realdocBBQ
Meat Mopper
- Aug 15, 2014
- 214
- 289
Did one of my racks of porkstrami ribs on Sunday. I cured these a couple weeks back and threw them in the freezer for later. Did just a 36-hour dry cure in vac seal, then rinsed, rebagged and froze them.
These were good. Did them on the Weber kettle with the Fireboard Ring, kept temps around 250, later bumped to 280. Wrapped around 3.5hrs when bark looked good, but only for about 40 minutes. Then unwrapped and put back on for another 45-55 minutes or so? Lemme check my Fireboard log...
https://share.fireboard.io/F64AD6
Ok, wrapped for 39 minutes, then unwrapped to finish for about 26 minutes. Total cook 4h27m. Not bad.
They came out good, but not as heavily cured as I had expected. Of course, they were only in the cure for 36h before I rinsed them and froze them. Eh... I think next time I will cure them longer - I don't care what ChatGPT tells me. The saltiness was fine, but they weren't quite as flavorful otherwise as I'd hoped they would be.
I used some sugar in my pastrami rub before smoking, I'll leave that out next time - it mostly caramelized too much and made for some crust that was hard to cut through and I don't think it added much in terms of flavor at that point. Maybe if I just added a little sugar in the wrap phase alone, but I just am not sure they need it at all.
Overall this was a good experiment, but needs a little more tweek - I want more cure flavor, so I'll probably do it for longer next time - 3-4 day cure I think. In my experience making bacon, using a dry EQ cure, I haven't found leaving it longer than necessary to be detrimental. ChatGPT was telling me it was going to make them too hammy and the texture was going to change, etc., I dunno. It may be right, but I didn't have as much overall cured flavor as I like - even though it did seem to penetrate all the way through.
Looking forward to trying again, but relying on my own experiences more than ChatGPT. Shoulda trusted my instincts, lol. I wasn't 100% on board with its suggestions, but I decided to roll with it. Now I know.
These were good. Did them on the Weber kettle with the Fireboard Ring, kept temps around 250, later bumped to 280. Wrapped around 3.5hrs when bark looked good, but only for about 40 minutes. Then unwrapped and put back on for another 45-55 minutes or so? Lemme check my Fireboard log...
https://share.fireboard.io/F64AD6
Ok, wrapped for 39 minutes, then unwrapped to finish for about 26 minutes. Total cook 4h27m. Not bad.
They came out good, but not as heavily cured as I had expected. Of course, they were only in the cure for 36h before I rinsed them and froze them. Eh... I think next time I will cure them longer - I don't care what ChatGPT tells me. The saltiness was fine, but they weren't quite as flavorful otherwise as I'd hoped they would be.
I used some sugar in my pastrami rub before smoking, I'll leave that out next time - it mostly caramelized too much and made for some crust that was hard to cut through and I don't think it added much in terms of flavor at that point. Maybe if I just added a little sugar in the wrap phase alone, but I just am not sure they need it at all.
Overall this was a good experiment, but needs a little more tweek - I want more cure flavor, so I'll probably do it for longer next time - 3-4 day cure I think. In my experience making bacon, using a dry EQ cure, I haven't found leaving it longer than necessary to be detrimental. ChatGPT was telling me it was going to make them too hammy and the texture was going to change, etc., I dunno. It may be right, but I didn't have as much overall cured flavor as I like - even though it did seem to penetrate all the way through.
Looking forward to trying again, but relying on my own experiences more than ChatGPT. Shoulda trusted my instincts, lol. I wasn't 100% on board with its suggestions, but I decided to roll with it. Now I know.
