OK, as promised, here's the recipe from "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman & Brian Polcyn:
The recipe for Tasso ham is on pages 86-88. The recipe for the basic dry cure is on pages 39-40. This makes quite a bit so I've got enough for at least one more pretty decent batch of tasso.
I prepared the cure and processed the pork as presented in the text, no modifications:
I used the "salt box method" of dredging and curing the meat. This way you use the basic cure and dredge the meat so that all sides are completely and evenly coated with cure. Basically, get a non-reactive pan and cover the bottom with a copious amount of cure. Place the meat in and press, flip and press, press the edges, then move the meat to another non-reactive pan (I'm thinking you could use plastic bags but I had glass baking dishes) and cover with plastic.In this case the pork butt was sliced into about 1" pieces. As per the instruction, I left the meat covered in cure in the fridge for about 4 hours. I'm sure it could go longer but with this thickness you will see the fluid being drawn out, the color change, and the texture firm up as the cure does it's work.
Next, rinse the pork removing any extra cure. I did not have to soak.
Pat the slices dry and then cover generously with the seasoning spice.
Hot smoke the meat to an internal temp of 150. Ruhlman used a Bradley and hot smokes at about 200 degrees.
Recipes:
Basic Dry Cure:
Using Sugar:
1 pound/450 grams kosher salt
8 ounces/225 grams sugar
2 ounces/50 gram "pink salt" Cure #1 ( I have not idea what the equivalent Morton's TQ is - I didn't use it)
Using Dextrose:
1 pound/450 grams kosher salt
13 ounces/425 grams dextrose
3 ounces/75 grams "pink salt" Cure #1
Seasoning:
3 tablespoons/30 grams ground white pepper
1 1/2 tablespoons/15 grams cayenne pepper
3 tablespoons/6 grams dried marjoram
3 tablespoons/24 grams ground allspice
You can, for sure, adjust to your preferences. I'm pleased with the results and right now, unless I get feed back from my guinea pigs, do not plan to change.
Bon Appetite!!
