Sharon, I'm not at home, I'm at work, so I had to search the web for someone else who made that bacon! Sure enough, I found this on a smoking blog, and it's the same recipe that I used, but with notes from the blogger. Maple Cured Bacon One 5 lb. piece of pork belly, rind on 2 ounces kosher salt 1/4 C. pure Maple syrup 2 t. pink salt (a curing salt, not the Hawain stuff) 1/4 C. Maple sugar (pricey, worth it) Simply mix up all the ingredients for the cure (it will be a sort of yellow slurry) and spread it all over the pork belly, making sure to get under all the nooks and crannies and on the sides as well. Make the coating as evenly as possible on both sides so the whole thing has a nice coating (including the rind). Place in a 2.5 gallon zip lock bag and sort of fold up the sides so that the liquid that exudes from the belly is in constant contact with the meat (will take a bit of folding, the bag will be much larger than the belly). Once you've done that, throw it in the fridge (36-40 degrees) for 7 days, flipping it over every other day. On the 7th day, remove the belly from the bag and wash all the cure off. Put it on some sort of drying rack (I use one of the cheapies from walmart used for allowing cookies to cool) and stick it in back in the fridge for 1 day to dry out (form the pellicle). Next, take the bacon out of the fridge and hot smoke it (about 200 degrees) until your therm reads 147. Take the slab out, place it in another zip lock bag, and immerse in a cool water bath to cool it quickly. Put it in the fridge, and now you've got bacon!!!! Ruhlman suggests slicing the rind off after smoking. I did it before smoking, because I wanted more smoke flavor for the bacon itself. I guess some people also leave the rind on and just slice as is (I'm going to do this next time...I've discovered I like rind on bacon). OK, those were the bloggers instructions. I removed the rind before smoking and I used Grade B maple syrup and Elery smoked it with apple wood. I hope that helps, so smoke away, my friend... Annie

Finally getting back to the Canadian Bacon. annie I did follow thru...ordered the book "Charcuterie" by Chefs Polsyn and Ruhlman. Found it very interesting. Interesting enough we first cured and smoke one pork loins cut in half. Turned out so tasty and by the time 3 kids and families visited we had not enough left to freeze. This past week we did two whole loins cut in half giving us 4 pieces. Again they are so good and enough for each kid and families to have a meal and plenty to freeze. Next a try at Peameal bacon and the Spicy Dry Rub loin. Oh yes did want to mention the book I received was the revised and updated verison. Our smoker setup on first try our first loins done Our second smoking session done And the best part of all.... time to enjoy

Hmm, cumin, hadn't thought of that, thanks. That would be great added in some bean dishes. I think I'll try honey too, I usually buy local a few jars at time so I always have that on hand. So for your ham did you do all the combo above and was it spicy? My husband loves spicy but I just can't handle heat. I do have a bunch of smaller hams that I froze though and I could do small ones in a spicy rub later on. Did you just do it by taste? One of the coppa that I have ready to smoke I did a fennel and garlic rub and it smells soooo good. I'm really hoping that one turns out. I did a paprika, cayenne rub on the pork loin. I'm hoping it turns out like a nice peameal, but didn't want to risk it so I only did one and froze the rest for later. I did my maple syrup in the crock pot this year. Since I only had a small batch to do I just would put it in and leave it for a day. I didn't even have to do anything to it. It was great. I think I'll do that again next year instead of boiling it down. Of course right at the end you'll want to put it in a pot, but for the initial part it worked great. That way I could just do the daily sap. Doing 2 hogs at one time makes for a lot of work, that's for sure. By the third day straight of cutting and prepping cuts I was dreaming about it. It's honestly the best pork I've ever had though, so we'll do it again next year. This was our first year with pigs.

Shirl, we put the smoker out in the pole barn, it's not attached but close enough that a trip out to check on things isn't too bad. Elery definitely put on a coat and gloves, though, it was 15F this morning when he started that smoker. There's nothing quite like the homemade stuff, though, is there? I'm sorry you missed out on a season's worth of "curin' n smokin'" though. I wish you were closer, I'd be happy to share! I think of all the cookbooks I have, "Charcuterie" is the one I use most. I think fondly of Larry Engelhardt when I use it, his wife Janet posted at the old Forum before she died, and he came to a couple of forum get togethers. It was a gift from Larry, who lived close to the restaurant owned by Brian Polycyn. Unfortunately, that restaurant closed, but the book is wonderful. Today's "ham" came out nicely too, a little salty so the next one will be brined 3 days instead of 5, and see if that's better. Still yummy and amazing, and glazed with local maple syrup. Lizbeth, the pea meal bacon doesn't taste like bacon or ham, it's more like a slice of pork loin, but there's that cured flavor, it doesn't really taste like anything else I've had. Annie