Well like many of my experiments do, this one started on the specials rack at my local Restaurant Depot. Funny thing that I noticed is that many bone-in cuts of beef and pork puncture the cryovac packages during shipping and the Restaurant Depot's policy is that they are automatically discounted, in most cases between 40-50%. The beauty is, most of this meat was packed 2-3 days ago and perfectly fresh. I have figured out their labeling system for reduced items and I avoid the stuff thats being discounted because it is old. So any way... I ended up with a rack of pork, which is nothing more than a bone-in loin that has been frenched. I know that meat in between the bones is delicious, but hey, it looks cool! So here is my proccess:
1. Cured the rack of pork that weighed about 4 pounds in a lower salt version of Pop's Brine:
1 Gallon of Water
1 cup of White Sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 Tablespoon of Cure #1
2. Meant to let it go for 2 weeks but it ended up swimming for 3. Oh well, beauty of this cure!
3. Took it out of the cure, rinsed it, dried it and coated it with coarse black pepper, granulated onion, and granulated garlic
4. Popped it in the fridge to dry for a couple of days
5. Hung it in the Pit Barrel Cooker with Apple and Hickory chunks for what I thought would be a couple hours but turned into three,
possibly because of single digit temps and a lot of wind.
6. Cooked to an IT of 143 and it carried over to about 147.
When it was done, I let it rest for a while , then sliced myself a double chop and topped it with home smoked Sriracha cheddar and a sunny side up egg...An amped up Bacon, Egg, and Cheese if you will.
The verdict was that I will definitely be repeating this. Super moist and tender with a great bacon flavor and it looked cool to boot. I would put it up there as one of my better experiments and it really was pretty simple! I apologize for the obscene amount of photos to come but I was really proud of this one!
Thanks for looking!
-Chris
1. Cured the rack of pork that weighed about 4 pounds in a lower salt version of Pop's Brine:
1 Gallon of Water
1 cup of White Sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup kosher salt
1 Tablespoon of Cure #1
2. Meant to let it go for 2 weeks but it ended up swimming for 3. Oh well, beauty of this cure!
3. Took it out of the cure, rinsed it, dried it and coated it with coarse black pepper, granulated onion, and granulated garlic
4. Popped it in the fridge to dry for a couple of days
5. Hung it in the Pit Barrel Cooker with Apple and Hickory chunks for what I thought would be a couple hours but turned into three,
possibly because of single digit temps and a lot of wind.
6. Cooked to an IT of 143 and it carried over to about 147.
When it was done, I let it rest for a while , then sliced myself a double chop and topped it with home smoked Sriracha cheddar and a sunny side up egg...An amped up Bacon, Egg, and Cheese if you will.
The verdict was that I will definitely be repeating this. Super moist and tender with a great bacon flavor and it looked cool to boot. I would put it up there as one of my better experiments and it really was pretty simple! I apologize for the obscene amount of photos to come but I was really proud of this one!
Thanks for looking!
-Chris
