My husband keeps buying these because he thinks it’s a deal, fine. I now have two in the freezer. If I wanted to use them in place of bacon, say with eggs, I should have cut the thing down before freezing, oops, too late.
I’m sure I can cook it as a roast, as I’ve actually eaten it, as such, at someone else’s house. But I really can’t recall how it was cooked.
I’m not sure what to search under to even find a recipe. It’s a large, roast like portion of back bacon. What the hell do you even call such a thing?
Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Well, I don’t know – that’s not something we typically do with bacon over here.
However, the recipe I’m looking at here for baked and glazed bacon calls for boiling the joint for half the cooking time: it seems to me that would likely remove both the cornmeal and any problem it might cause.
In the US, this would be known as a loin. It’s a very lean cut, so wouldn’t generally work well for low slow cooking methods like a hock would be (that’s got all sorts of wonderful gelatinous connective tissue & fat).
We buy these in bulk at BJs wholesale club for about $2/lb. Cut into 1-2" thick slices, they become what the US butchers would call a “Center Cut Pork Chop.” Grill until just before medium. Very good.
As a roast, cut into a managable size, roast at 350F until medium in the middle.
Either can be seasoned with the standard pork spices. Rosemary, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper. I tend to use a spice mix from MacCormick, called “Montreal seasoning for Chicken,” though sometimes I use the “for beef” flavor as well. Both work well for this. The chicken version has dill & citrus, the beef is mostly pepper and garlic along with salt.
Leftovers (if you cut too big a roast) are great sliced thin as a sandwich.
I’m not sure why yours would have a corn meal coating, though that could give an interesting crunch to the outside.
I think it’s been cleared up, but if not, the OP is talking about loin, but it’s not just a plain loin nor is it what Americans call “Canadian bacon.”
Back bacon = bacon made from loin, can be smoked or unsmoked, but is cured
Canadian bacon (in US terminology) = cured, smoked back bacon
peameal bacon (a common back bacon in Canada) = cured, unsmoked back bacon, coated with peameal or cornmeal.
And thank you pulykamell, it has been extremely trying to get advice on how to cook the thing, since I didn’t really know what to call it, or what to search for. One person calls it this, another that, tres confusing. Thanks for setting me straight!
