Cured, smoked, and sliced pork butt

[austin87]

About 2 weeks ago I starting curing a pork butt. I removed the bone and opened it up to reduce the thickness of the meat to make sure the cure penetrated all the way through. The cure was salt, brown sugar, cure #1, onion and garlic powders, cayenne, and Hungarian hot paprika. I turned it over daily and mashed the contents of the bag around to help promote even curing.

After it was done I washed the surface of excess salt and shoved it into a piece of netting the guy at the meat counter gave me. I used hickory for the smoke and did a minion method with the vortex. It needs a little practice but I think I can make it work for me. I cooked it to 175 internal, double wrapped in foil, and into the cooler with towels for a couple hours. This temp turned out perfect for nice slices as the temp and rest period allowed a lot of the fat to melt enough that you didn't bite into big chunks of pork fat while still being really juicy.









Th curing salt gave it the great pink color and a really nice ham flavor. We had it with sautéed cabbage. It is a little bit salty for a thick slice eaten on its own, but I plan on cooling the rest and putting it on the meat slicer. Once it goes on a sandwich with some other ingredients like mayo, lettuce, tomato, etc., I don't think it will be too salty.

Thanks for looking!

[iCARRY]

Wow looks great. 


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[WNC]

Wow awesome!

[jcnaz]

Yes, please.

[TheDude]

Somewhat thick sliced on Hawaiian rolls. American cheese, with miracle whip and yellow mustard. Plain Lays and a beer. I'm good.

[SixZeroFour]

That looks really good!!

[pbe gummi bear]

I tasted this yesterday and can vouch for the delicious flavor.

[fedex]

 This was my next project.  Great Job!!  How long to Cure?  6 Days?

[austin87]

@fedex I' not sure. I started the dry cure and got a little busy so it ended up being in the fridge for about 2 weeks. I would guess it was pretty close to done at 5-6 days.

I'm not sure if you are using TenderQuick or your own mix of salt, sugar, and cure #1 (I did the latter). I used 2.25% salt by weight with no soak out. It would have been fine for buckboard bacon cooked to 140 internal, then chilled, sliced, and fried. It was also great cooked to 175 then chilled and sliced thin, but it was too salty when we ate it in thick slices for dinner fresh off the BBQ. Just something to keep in mind depending on how you plan to eat it and your sensitivity to salt.

Can't wait to see how yours turns out!