Took me a long time this morning to get out of bed, dressed, and eat some breakfast. I think the weather is causing me to be lazy. I am within a few hundred feet of the ocean, but it has been cold and rainy since I got here, so have been indoors. Keep getting brief sunshine today, but then it goes away. Anyway, got a chance to clean out some things and started some peameal bacon (aka real Canadian bacon) brining. I could not find the recipe I used two years ago, so had to adapt one I found online. Real Canadian bacon, or peameal bacon as the Canadians call it, is something I grew up with in Detroit and love. (My dad used to drive across the bridge to buy it in Canada.) Makes great sandwiches and excellent with eggs and toast. Basically it is a boneless pork loin brined in a mixture of kosher salt, pink salt, pickling spices, brown sugar, real maple syrup, and maybe garlic, except I left the garlic out. Will be ready to cook in another day. Does not resemble the stuff sold in the US as Canadian bacon in any way because it is not smoke and is not even bacon. It is called peameal because it was originally rolled in yellow peameal, but now you roll it in cornmeal. Make sense?? Obviously not, but that is what it is.
If you see a recipe for smoking it, that is NOT the real peameal bacon. Here is a supposed history:
http://www.foodnetwork.ca/shows/great-c ... eal-bacon/Beth, where are you going this winter? Are you headed back to Tucson?