I wanted to experiment with a spice up brine , so I picked up a 5 pound package of pork tenderloins and mixed up a simple brine with water, cure #1, and dextrose. I through together some spices (marjoram garlic onion anise and red pepper) in a small amount of hot water, then let them set for a while to pull the flavors out of the mix. Then I stranded the spiced liquid and added it to the brine and used this for a 10% injection.
Fast forward 2.5 days in the brine I pulled them out, rinsed and fry tested. The salt level was nice, but I couldn’t taste the spices. You could smell the spices in the rare meat but not after it was cooked.
Not wanting to make 5 pounds of bland cured tenderloin I thought I’d have some fun with some of it. I took 2 pounds and cubed it up and added a mix of the same dry spices and stuffed it in a small collagen casing.
Looks like the cure took real well.
Then I took some of my hot link spice mix and coated the remaining 3 pounds with a heavy coating and stuffed in a 3 inch casing, and into the oven. Yeah I said oven. These are just experiments, it there is a next time they might get smoked.
5 or 6 hours later at 200° and an internal temp of 155° I pulled them and let them cool in the -3° freezer, better known as my back deck. Then into the frig till this morning.
Just got done taste testing the finished product, and I have to say they both are good. The large hot link one is like a very hot Capocollo, the smaller one is a nice mellow spiced ham flavor.
But one fatal mistake I think I made in using the tenderloin is there isn’t enough fat to bind the chunks of meat and it won’t slice, it just falls apart. But it’s still very moist and tender.
So in the end I learned something new and got some good but not so pretty meat to eat,
Will have a pic of the little one soon.
Thanks for checking out my experiment.
Fast forward 2.5 days in the brine I pulled them out, rinsed and fry tested. The salt level was nice, but I couldn’t taste the spices. You could smell the spices in the rare meat but not after it was cooked.
Not wanting to make 5 pounds of bland cured tenderloin I thought I’d have some fun with some of it. I took 2 pounds and cubed it up and added a mix of the same dry spices and stuffed it in a small collagen casing.
Looks like the cure took real well.
Then I took some of my hot link spice mix and coated the remaining 3 pounds with a heavy coating and stuffed in a 3 inch casing, and into the oven. Yeah I said oven. These are just experiments, it there is a next time they might get smoked.
5 or 6 hours later at 200° and an internal temp of 155° I pulled them and let them cool in the -3° freezer, better known as my back deck. Then into the frig till this morning.
Just got done taste testing the finished product, and I have to say they both are good. The large hot link one is like a very hot Capocollo, the smaller one is a nice mellow spiced ham flavor.
But one fatal mistake I think I made in using the tenderloin is there isn’t enough fat to bind the chunks of meat and it won’t slice, it just falls apart. But it’s still very moist and tender.
So in the end I learned something new and got some good but not so pretty meat to eat,
Will have a pic of the little one soon.
Thanks for checking out my experiment.
