Turkey Bacon

[The Raven]

I have searched this site and others for a good method and recipe for Turkey Bacon (I know, why?). I have a friend who has foolishly chosen to spend a life without pork, and therefore has missed out on "my" bacon, which is pretty much Meathead's recipe with a few minor experiments from time to time.


In a weak moment, I offered to take a shot at making some turkey bacon. But there does not seem to be much out there, in the way of recipes, other than one in particular that suggests curing, smoking and then grinding turkey thighs. Once ground, you roll the meat into a log and cut it into "bacon strips". So to me, this sounds like a cured and smoked turkey meatloaf, cut up like I would for my kid.

Does anyone have any better ideas?

Thanks.

[6th Borough BBQ]

Wow you must be a really good friend! To me, Turkey Bacon is the equivalent of a Vegetarian Hamburger. It just ain't right!

[HorseDoctor]

Can’t make a silk purse out of the proverbial sow’s ear!!! Gotta believe doing something with ground dark meat would be the way to go, but why reinvent the wheel. It’s already available in stores. Never let other people’s silly ideas become your problems!!! Too many other fun things to do!!!

[johnec00]

I've never made turkey bacon, but on a couple of occasions I have "corned" (cured) turkey breast and thigh to make turkey pastrami. Not as good as nice fatty beef pastrami, but OK. I dry cured with tender quick and brown sugar, but you could get a similar result with Meathead's Canadian bacon article on the main AR site. The result will be somewhat akin to Canadian bacon that has little/no fat. For what it's worth, I smoked the pastrami to 170º as opposed to the lower temperature recommended by Meathead for the pork product.

[shify]

So i watch all those How it’s Made type shows and saw one on turkey bacon. Basically supermarket turkey bacon is essentially a large skinless turkey hot dog that is thinly sliced to bacon size strips. Meaning it is a cured, emulsified product that is cooked and sliced.

To make something like that at home, I would probably lean towards a turkey pastrami type treatment or if you friend is down with the cow, I would try to make beef bacon using the navel or a brisket. A nice fatty cured brisket would fry up very similar to bacon.