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

Q-Dat

Q-Dat

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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.....
 
DADGUMMIT! said:
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.....
Click to expand...

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.
 
I think that curing and smoking a pork loin to a fully cooked temp may produce a dry product.
 
bluetang said:
I think that curing and smoking a pork loin to a fully cooked temp may produce a dry product.
Click to expand...

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?
 
DADGUMMIT! said:
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.
Click to expand...


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:
 
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....
 
SmokinAussie said:
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....
Click to expand...

I think you just convinced me to do a brine cure.
 
SmokinAussie said:
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....
Click to expand...

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:
 
OK, Here's what I've worked out over the last 12 months of study, mainly from this forum, but also through other media and enthusiast sites...

The term "ham" can mean a raw cut of pork leg, and it can also mean "any" part of the delicious pig that has recieved a wet cure and has been turned into "ham" via brining and smoking, either cold smoke or hot smoke.

As a result, there is picnic ham, or shoulder ham, taken from the shoulder of the pig, as well as lot of other varieties of ham, the world over that are made from the loin or the neck (butt) etc.

Bacon in the USA is typically only made from the belly in commerical form.. like Hormel and Oscar Mayer Bacon etc... (Which I used to buy in Hong Kong when I lived there). Buckboard bacon is made from the pork neck (or butt) with a dry cure.

"Bacon" comes in a wide variety of interpretations in other places in the world. I've made bacon like this:

DSC_0202_133.jpg


We call this "middle" bacon and we call belly bacon "streaky" bacon.

English and Europeans have a multitude of other interpretations made from various cuts where the distinction between whether it is a ham or a bacon can be pretty blurry: Take your classic italian prosciutto. It's salt packed and air dried for months... stronger than a bacon by many orders of magnitude, yet is still considered a "ham"... because it comes from the leg... the ham cut.

Canadian bacon goes the other way. It's more like a ham because it's brined, not dry cured. The pork loin is the cut from the "back" or top of the pig (where the term "eating high on the hog" comes from. Canadians call it "back bacon", and because Canadians do it, Americans call it "Canadian Bacon".. its proper terminology is more like a "loin ham".... and in Europe there are a lot of commercial hams made just this way...

Clear as mud??? Oh... yeah, I better add... I could be wrong though...
 
SmokinAussie said:
OK, Here's what I've worked out over the last 12 months of study, mainly from this forum, but also through other media and enthusiast sites...

The term "ham" can mean a raw cut of pork leg, and it can also mean "any" part of the delicious pig that has recieved a wet cure and has been turned into "ham" via brining and smoking, either cold smoke or hot smoke.

As a result, there is picnic ham, or shoulder ham, taken from the shoulder of the pig, as well as lot of other varieties of ham, the world over that are made from the loin or the neck (butt) etc.

Bacon in the USA is typically only made from the belly in commerical form.. like Hormel and Oscar Mayer Bacon etc... (Which I used to buy in Hong Kong when I lived there). Buckboard bacon is made from the pork neck (or butt) with a dry cure.

"Bacon" comes in a wide variety of interpretations in other places in the world. I've made bacon like this:

DSC_0202_133.jpg


We call this "middle" bacon and we call belly bacon "streaky" bacon.

English and Europeans have a multitude of other interpretations made from various cuts where the distinction between whether it is a ham or a bacon can be pretty blurry: Take your classic italian prosciutto. It's salt packed and air dried for months... stronger than a bacon by many orders of magnitude, yet is still considered a "ham"... because it comes from the leg... the ham cut.

Canadian bacon goes the other way. It's more like a ham because it's brined, not dry cured. The pork loin is the cut from the "back" or top of the pig (where the term "eating high on the hog" comes from. Canadians call it "back bacon", and because Canadians do it, Americans call it "Canadian Bacon".. its proper terminology is more like a "loin ham".... and in Europe there are a lot of commercial hams made just this way...

Clear as mud??? Oh... yeah, I better add... I could be wrong though...
Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to share all of this. It has actually cleared things up pretty well for me.

Being an Aussie, maybe you can answer something else. One of my best friends married a girl from Australia. When he went down there, he came back and told me that when you order a hamburger it actually has a slice of ham on it. Is this normal or just his isolated experience?
 
bingo1912 said:
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:
Click to expand...

In Canada, and, please, any canadians correct me, but...... "canadian bacon" is usually called "pea meal bacon". basically cured pork tenderloins cured then rolled in corn meal but not smoked? Served , sliced and fried for breakfast.
 
I LOVE this sort of discussion! Now I am starting to learn something which is what I like about this forum.
Thanks Smokin! (gotta love them Aussies) :thumb::clap2::clap2:
 

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DADGUMMIT! said:
Thanks for taking the time to share all of this. It has actually cleared things up pretty well for me.

Being an Aussie, maybe you can answer something else. One of my best friends married a girl from Australia. When he went down there, he came back and told me that when you order a hamburger it actually has a slice of ham on it. Is this normal or just his isolated experience?
Click to expand...

Fark, that's funny... NO Its BACON!

Your common "Aussie Hamburger with the Lot" has the following:

Bun
Beef Pattie
Onions
Egg
Bacon... not ham...
Beetroot
Cheese
Mustard
BBQ Sauce
Lettuce

Where you're friend has gone wrong is that our bacon is a middle bacon, not just a streaky bacon, so he's assumed it was ham.

Of course there is the minute possibility that it was ham, made by a specialist burger joint... but I'm talking your regular stuff you get here.

Cheers!

Bill
 
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