Time for Goose thigh Tasso...

[indaswamp]

I started making this last year and man is it good! We shot 8 big canada geese on my hunting trip to Kansas so I saved all the legs for this. Ended up with 3# of thigh meat off the 8 geese.

Salt, Cure and 1/2c. water inda bag with the goose thigh meat. In the fridge 4 days to cure...does not take that long, but I could not smoke them any sooner, been cleaning that big wild sow I was given.

Inda smokehouse 120-130*F for 4 hours with oak and hickory smoke, then 1 hour @200*F...

 

[indaswamp]

Tasso Recipe:

You can use whatever meat you want. Pork is traditional, but Cajuns make Tasso out of damn near anything-even garfish! Just as long as the meat is 1/2" or less thick....

Weigh the meat in Kg.
1.4% non iodized salt
0.3% cure #1
1/2c. water per every 4# of meat.

dissolve the salts in luke warm water, coat meat with salt solution and cure in fridge 2-3 days.

When cure time is up, for each 4# of meat:
1/2c. Worcestershire Sauce
1 TBSP. Crystals hot sauce

Add to bag of cured meat and coat meat well. Remove to a sheet pan spread out for rub.

Tasso Rub:
1/4c. Coarse cracked black pepper
1/4c. Dark red cayenne pepper powder
1/2c. Garlic powder
1/4c. Dark brown sugar

mix in S.S. bowl with a spoon breaking up the brown sugar clumps. Mix well, add to an old spice shaker. If you use it all, it will be so hot that it will not be suitable for a charcuterie board, but will be fine for a seasoning meat as tasso is intended. I usually only use about 2/3 of the rub for 3# of tasso.

Hang tasso on thin meat hooks made from Stainless steel wire. Smoke with oak and hickory 120-130*F for 4 hours then bump the heat up to 190-200*F for 1 hour. Cool then vac seal. I usually vac pack in 1/2# packs...

 

[SmokinEdge]

Looks delicious to me. I love goose, never cured it, but now I want to.

 

[indaswamp]

SmokinEdge , curing goose meat changes the taste for the better in a profound way. I highly suggest you try it.

 

[SmokinAl]

Well the only place I can get a goose is the grocery store. If I do I will cure it for sure!
Al

 

[zwiller]

Killing it man! Many thanks for the recipe! BOOKMARKED. Oldest daughter turned 21 and into the charcuterie thing and I have been looking for decidedly different stuff to do and this would fit the bill perfectly but will run pork.

 

[Lorenzoid]

1/4c. Dark red cayenne pepper powder

Is this a different cayenne than the widely available type that looks fairly bright red to me and is very hot? Maybe I have been using the wrong cayenne in my attempts at cajun stuff? While I'm at it, I might as well ask about the "chile powder" I see in cajun recipes along with the cayenne powder. Cayenne is obviously a variety of chile, so what other variety of chile might they be referring to? Could it be the assumption behind those recipes is that most of us outside of cajun country don't have a source for the right kind of "dark red cayenne," so the recipes have us substitute a mixture of bright red cayenne and some other chile powder? Thoughts?

 

[indaswamp]

Is this a different cayenne than the widely available type that looks fairly bright red to me and is very hot? Maybe I have been using the wrong cayenne in my attempts at cajun stuff? While I'm at it, I might as well ask about the "chile powder" I see in cajun recipes along with the cayenne powder. Cayenne is obviously a variety of chile, so what other variety of chile might they be referring to? Could it be the assumption behind those recipes is that most of us outside of cajun country don't have a source for the right kind of "dark red cayenne," so the recipes have us substitute a mixture of bright red cayenne and some other chile powder? Thoughts?

There are both dark and light colored cayenne pepper powders produced and sold. The difference in them is that the light colored powders were made with the seeds left in so the resulting powder is light in color...and it runs hot because there is a lot of capsaicin in the seeds. For example, dark red cayenne powder is 35-40k scoville units while the light is 50-65k scoville units....

"chile powder" in cajun cooking is the mexican style chile powder used in chile con carne....

Bright red vs. dark red is just the way the peppers are dried. As long as it is not light in color, it will be milder.