Peameal Bacon - EH?
 

While exploring the wilds of Canukistan many moons ago I stopped at a little mom and pop place for breakfast. They served me the most amazing meal of eggs, beans, toast and a slice of porcine heaven called Peameal Bacon. I never forgot the wonderfulness of the Peameal Bacon, but it was not easy to find again. I got a lot of “Oh, you mean Canadian Bacon,” no – it is Canadian but it ain’t Canadian Bacon. And when I did find it, it was a bastardized version that had corn meal on it. They shoulda called it cornmeal bacon – because that’s what it was.
Anyway, I searched high and low for a recipe for an authentic version of this delicacy. I finally found recipe for one that seemed almost right. It did call for cornmeal, but included the caveat, “For an authentic Peameal Bacon, roll it in pea meal – if you can find it.”

Well, I couldn’t find it. So I made my own.
Here’s how to make amazing authentic Peameal Bacon.

Mix up about three quarts of curing brine using a recipe of water, maple syrup, salt, Prague salt, and special herbs and spices that only I know. ;) Let it sit overnight.


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Go to the butcher and have him trim you a pork lion, removing all the back meat and leaving about ¼ inch of the fat cap.

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Inject the loin with the cure at the rate of about a ½ cup per pound.

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Submerge the loin in the remaining curing brine and let it sit in the ‘fridge for 4-5 days.

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Make pea meal. Get some dried yellow peas and grind them to a course powder in a blender.

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Roll the loin in the pea meal, covering all sides as thick as you can get it. Wrap it up tight leave it undisturbed in the ‘fridge for 24 hours. This is where the magic happens. The pea meal, “becomes one” with the pork as it draws moisture and flavor from the meat, so what you pull out of the ‘fridge ain’t like what you put in.

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Slice it into ¼ inch slices. Freeze the slices you don’t intend to eat right away in individual portions. You don’t want to handle it too much because the pea meal tends to flake off. Fry it up in oil in a good cast iron skillet. Use lard - or olive oil if you swing that way.

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The pea meal gives the pork loin a crust of crunchy, mapley, porky, flavor perfection. Corn meal doesn’t have the right crunch. It sucks.

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Find an egg and some toast or an English muffin to escort your bacon to its final resting place. I don’t do beans for breakfast – just can’t do it, but I guess it would be a more authentic Canucistani breakfast with them. But this – this is worth the effort. And I have a dozen more breakfasts like this in the freezer!

Yum.

A friend of mine makes his own from pork tenderloin and gets rave reviews.

Good idea making your own peameal.

Edit: It was pork loin not pork tenderloin....

Brilliant!

I have been smoking my own bacon the last few years (slab and Canadian). I need to try this.

Wow! - that looks really good - have to say though I've never heard of it but I'd like to try it. To add 'bacon' comes from pork bellies, 'Canadian' bacon from the loin..............

That looks delicious! However I am way too lazy... I mean busy... to make my own.
Any Canadian Pelicans know where we can get some?

Looks Great!

I see it in our stores sometimes. Probably the bought stuff would not taste as good as WD's. And it is a lot less fat than regular bacon. :)

We are all coming over for breakfast now, hope you made enough.

That stuff is awesome.

My parents and extended family all call that Canadian bacon (pea meal and all). They might not be correct but they are real life (flappy headed) Canadians.

Looks lovely. I understand the brining, but the injection has me curious. You're adding moisture so that the crust can pull it back out? Are you adding salt to the pea meal? Would the injector shorten the cure period? What if you skipped that?

Sorry for asking so many questions. Obviously I'm very intrigued.

And for the breakfast, make my over easy egg with buttered toast, so that the egg is soaked up by the toast when you cut it open.

If you ever get to Toronto go the the St. Lawrence market, there is a diner on the north west corner that has the best peameal in the city. after eating you can find it in several of the shop in the market as well

Well done! Yes, that is authentic Peameal Bacon. We can buy it in most supermarkets here in chunks or in sliced packs. imho Canadian Bacon is an American variation without the pea meal.

Ian

I thought you said premeal bacon - which is always a good idea.

This looks awesome, too.

It also inspires me to make homemade corned beef. Was this done in a similar brine (strength)?

Back in the day, when they only did this to preserve the meat, they probably didn't infuse it. But the injection gets the syrup, salt, spices, and preservative deep into the meat. It might shorten the cure period too, I don't know how long they had to brine it in the days when it's purpose was preservation of the meat, not the flavor of it.
No, no salt in the pea meal.

Yes, "Canadian Bacon" isn't Canadian, it's a U.S. invention. It's just smoked pork loin - tasty in it's own right, but not the same thing at all. I've found "Peameal Bacon" in stores in Ontario, but it all used cornmeal instead of pea meal. Pea meal has it's own, superior (IMHO) texture.

At the grocery store.

But it will be corn meal on the outside.

Yes, I'm thinking that the brine or salt will add extra water into the meat, and an injection would significantly shorten the cure, given there is enough salt in it. Not sure if brine will do much to preserve the meat because it's not a dry cure.

Not sure if this is a good video. I'm looking for a video about brining. The fact that there is no salt in the peameal is important.


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Oops. Sorry about that. I should have said the cure included Prague salt (or Prague powder, or pink salt - it goes by different names). As I recall it was 1/2 a teaspoon per gallon of liquid. It is 6% sodium nitrate to retard spoilage (ie cure the meat) for the time it's soaking up flavor in the refrigerator. That's why it goes in the freezer as soon as it's done. From a web site, "One of the most common curing salts. Prague Powder is also called Insta Cure #1 or Pink curing salt #1. It contains 6.25% sodium nitrite and 93.75% table salt. It is recommended for meats that require short cures and will be cooked and eaten relatively quickly. Sodium nitrite provides the characteristic flavor and color associated with curing."
I edited the OP. Sorry.

Sodium nitrite is bad for you. I would go straight salt. People have safely cured meat for hundreds of years without nitrite. Especially a small loin that will be done in a few days and can go into the freezer afterwards.

G