.  Make sure whoever you buy the pink salt from knows you are using it to cure meat, so you do NOT accidentally get Himalayan pink salt, which is entirely different. You can get it from Cabela’s and butcher supply companies.  Amazon carries this as well:  https://www.amazon.com/Boise-Salt-Co-Prague-Gluten/dp/B07JVHSRK9/ref=sr_1_11_s_it?s=grocery&ie=UTF8&qid=1546908012&sr=1-11&keywords=pink+curing+salt+%231

 

While you are getting the pink salt, you might want to get a brine injector, although in a pinch, you can make do with just sticking holes in the meat with one of those long nails you use to tie up a turkey.  Mine looks like this one from Amazon, although there are nicer stainless steel models:  https://www.amazon.com/Ofargo-Plastic-Marinade-Injector-Download/dp/B078CQ3369/ref=sr_1_cc_4?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1546908399&sr=1-4-catcorr&keywords=brine+injector     

When you have the container, meat, and pink curing salt, gather the following:

• 3 quarts cold water
• 1 cup maple syrup (The real stuff! No substitutes.)
• 3/4 cup kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons Prague powder #1 cure (pink curing salt)
• 2 tablespoons of pickling spices
• 1 tsp garlic powder (optional)
• 1 cup yellow cornmeal

Put the water, maple syrup, kosher salt, pink curing salt, and pickling spices in a pan and bring them to a boil.  Take off the stove and stir to make sure all the salt is dissolved.  Cool and pour all but one cup over the meat in the plastic container.  

Fill the brine injector with some of the reserved brine and inject it into the meat about every inch.  It will drip out, so this is best done in the container or over another container. 

When you are done injecting the meat, dump the remainder of the reserved brine onto the meat in the container. Put the lid on and put the container in the refrigerator.  Let the pork loin sit in the brine for four full days.  Hopefully, the brine will cover the meat entirely, but it is always a good idea to turn the meat every day.  If the meat is floating in the brine and not covered, you could add something heavy, like a clean plate, to weigh it down.  

After four days, take the meat out of the brine and dry it off with paper towels.  Then roll it in the cup of yellow corn meal and let it sit for a couple of hours in the refrigerator.  I use a plastic bag to coat the meat with the corn meal--much less messy. 

At this point, I usually cut off several slices for immediate cooking and then cut the rest of the loin into a couple of chunks and freeze it.  Slices should be about 1/3” thick, no thinner, or it will cook too fast and not be juicy.  

 

Fry in butter at medium heat until the meat is no longer a dark pink.  The photo below shows the dark pink color of the meat before it is cooked.   

Thee next two photos show how it should look when cooked.  I don’t like it overcooked, so I cook it just until done, as shown in the first photo, but others like it a little more cooked, as shown in the second photo.  (The top piece here was really cut too thin. The bottom piece will be a lot more juicy.) 

Some people like to put mustard on it in a sandwich, but I like it plain.  It also goes well with eggs at breakfast, but make sure however you eat it, that you eat it hot from the pan.