Canadian Bacon {Homemade!}

 JD is always cooking up something new.  Canadian Bacon being made Homemade - that's new to me!!  I can't wait to try this myself!!  He says the taste is sublime! ~Enjoy! Diane 

​Canadian Bacon {Homemade}
{guest post}

Ingredients:
5 pounds pork loin or tenderloin, fat & any silver-skin removed
6 cups water
1\4 cup brown sugar
1\4 cup honey
1\4 cup sea salt
1\2 Tbsp pink curing salt (optional, but lengthens shelf life in fridge)
1Tbsp Red Dog Rub, or BBQ Rub of your choice
1 tsp onion powder or 1\2 small onion, finely minced
1 tsp garlic powder or 3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp basil
1 tsp sage
1 tsp cayenne or other hot chili powder
liquid smoke, if doing only in oven, optional

Directions:
Mix ingredients well and heat over medium heat, without boiling: enough to dissolve everything, and infuse the flavors, cook for 10 minutes.
Let cool and pour seasoned liquid over meat, in non-reactive container.

Marinating time depends on the size of the cut of meat. Since I used tenderloin halves, and they were relatively small, I let this marinate, in the fridge, about 36 hours.

SMOKER&OVEN:
Remove meat from marinade and place on racks in smoker (discard marinade)
Smoke meat 12 hours, adding new wood chips,  as needed (I used almond chips).
Remove meat from smoker, place in a preheated 275 F oven, until internal temperature of meat is 170 F. - this took 2 hours in the oven.
Store in fridge about 2 weeks, or vac-packed in freezer up to one year.

OVEN: 
If you don't have a smoker, or prefer to use your oven,  this recipe will work just as well. You can add liquid smoke to the marinade, to get the smoke flavor added to your meat. Once marinated, set oven to it's lowest setting, usually 170 F, and cook until internal temperature of the meat is 155 F. Then raise oven temp to 225 until 170 F internal temp.of meat is reached.
Store in fridge about 2 weeks, or vac-packed in freezer up to one year.

Recipe & Photo by: Guest Post; JD Provence for Canning and Cooking at Home