alright guys, i got home and fixed supper for mrs. tas and the offspring (grilled pork chops with baked potatoes) and also sliced two deer roasts (from the hindquarters, probably just about 5 lbs total) for jerky, which i will make in my little chief tomorrow.
i whipped together a brine/marinade for this jerky using the "see-what-is-in-the-pantry" method, and i think i came up with something pretty good. for a curing base, i used a quarter cup of tenderquick - this sounds like a lot, but it wasn't - i considered using only half that, but it clearly wasn't enough. i then added some brown sugar, low-sodium soy sauce (i REALLY wish we had no-salt soy sauce available up here), some cavenders greek seasoning, just a splash of worsty and a few shakes of red pepper flakes. i felt like i should be adding something else, so i threw in an envelope of schilling meat marinade, which seemed to have a lot of flavors i was missing.
normally, i would mix all this with some apple juice, but we had none, so i tried a can of coke and i think this was actually a pretty good idea. i also normally put in some garlic and onion powder, but there seemed to be plenty from the cavenders and marinade envelope.
i did the taste test as i went, because i was very concerned about this coming off too salty, but so far, everything seems good - the salt, sugar and pepper all balance well off each other and the other flavors from the soy, herbs and spices seem to be working just about right. in fact, i kind of wish now that i would have written down all the amounts as i went, because it seems like it came off really well. i will probably rinse the meat off tomorrow when i get ready to put it in the little chief, just to make sure that it isn't too salty, but for now, it seems fine.
so now that that's done, i'll prepare the pork shoulder to sit in the fridge overnight in the usual mustard/rub treatment. this time, i'll be using RIVET'S carolina rub, which looks really good and should come off quite well. here's a link to it and also to the finishing sauce. i still have half a quart of sauce left from the first batch i made, but will make more tomorrow if necessary:
http://www.baitshopboyz.com/forum/fo...TID=16863&PN=1
one thing i want to try with this shoulder is removong the fat cap prior to cooking. i got this idea from MIKEY and after considering his logic and thinking about it, i decided that it is definitely worth a try. it also makes sense to get the rub and mustard on the meat, rather than on a fat cap what is coming off anyway.
i'll also prepare a breakfast fatty from jimmy dean maple and some sort of italian fatty from italian sausage links - i'm still working these out in my mind, so i am not yet sure what will be in them. i can promise you, though, that they won't be too exotic or exciting - not ready for that yet! but i do hope they will be good.
tomorrow, we'll prepare the ABTs, most likely using the same formula as last time since it turned out so good: japs, cream cheese mixed with worsty and lowry's - then wrapped in bacon. i might add some lipton oinion soup mix or cheddar to the cream cheese mixture, but want to make small changes as i develop this so i can keep in mind what's working.
the buffalo steaks are thawing in the fridge - these will be sunday's supper. we also got some buffalo liver from a lady my wife works with. she has relations on the rez nearby and she's able to get buffalo meat quite regularly.
