Here Piggy-Piggy Brine, Hawg Heaven Rub: 2 Butts, Recipes, Q-view (#1 sliced, #2 pulled)

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Wow. Very nice.

How long did you brine this?

With no pink salt, does this cause it to penetrate less?

Your photography skills make this into food porn! hehe

John
 
 
Wow. Very nice.

How long did you brine this?

With no pink salt, does this cause it to penetrate less?

Your photography skills make this into food porn! hehe

John
Thanks, John! I had to browse back over this one a bit, but it seems like this batch was only soaking for a little over 2 days...maybe 3...
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...I might have slept too many times since way back then. The next batch I soaked for a lot longer...seems like 8 or 10 days...with even better end results.

Here it is: BRINED BUTTS REVISITED

As for not using a cure additive while brining, that has no effect on penetration of the brine solution. If you brine-cure, you use a cure additive along with salt...without salt the cure won't penetrate into the meat. Without cure additive you are only brining, not curing. The salt concentration is what determines the penetration rate of the brine into the meat. Too much salt yields salty meat, but also penetrates faster. I also suspect that too much salt will at some point reduce the actual suspension of soluble spices/herbs in the brine due to total saturation in the solution, but that would be an extreme case of both high salt and attempted high spice flavoring.

The transfer of brine into the meat occurs via osmosis. The lower salt content of the meat draws the salt solution inside until the salt content of the brine and the meat are the same, if given enough time. This is a simple process of equalization. During the transmitting of brine or brine-cure solution into the meat it will also carry the flavors of what you added to the solution...that's one reason why I (and many others) brine...to enhance the interior flavor of the meat without injecting. You can do a combination of injecting and soaking, or just injecting, but then you've taken a intact whole muscle and punctured it, creating a need for more strict cooking guidelines. For more info on that, please see the heading in FOOD SAFETY.

Thanks, yeah, I enjoy showing the results of my efforts...we like our Q-Views here...some say "no pics, didn't happen"...LOL!!! I don't have that old camera anymore (it pretty much died about a year ago...
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...cost to repair would have been 3x what a new camera costs. I'm still learning my new one, but we're getting along pretty well. I just forget how to use it if I don't practice often enough...lots of settings on this one, including for food pics.

I will say this: between the first and second rounds, the second had better results in brine penetration...it was pretty much all the way through to the core of the pork...no denying the flavor.

I would not recommend brining this long with a bone-less butt or picnic shoulder (a couple days, tops), as that could change everything (as explained in a round-about way in the Food Safety Forum). Well, better said, I have no experience with brining a boneless shoulder cut and haven't researched it, so I can't really say how long and what salt concentration would be considered safe. Bone-in pork butt or picnic shoulder and you're good for the duration...they cryovac pack bone-in pork shoulders in a solution which keeps under refrigeration for weeks.

Oh, I only mentioned picnic shoulders because they have become my favorite for pulled pork...given the choice, I always choose picnics over butts...more collagen (melts away and lubricates the meat fibers), a bit more bone, but hey, the textures and flavors are, IMHO, much better than the butt. The whole package of the picnic seems more forgiving to higher finished temperatures...less chance of them having a grainy, mealy mouth feel. I haven't smoked a butt for PP for probably a few years now...I'd do a picnic in a heart-beat. Uh, don't tell anyone...picnics will get hard to find if everyone hears what I just told you...
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Eric
 
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Right on, Eric!

Funny you should point out the difference between bone-in and boneless. Just today I spent a not-so fun hour removing the scapula from a thawing pork butt, splitting it into two hunks. One got a modified salt pork dry cure, while the other is in a heavily modified corned beef brine. Initial stages of research... Will be rather interesting. I was going to let them both sit a long time in there, but it sounds like I need to check some guidelines. With my hillbilly setup, I cold smoke several hours, then finish in a moist (covered roasting pan with a half inch of water) oven at 300˚ till it hits the right temp inside.

Your approach is clearly thorough and covers all the bases. Thank you for replying to my comment!!

John Swift
 
Hey, John, depending on how you removed the bone and separated into 2 pieces, there may not be any food safety issues. If there is not a deep incision that has meat/fat folded over it, then the brine-cure can get to it easily. If it's a dry-cure, just be sure to work it into every little nook and cranny that you find (not the best circumstances to be doing a dry cure, but with a more cautious approach, doable. It's when a bone is removed and the meat covers that cavity you created from bone removal that you should be concerned...brine may not get there without propping that cavity open. If it's basically a wide-open cut, that would be very similar to, for example, a beef brisket, or whole/half pork loin...it's boneless, but the bone removal does not leave a cavity or void which is then closed back up...because the bone was on the outer portion of the cut of meat and the meat is still intact whole muscle as a result.

Hope that clears your mind a bit...I know I strongly dislike having that nasty feeling deep down...something telling you that you might have taken a wrong path and need to back-track and possibly take extra precautions to make sure it all works out OK in the end.

Eric
 
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