I have been making tasso for a long time. I started adding cure to my tasso about 12 years ago after learning more about curing meats. I did not change my recipe, only adding the cure to the liquid mixture and letting it sit in the refrigerator to cure prior to smoking. Well, this recent thread brought up something I had already known, but brought it to the forefront in my mind...
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/apple-cider-cure-1.281248/
My liquid was Worcestershire Sauce. It has a high amount of vinegar in it. Here is the Ingredient list:
"Ingredients
Distilled white vinegar, anchovies, garlic, molasses, onions, salt, sugar, water, chili pepper extract, cloves, natural flavorings, tamarind extract"
When mixing the cure#1 into the Worcestershire sauce, I would notice a very slight fizzle....didn't think anything of it.
Well, while preparing a batch of tasso for the smoker tonight, it hit me...I had a duh moment.
Always knew about acids and nitrites, just never occurred to me the high vinegar concentration in the sauce. I no longer will add cure to it. Tonight, I grabbed a bottle of sherry from the cabinet to use for the liquid...
Then weighed out the cure...
poured out 1/2 cup of the sherry and mixed in the cure until it dissolved. I poured this over/ in between the 1/2" pork butt steaks and resealed the bag.
I have 4 bags marinating/curing. They hit the smokehouse saturday.
https://www.smokingmeatforums.com/threads/apple-cider-cure-1.281248/
My liquid was Worcestershire Sauce. It has a high amount of vinegar in it. Here is the Ingredient list:
"Ingredients
Distilled white vinegar, anchovies, garlic, molasses, onions, salt, sugar, water, chili pepper extract, cloves, natural flavorings, tamarind extract"
When mixing the cure#1 into the Worcestershire sauce, I would notice a very slight fizzle....didn't think anything of it.
Well, while preparing a batch of tasso for the smoker tonight, it hit me...I had a duh moment.
Always knew about acids and nitrites, just never occurred to me the high vinegar concentration in the sauce. I no longer will add cure to it. Tonight, I grabbed a bottle of sherry from the cabinet to use for the liquid...
Then weighed out the cure...
poured out 1/2 cup of the sherry and mixed in the cure until it dissolved. I poured this over/ in between the 1/2" pork butt steaks and resealed the bag.
I have 4 bags marinating/curing. They hit the smokehouse saturday.