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...
...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...
...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...
Eric