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!
Topic: Cured, smoked, and sliced pork butt (Read 1569 times)