Turkey Bacon

[Joel]

I was on some of the recipe links and saw alot about making your our bacon with pork. My wife can no longer eat pork. So the idea pop in my head about making turkey bacon and since I did not see any recipes on it, I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to make it. I would guess you could use a bonless breast. Do you think tender quick would do the same for turkey as it does for other meats? What do you think?

[West Coast Kansan]

Hi Joel, search for a post on turkey canada bacon. Not sure who did it or I would try to find it.  (HabSmoker maybe) the thread looked good.

[CLAREGO]

hmmm. i would almost thing if you took both white and dark meat of the turkey and grinded it up and use a bacon cure it would work but the ratio would be alot less meaning cure and salt and seasoning. got to have some fat

[CLAREGO]

or you can try a commercial product like highmountain buckboard bacon cure  it works good on loins i would get some breast and try it that way and cold smoke it would be my thing

[Habanero Smoker]

I have several friends that do not eat pork, so I'm always trying to find substitutes, and I'm very conscious on how I place my food in the smoker. For example I will not place pork products above anything else that I am smoking. I don't want any dripping to fall down on the food that I may share with those that restrict pork from their diets.

I made something similar to Turkey Bacon, when I made turkey pastrami. I used turkey thighs, and added some Instacure #1 to it. I'm sure if you adjust the cure and sugar, and cut down on other spices, you can come up with a good substitute for pork bacon. But I would stick to thigh meat. Also you should do an internet search on beef bacon. That is on my list of things to cure, but I haven't done any research into it yet and don't have any recipes.

[chuck steak]

cross contananation,,,,humm very hard to prevent if they dont eat pork then they should refuse to eat from yur smoker. no way to prevent it.
As a meat retail man I will tel ya ...Yur Kosher or yur not. We have slicer's deicaited to beef and even a red zone sink for beef only.
yur friends pull yur leg if they eat beef from oven where pork was cooked at same time, TRUST ME

[Habanero Smoker]

There is more than one standard. Not all pork restricted diets have to be Kosher, or restricted to the Jewish religion; so there is no problem of being either Kosher or not. The main concern of most of my friends who have restricted pork from their diet, is that the drippings from the pork do not mingle with any of the non-pork meats or other foods. It would be no different if I were to serve them a non-pork meal that was cooked in my kitchen oven, which had been used to cook pork.

[chuck steak]

""There is more than one standard. Not all pork restricted diets have to be Kosher, or restricted to the Jewish religion"""
when you say pork restricted what do you mean? guess that threw me off. If its not a reglsous thang why worry about a few drippings?

[chuck steak]

I have a friend on a meat free diet, I made beef stew and they ate it all but the meat. I was pondering the point of it.

[Habanero Smoker]

I have a friend on a meat free diet, I made beef stew and they ate it all but the meat. I was pondering the point of it.

It's a big universe with a lot of people having different religions, views and standards. Your friend or friends have certain standards; which is fine. It seems my friends have different standards.

[chuck steak]

yur so right smoker, I didn't mean to have a harsh tone, after reading my post again it sounded kinda harsh to me. I didn't mean it that way, sorry guys if I offended anyone.

[Joel]

My wife has a colon disease and has to stay with certain meats fish, chicken, turkey. I also keep other  fatty meats from dripping on items I have in for her. There are some ingredients in store bought turkey bacon she is not suppose to have so I thought if I could make it myself I could limit what goes into it. Would you use bonless thighs? The reason I was thinking bonless breast because I could get nice slices out of it.

[Habanero Smoker]

Sorry to here about your wife's condition.

Yes! Use boneless thighs. Hopefully you can find boneless, if not you will have to bone them, and I would leave the skin on; if she can tolerate the skin. I know the curing will work, but I'm not sure of the texture. If you are going to smoke it, I figure you could either fully cook the thighs to 165°F, slice and eat as is or quick fry it. Or you could partially cook it to 150°F then slice and fry it.

When I get a chance, I'll take a better look at changing the turkey pastrami into turkey bacon, and see if that works for you. Did you see the thread on Basic Dry Cure under the Curing section? You can used that cure (measure as it is outlined in the thread), and add 1/4 cup of maple sugar or maple syrup per 5 pounds of thighs. Mixed the premeasured dry cure and maple sugar or syrup together and apply generously to the thighs so that they are evenly coated. Or instead of a dry cure, you can make a brine (pickle) out of it (go further down in the thread and take a look at Bad Fynch's post), I would still add the addition maple syrup or sugar. Or what may be easier for you, is to order a premixed cure from Sausage Maker or Allied Kenco

http://www.alliedkenco.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=37_52_180&products_id=1576&osCsid=dc77cfb43307c36a8de4e9990c3131de

http://www.sausagemaker.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=50&Page=2

Let us know when you need more information.

[CLAREGO]

im going to have to try some breast i would imagine you can use anything with bbb.