It’s been about 10 or 12 days since I put the pork butt in the brine and about 6 or 7 days since I put two pork loins in the brine. I had planned to smoke them tomorrow but there’s a chance of rain so this morning Vince got the smoker all set up for me and I got it loaded.
There’s an arm roast and the pork butt on top, the two pork loins which were each cut in half are on the bottom shelf. I will cook the pork to an internal temp of 145 and for the roast, I only want to get a bit of smokey flavor in it. Then I’ll use the sous vide to cook it probably 30 – 36 hours and it should be plenty tender that I can then sear it, slice it thin and use it for sandwiches.
I will slice the pork butt for buckboard bacon and slice the pork loins for Canadian bacon.
Why do I make these instead of buying them?
First and foremost is that I can control what goes into them. We bought a pig from a farmer but, of course, one pig doesn’t give us enough pork butt or enough bacon to have that last very long. I will buy pork butts at Sam’s Club or Aldi when they have them, which doesn’t seem to be often these days. I prefer a boneless pork butt because I do not like removing that crazy shaped bone but Sam’s has pork butts with the bone by the case for $1.88/pound now. Considering the bone, I’m probably paying about $2.00/ per pound for just the meat. Bacon at Sam’s is $4.32/pound for their least expensive bacon, which is what we buy when we buy bacon. I like it better than Aldi’s bacon.
This is Buckboard bacon I made several years ago.
It has less fat – it’s somewhere between looking like ham and tasting like bacon.
Here’s a photo of Canadian bacon I made several years ago.
Of course we use that for pizza but in general, I like it better than plain ham, which sometimes tastes kinda mushy to me, almost squeaks when I bite into it. I use the Canadian bacon in omelets, for breakfast burritos, in pasta dishes, in salads.
Seeing that picture makes me wonder where those Fiesta plates are. I don’t think I’ve seen them since we moved here. At Sam’s Club, Canadian bacon is $6.56/pound. At Sam’s, a pork loin is $2.28/pound. I trim it pretty closely so not all of the meat is used in the Canadian Bacon. I’m going to guess that I cut away about 20% of the meat so I get a nice “filet” looking piece of meat so that would make the it about $2.75 per pound but what I cut away, I use for another meal. I will usually cut that “discard” into chunks and make sweet & sour pork with it.
Yes, there’s work involved with it but not much. The brine is mixed up, and once the meat is in a container with the brine, it’s left alone til I’m ready to smoke it. Then I get it out, rinse it, soak it if I need to remove some of the saltiness, stick it in the smoker, forget about it til it’s done. Then I take it out, put it in an ice bath (if I had a working icemaker!), chill it, slice it, bag it up and freeze it. Not much work at all, considering the savings and I think we’re getting a better quality product.
What are your thoughts?