Buckboard Bacon and Canadian Bacon

[Salmonsmoker]

Time to make some bacon!

The local RD was running a special on whole fresh pork loins, so I picked one up. While there, I noticed that they were running a special on pork cushion meat, so I grabbed a cryovac pack(4/pack) of that too. Dry cured and into the fridge for two weeks, overhauling every other day.

Into the smoker with maple and apple pellets in my handy dandy AMAZ-N pellet smoker.
http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/8942/001wbsg.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/407/001wbsg.jpg/)
Smoke on board!
http://img832.imageshack.us/img832/2582/002hmd.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/832/002hmd.jpg/)
After four hours of smoke and a cook to an IT of 152F.
http://img824.imageshack.us/img824/1396/011bwl.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/824/011bwl.jpg/)
Some of the cushion meat buckboard bacon. Notice the meat/fat ratio. They were more tender than a whole pork butt, almost zero fat and cheaper too.
http://img14.imageshack.us/img14/7631/001wpm.jpg (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/14/001wpm.jpg/)
Oh, Yeah!

[TentHunter]

Excellent. Lots of bacon and more bacon!

Nice tip with the pork cushions too! I see them at Sam's every now and then for a good price. I've always used them for pulled pork, but you better believe next time a few of them will be headed for some buckboard bacon.

[Salmonsmoker]

TH,
If I'm not mistaken, the cushion is called the " money muscle" in the BBQ circuit, yes?

[TentHunter]

TH,
If I'm not mistaken, the cushion is called the " money muscle" in the BBQ circuit, yes?

They are two separate shoulder cuts:

- The Money Muscle comes from the Butt end or Boston Butt (upper half of the shoulder). Its the end opposite the blade bone and looks like it has stripes.


Late last summer was the first time I'd used any cushions. I had to look it up, because I wasn't sure what they were.

- The cushion is the back (Tricep) muscle from the Picnic cut (lower half of the shoulder). They're not as common because the picnic is more often sold as a whole cut.

[Salmonsmoker]

Thanks for clarifying Cliff. I'd looked it up previously and the description wasn't as clear as you made it.

[TentHunter]

Here's a video from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, describing the pork cushion cut: Pork Shoulder, Picnic, Cushion (http://porcine.unl.edu/porcine2005/pages/showVideo.jsp?videoName=405B.swf)