When pork butts went on sale recently, I bought 2 double packs with the intention of making snack stix and tasso. Well, the slabs were finished curing today so I fired up the smoker while I worked in the yard today. Broke a sweat for the first time this year...felt good to be out in the warm spring air with wall to wall sunshine.
I extracted the coppa/neck end roasts out of the butts and set them aside for this run of tasso. I sliced the roasts into slabs just a little thicker than 1/2"; 8 steaks out of each neck roast. Put them to cure for 3-4 days while I made the sticks, fermented and smoked them. I used 1.5% salt an 0.25% cure #1.
Pulled em off the cure this morning then wet the surface of each steak with a mixture of 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce and 1 TBSP. Crystal's hot sauce. Then seasoned with tasso seasoning. It's posted here on SMF just do a search.
Smoked them 120-125 for 2 hours then bumped the heat to 130-140 for another 2 hours, then bumped temp up to 225-235*F to push the INT up to 160*F. When the INT hit 150*F I closed the top dampers 70% to slow evaporative cooling and push the tasso over the finish line. Smoked them for right at 6 hours with oak and hickory chunks. The fat is all ooey gooey and delicious! I started a crock pot with red beans for overnight. Will finish with some sauteed onion, smoke sausage and a little bit of that tasso tomorrow....
Thanks for lookin...if you have never made tasso, add it to your list. So many things you can do with it...
I extracted the coppa/neck end roasts out of the butts and set them aside for this run of tasso. I sliced the roasts into slabs just a little thicker than 1/2"; 8 steaks out of each neck roast. Put them to cure for 3-4 days while I made the sticks, fermented and smoked them. I used 1.5% salt an 0.25% cure #1.
Pulled em off the cure this morning then wet the surface of each steak with a mixture of 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce and 1 TBSP. Crystal's hot sauce. Then seasoned with tasso seasoning. It's posted here on SMF just do a search.
Smoked them 120-125 for 2 hours then bumped the heat to 130-140 for another 2 hours, then bumped temp up to 225-235*F to push the INT up to 160*F. When the INT hit 150*F I closed the top dampers 70% to slow evaporative cooling and push the tasso over the finish line. Smoked them for right at 6 hours with oak and hickory chunks. The fat is all ooey gooey and delicious! I started a crock pot with red beans for overnight. Will finish with some sauteed onion, smoke sausage and a little bit of that tasso tomorrow....
Thanks for lookin...if you have never made tasso, add it to your list. So many things you can do with it...
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