To cure or not to cure.... That's my question

[dano]

Alright. Here is the first question I have to ask tonight.

In your humble opinions what are the pros and cons to a wet cure for a Boston Butt for Pulled pork? My butcher says that the meat will turn rancid after 4 days if not cured and the left overâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s are my concern. As I stated before(Helo to all you happy Smokers) I will be doing about 60lbs of pork and if the weather turns for the worst I will more than likely not get the turn out that I am planning for. I love pulled pork …. How ever I still have the brisket to eat as well!

Two pros for the cure are 1. the obvious … the meat will keep longer in the fridge or the freezer. 2. the added moister to the meat.

The cure I would use is:
Brine:
8 ounces or 3/4 cup molasses
12 ounces pickling salt
2 quarts bottled water
6 to 8 pound Boston butt
Combine molasses, pickling salt, and water in 6 quart container. Add Boston butt making sure it is completely submerged in brine, cover, and let sit in refrigerator for a minimum of 8 hours. 12 hours is ideal.

Tell me what you think

Thank you in advance

Dan B.

 

[gunslinger]

I'd say you'd have gotten a lot more responses to your question if it had been posted in the correct category. But I'll give it a go.
Tell your butcher to go back to school. What do you want? Pulled pork or smoked ham. If you cure it, you have a ham. It will look like ham, cut like ham, smell like ham and taste like ham. If you have more left overs than you can eat in a few days, freeze it. Get as much air out of your packing as possible, and throw it in the freezer. Vacuum packing is better.
I smoked a butt a week ago last Monday, and ate the left overs from the fridge a week later. I didn't get sick or die. Or at least I don't think I'm dead.

 

[deejaydebi]

Dano -

If your worried crank up your fridge a bit. But smoked food lasts longer than fresh food. That's why people did it for many years. I smoke on Saturday or Sunday and eat it all week. Worst I ever got was gas from all the onion powder!

I'm thinking your butcher is probably covering his butt agaist liability or something and probably never ate pulled pork.

 

[dano]

Thanks for your opinion gunslinger… I take it you donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t care for Ham!

Donâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t get me wrong I asked for opinions and so far I have gotten two, and I thank them both. My first post might have been a bit one sided to the left over point of view. I am also considering curing/brining for the ability to the in corporate more seasoning into the meat from the brine and the ability to make a moister end product. I am planning on a cooking time of 12 to 15 hours where most hams (as I understand it) smoke for up to 6 months, such as the famous Virginia Hams.

As I said in my first posting, I am concerned that if I smoke 60lbs of Butt and the weather turns bad……. I could be literally, left holding the bag!

Please keep the feed back coming!!!

Gunslinger….. You said that I posted this thread at the wrong location, but you failed to tell me where I should have posted it. I am new at this web chat, forum, and discussion with the world thing. Please teach me.

Thank you

DANO

 

[gunslinger]

After reading this again, I think there is some confusion about the difference between brining and curing. What you are talking about is brining. There is a huge difference.
That being said, there is no need to brine pork. It will be moist and tender and keep plenty long as long as you follow the basic instructions in numerous threads in the pork category.

 

[dano]

Thanks Gunslinger I will read on!

Dano

 

[gunslinger]

Actually, I love ham.
Sorry about that. I don't know what page you are looking at, but if you'll go to the forum start page and scroll down, you'll see a bunch of different categories. There are separate ones for pork, beef, poultry, wild game, etc.

 

[deejaydebi]

Dano -

If you look to the left side of the blue bar there's an entry called Forums. If youclick that you'll see a list of categories to post in. For example:

This post is about pork, so you would click on the pork section and place your thread in there. It makes it easier for people to find and the poor moderators of the site don't have to spend all their time moving things around. That's why it fairly easy to find things here everything is meticulasly categorized for OUR convience.

 

[dano]

Debi - Gunslinger....

Thanks for the redirect. I will get used to this thing some day soon.

DANO

 

[squeezy]

Amen ... to that!

 

[hillbillysmoker]

I don't cure or brine pork butt. For me it is straight into the smoker for a smoke and an internal temp of 190. Then spritz with apple juice and foil for 2 hrs. and it's pulling time.