MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Dirty Dave's Pork Butt "Bacon"
Categories: Pork, Preserving
Yield: 3 Pounds

4 lb (to 5) boneless Pork Butt
1 ga Water

MMMMM---------------------CURING INGREDIENTS--------------------------
1 c Pickling Salt
+=AND=+
3 oz Prague Powder #1
+=OR=+
3 oz Modern Cure
+=ALTERNATIVELY=+
1 1/4 c Morton's TenderQuik can be
- used in place of pickling
- salt AND Prague Powder or
- Modern Cure
3 California bay leaves
1 1/4 c Brown sugar
3 cl Garlic
3 tb Dirty Dave's All-purpose Rub
1 tb Juniper berries; lightly
- crushed
1/2 tb Black peppercorns

Equipment: 8 qt or larger stock pot, stoneware plate,
weight(s), marinade/brine injector (opt)

Make a bag (bouquet garni) of cheesecloth for the juniper
berries, bay leaves, garlic and peppercorns. Put the
gallon of water into the stock pot with dry ingredients
and bring to a boil. Boil hard for about 10 minutes to
insure all the flavour is obtained from the bouquet garni.

Remove pot from heat, fish out the packet of bouquet garni
and let cool to 38-|F, which is your ideal temp. Add the
butt and weigh down with a plate if necessary to ensure it
remains submerged in the brine.

You can use a cooks' syringe to inject strained curing
brine into the heart of the meat to ensure complete
curing. I just did a straight soak for 7 days. Suggested
soak time is 5-7 days. If using multiple pieces of pork
that might be resting on each other, it wouldn't hurt to
flip them within the brine about halfway through the
curing process to allow brine to reach all surface area of
the meat.

After the 5-7 days of soaking, remove the pork from the
curing brine. At this point it can be rinsed/soaked in
clean, cold water or cheap (Carlo Rossi) red wine to
remove some of the saltiness of the brine. Depending on
your taste/tolerance of salt content in cured meat, you
may want to skip this step entirely or soak/ rinse for up
to 2 hours (change the water a couple of times if going
this length of time).

Next, pat the loins dry with paper towel or dry cloth.
Apply a thin coating of Dirty Dave's All-purpose Rub.
(recipe follows)

Prepare an indirect fire in your cooker, aiming for a temp
of 225-|F/105-|C. Use the smokewood of your choice. Cherry,
oak chunks, pecan, apple, or even grape vine trimmings.

The target internal temperature of the cook will be
determined largely by your finished intention for the pork
butts. If you are looking for a breakfast bacon to be
fried before eating, then an internal of 140-145-|F/60-63-|C
will be ideal. For a finished fully-cooked product, keep
cooking to internal of 155-160-|F/68-70-|C.

The bacon can be fried up immediately or kept in the
fridge with much the same shelf-life as other commercial
cured bacons. It also freezes well, especially when
pre-sliced with pieces of waxed paper placed between the
slices.

Recipe and MM Format by Dave Drum - 09 September 1997

Uncle Dirty Dave's Kitchen

MMMMM

... A bacon explosion v-v-v-virgin I am. There, I said it!
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