Early in June, we printed a story about Canadian bacon as it is made in Canada, not the way it is made here. The real stuff is made only north of the border, and the differences are dramatic.
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Jason Anthony, sells his version of "real" Canadian bacon along with other meats from TJ Countryside Farm from a specially equipped truck at the Original Farmers' Night Market near Bridgeville. (Franka Bruns, Post-Gazette) |
You had to buy it on the Internet, I wrote. Little did I know that a local hog farmer is making "real" Canadian bacon right here in Pittsburgh. And he sells it at the Original Farmers' Night Market just outside of Bridgeville on Route 50 in South Fayette.
Here's a quick recap, so you can follow along the bacon trail.
What you have been calling Canadian bacon isn't REAL Canadian bacon. American "Canadian bacon" is usually round, smoked, processed, pre-sliced and ready to eat after a brief warmup. Real Canadian bacon is a roast -- a closely trimmed, pickle-brined piece of muscle that comes from the hog's back. It looks like the eye of a pork chop -- very lean with no marbling. It has only a 1/8-inch thick layer of fat on one side, and it is rolled in yellow cornmeal and sold uncooked. In Canada it's known as "peameal" bacon because originally peameal was used, but when the switch was made to cornmeal, the name stuck.
The biggest difference between the two is smoking. Both bacons are cured, but the usual American kind is also smoked, which gives it a flavor closer to ham. The unsmoked Canadian meat ends up tasting more like fresh ham.
There.
Closer to home
Here's what's been going on in that parallel universe called coincidence.
A few months before the article appeared in the PG, Carol Palmer of Bridgeville was trying to find real Canadian bacon in the United States. "My mother grew up in Severn Bridge, Ontario, 80 miles north of Toronto, and she really misses her peameal bacon. Since I am a good customer of TJ Countryside Farm in Indiana, Pa., I asked one of the owners, Jason Anthony, if he thought he could make real Canadian bacon if I could get him the recipe. The farmer answered, 'If you get the process, I'll make it.' "
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If you go ...
 WHAT: TJ Countryside Farm
WHERE: 211 Behm Road, Rochester Mills, PA 15771
HOURS: 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturdays
INFO: 1-800-644-PORK (7675)
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Palmer's mother, Elaine, who lives in Castle Shannon, was excited by the idea, too, and she reminisced about real Canadian bacon of her youth.
"It's an acquired taste and in a league by itself," she says. "If you really want a good sandwich, put a couple slices of peameal bacon on sliced cheese bread and top it with a fried egg. It will clog up your arteries for a month, but there's absolutely nothing better.
"In the summer, you eat peameal bacon sandwiches with a slice of sharp cheese and a slice of sweet onion and drink a good bottle of cold beer. I like Labatt's. Now, there are people that bake a whole peameal bacon roast, but most people like to buy their peameal bacon in one long loin then slice it down fresh to fry with breakfast eggs. Oh, I miss it, I really do."
Mother and daughter went to Canada in February for a family vacation. (Apparently, Canadians out-of-country get homesick for cold and snow.)
"I asked my relatives if they could introduce me to a hog farmer who processes his own pork. So we went out to a farm and I asked him to teach me. He walked me through the process, and I took notes."
Back in Pittsburgh, she sat down with a hog farmer, Jason Anthony.
Whole hog
Jason Anthony, 21, is an unusual hog farmer. He's a partner in the family business, TJ Countryside Farm in Rochester Mills, just outside Indiana. His grandparents, Cliff and Peggy Anthony, started the farm about 20 years ago. They passed it on to Jason's parents, Ed and Karen Anthony. Jason now runs the day-to-day 100-acre farm with its 1,200 or so resident hogs. The kicker is that Jason is also a full-time college student at Indiana University of Pennsylvania.
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A sample of Anthony's Canadian bacon. (Franka Bruns, Post-Gazette) |
Hogs aren't high maintenance, according to Jason. "They like lots to eat, a clean place to sleep and plenty of room to roam.
"Carol Palmer has been a good customer for a long time. When she asked me if I could make real Canadian bacon, there was no question about doing it. She brought the right recipe."
There is a difference, however. His Canadian bacon is smaller than the REAL kind. "In Canada, they slaughter their hogs at about 300 pounds. I slaughter mine at about 220 to 240 pounds, so the animal and all of its parts, including the loin, are proportionately smaller.
"We take 27-inch whole pork loins and cure them in a maple brine for four to five days. Then we can go either of two ways. We can either package the single loins raw, or we can smoke them to suit American Canadian-style bacon tastes. The hot-smoke process takes six hours and the meat is then fully cooked."
Either way, they are rolled in the classic cornmeal as a final step.
At one end of the Original Farmers' Night Market every Wednesday and Friday night, you will find the TJ Countryside walk-through white truck. It's easy to both spot and sniff, with its double-kettle barbecue rigs going full blast grilling kielbasa, wursts and sausages for its sandwiches.
Inside the truck are deep coolers stacked and packed with fresh pork products, all made at the farm. Look for fresh and cured hams, roasts, bacon, ribs and luncheon meats.
The Canadian bacon is available sliced, but Jason is planning to sell whole roasts, too, for slicing at home. His product sells for about $5.99 a pound.
Marlene Parrish is a Mount Washington food writer.
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