Keep the hounds at bay, Bear. Here's the long-awaited results:
After a 10 day cure, I did a
1) Brief soak (maybe ½ hour b/c fry test was OK for saltiness; tasted like ham). Probably soak 2 hours next time as the first bite of the finished product is a bit salty. Fortunately, that immediately calms down.
2) Pat dry and refrigerate uncovered for 4 hours on cooling racks to form the pellicle.
3) Applied more pepper to all three pieces & added honey to one, Garlic Powder to another, and Rudy’s Rub to the third.
4) Set on racks in smoker with electric element running things around 130* for 1.5 hours to ensure good pellicle formation (will shorten this to 1 hour next time)
5) Smoked at 130* with electric element for 2 hours with plum wood chips I spun off of my lathe
6) Switched to propane to raise the cook temp to 250*, continued adding wood chips, and achieved IT of 145* in another hour for a total of 3 hours of smoke.
7) Rested on the counter to cool.
8) Bagged & refrigerated overnight.
9) Sliced and Foodsaver into serving portions.
Breakfast couldn't come soon enough! We just couldn't resist, so about 11:30 pm we fried up a few slices...
Y'all were right; this stuff is off the hook fantastic! Lots of OOOOOHHH's and AAAAAHHHHHH's! I'm already planning round 2, and I know my 2 college students will want supplies for their return in the fall. And my dad will be hounding me too! LOL!!! I see another fridge in my future just for curing purposes....
A great big thanks to everyone who contributed and encouraged me along the way, especially Bear & Mballi! I believe this is a major advance in my smoking craft (moving into pastrami, CB, etc.). While this is definitely something you don't want to try willy-nilly, it really is not a difficult process to achieve safety and quality if you just pay attention to detail. Now it's just a matter of playing with the flavors to find optimal combinations. I will try adding maple syrup, honey and I even thought of apple juice concentrate to the next batches into the cure itself. I will also try hickory in the near future. Plenty of options to play with now! Good times!!!!
