I couldn't take it anymore....... ya'll are killing me with all of the buckboard posts! I have to unbox my new slicer eventually and this seems like a worthy reason!
I had 2 butts in the freezer, went with the smaller one because it had a thick fat cap, and to be quite honest, I like bacon fat.
So many folks on here post their pretty standard cure (.25% #1, 1.5% salt 1% sugar), but I went with SmokinAl and his recommendation for diggindogs calculator. Why? Well, because I like the way Al rolls on pastrami lol. His rub of mustard and pepper is exactly what I have found that I prefer! Anyone who makes pastrami my way has to have good taste!
I went 6.25% #1 (as per the calculators default), 1.75% salt (though most here say 1.5) and .75% brown sugar (which was half regular brown sugar and half brown sugar Swerve since my lady and I are now both keto, though the qty for almost 7 lbs of meat was pretty small overall, I figured I'd save a carb or 2). What's the point of bacon if it's not a TAD salty, and I've never been on the sweet bacon train!
This was the first time I've ever deboned a butt. I initially wanted to go fancy and leave the deboned mass intact, but I said F it and went with 2 pieces as it was looking kinda chewed up inside.
In ziplocs now. I plan on smoking it in 14 days. My pellet pooper doesn't like to run under 200 so I will probably only smoke it (at 210-215) for 90 minutes or so then finish it off in a 180 oven. Plan is to semi freeze it before I put it on the smoke. I figure that will keep the 225-230 spikes I'll get from being too aggressive in that short time while allowing it to take all the smoke it will need.
Next time (if we like it and there is a next time) I think I'll grind the lower halves of the deboned butts and just cure the top (capi) halves. Lower half almost seemed too lean for bacon. I don't want ham..... Time will tell.
Thanks to all who make this a great forum.
Someone said in a recent post that they put the pork in a bag then spoon on the cure so they don't lose any, and I appreciate that tip. That little amount of cure mix made me nervous as I was weighing it lol.
I had 2 butts in the freezer, went with the smaller one because it had a thick fat cap, and to be quite honest, I like bacon fat.
So many folks on here post their pretty standard cure (.25% #1, 1.5% salt 1% sugar), but I went with SmokinAl and his recommendation for diggindogs calculator. Why? Well, because I like the way Al rolls on pastrami lol. His rub of mustard and pepper is exactly what I have found that I prefer! Anyone who makes pastrami my way has to have good taste!
I went 6.25% #1 (as per the calculators default), 1.75% salt (though most here say 1.5) and .75% brown sugar (which was half regular brown sugar and half brown sugar Swerve since my lady and I are now both keto, though the qty for almost 7 lbs of meat was pretty small overall, I figured I'd save a carb or 2). What's the point of bacon if it's not a TAD salty, and I've never been on the sweet bacon train!
This was the first time I've ever deboned a butt. I initially wanted to go fancy and leave the deboned mass intact, but I said F it and went with 2 pieces as it was looking kinda chewed up inside.
In ziplocs now. I plan on smoking it in 14 days. My pellet pooper doesn't like to run under 200 so I will probably only smoke it (at 210-215) for 90 minutes or so then finish it off in a 180 oven. Plan is to semi freeze it before I put it on the smoke. I figure that will keep the 225-230 spikes I'll get from being too aggressive in that short time while allowing it to take all the smoke it will need.
Next time (if we like it and there is a next time) I think I'll grind the lower halves of the deboned butts and just cure the top (capi) halves. Lower half almost seemed too lean for bacon. I don't want ham..... Time will tell.
Thanks to all who make this a great forum.
Someone said in a recent post that they put the pork in a bag then spoon on the cure so they don't lose any, and I appreciate that tip. That little amount of cure mix made me nervous as I was weighing it lol.