BBB-Corned Beef-Pastrami: The cure for a November day-[PRON Heavy}

[Kosmo's Q]

WOW... I'm lazy.... my wife is right. lol

 

[Norcoredneck]

Looks very edible.

 

[thirdeye]

Looks good, I love experiments. Would you mind posting the recipe for the cure(s) you made, and also the amounts per pound you used?

 

[SirPorkaLot]

Looks good, I love experiments. Would you mind posting the recipe for the cure(s) you made, and also the amounts per pound you used?

Pastrami:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]1/4 cup Morton Tender Quick
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup coarse ground black pepper
2 Tablespoons granulated garlic
2 Tablespoons Onion Powder
2 Tablespoons ground coriander[/FONT]

This was for ~6lb flat separated into two ~3lb pieces

BBB:
First i rubbed it with grade A amber maple syrup, then I rubbed in the cure:

3 Tablespoons Morton Tender Quick
2 Tablespoons coarse ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon onion powder

This was for a 8lb butt (before it was deboned)
Did I mess it up?

The Pastrami is beyond compare by the way.

 

[thirdeye]

Pastrami:
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]1/4 cup Morton Tender Quick[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]1/4 cup coarse ground black pepper[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]2 Tablespoons granulated garlic[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]2 Tablespoons Onion Powder[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]2 Tablespoons ground coriander[/FONT]

This was for ~6lb flat separated into two ~3lb pieces

BBB:
First i rubbed it with grade A amber maple syrup, then I rubbed in the cure:

3 Tablespoons Morton Tender Quick
2 Tablespoons coarse ground black pepper
1 Tablespoon garlic powder
1 Tablespoon onion powder

This was for a 8lb butt (before it was deboned)
Did I mess it up?

The Pastrami is beyond compare by the way.

Mess up? Heck you will have to be the judge of that. I actually wanted to compare your recipe to, and add it to the others in my Morton's notes. That stuff is on my computer at home, but I'm thinking 1 to 1-1/2 tablespoons of TQ per pound of meat is common.

All of Morton's recipes are for either small things like a pork chop, (that gets a short cure) or 100 pounds of meat (where they are measuring TQ in cups or pounds). They also use a liquid pickle alot instead of a dry cure. In talking to them, they always say things like "stick to an established and proven recipe", yet they are not willing to actually provide one...... I've been telling myself for years that I want to try come BBB with TQ again, I use it in brines and sausage so I have it around. I've been making a buckboard loin each week for the last three and plan on doing it regularly through the holidays for presents. I rinsed one and put it in for the soak out this morning and was thinking about trying a Tenderquick'd one next week, or one of each for a side-by-side.

 

[drbowden]

John - looks great! I definitely think you did NOT mess up!

Gotta work on my patience so I can try this sometime soon! :wink:

 

[thirdeye]

jshepwnc,

Here is one example of what I was talking about, here is one of the earliest recipes I have from Morton's using a dry cure for Canadian bacon (buckboard loins):


DIRECTIONS FOR DRY CURE (loins) For the dry cure, use Tender-Quick at the rate of 6 lbs. Tender-Quick per 100 lbs. of loins. First rub the meat with 1/3 of the Tender-Quick, then in 2 or 3 hours rub on the second 1/3 and in 24 hours apply the balance. Pack the loins closely while in cure and overhaul once when the curing time is about halt up, changing the position of the pieces.
Leave the pieces in cure for 10 days to two weeks. When taken from the cure, wash the loins, let them dry thoroughly, and rub with cornmeal and pepper.

Looking through several of my recipes, there was some variance in the amount of TQ, the most common amount of cure seems to be 1-1/2 Tablespoons per pound, although if you add add additional seasonings that would have to be bumped a bit.

The mot popular cure time was 3 to 4 days per inch of meat.

As you can see, Morton's instructions mention applying the amount of cure called for in three doses, this is consistant with several recipes I have seen, but not all of them.

 

[SirPorkaLot]

The most popular cure time was 3 to 4 days per inch of meat.

As you can see, Morton's instructions mention applying the amount of cure called for in two doses, this is consistant with several recipes I have seen, but not all of them.

Thanks for the info!

I had planned to let it cure for 12-14 days, with a second application of TQ halfway through.

Maybe I will bump of the amount of TQ in the second dosing.

This is a learn as i go kind of thing, which is the only way I know to do it :mrgreen:

The pastrami was a little tougher than I would have liked, but i believe that is mostly due to my inability to slice even, thin slices with a knife.

[Note: John needs a meat slicer for Christmas :twisted:]

 

[thirdeye]

I bet a doing a heavier second dose would work just fine.

For my pastrami, my current favorite finish is in a pressure cooker.

 

[Phubar]

Looks very good JS!

 

[SirPorkaLot]

I bet a doing a heavier second dose would work just fine.

For my pastrami, my current favorite finish is in a pressure cooker.

I bet that would work great, as you are trying to infuse moisture in there via steam, and nothing does that better than a pressure cooker.

 

[SirPorkaLot]

Maple cured - Hickory smoked Bacon

Originally Posted by Learnin Querve
Just curious....What happened to the butt?

Chris

It is still curing. It will cure for 12-14 days before I make buckboard bacon out of it.

I will post here when that happens

Ok here it is 14 days later and I pulled the Buckboard Bacon out of the refrigerator.
Rinsed it, and let is soak in a pot of clean lukewarm water for an hour.
Then I throw it on the smoker (K-Comp & Hickory chunks - 190-200 @ grate level) until it hits internal of about 150.

4 hours later I pulled it off the smoker and let it rest for an hour.
Then time to slice

and fry it up in a pan

Sure was tasty.

 

[landarc]

That first sliced photo looks almost like prosciutto. Fried up it just looks tasty.

 

[SirPorkaLot]

That first sliced photo looks almost like prosciutto. Fried up it just looks tasty.

It did look a lot like prosciutto, and could have been eaten just like it was (it did hit 150 internal before I took it off, and it cured for 2 weeks), but I had to fry up some to see how it was.
It did not disappoint.

I have a container full I plan on making turkey devonshires with Sunday morning (we are having early t-giving tomorrow)

 

[SirPorkaLot]

Summary

Here is a summary:

Brisket + TQ + Spice mix = Cured Beef

Cured Beef + Pastrami Rub + Smoker = Pastrami

Cured Beef + Pot of boiling water for 4hrs = Corned Beef

Corned beef Hash a cookin

Hash & Eggs

Boston Butt + Maple Syrup & TQ = Buckboard Bacon

 

[pomah25]

Great looking eats! Personally when it comes to Buckboard Bacon i would not even fry it, looks too delicious coming out the smoker!

I am extremely interested in making it and if you don't mind i have couple of question about it.

1. Do you de-bone the meat before you cure it?
a. is it a good idea too?
2. Is there a need to cut it in half, to make the meat thinner? - looked kind of thin in the picture.
3. You said 12 -14 days is good curing, is there some kind of suggestion on how long to cure it by pound? I bought a 9 pound boston butt (with bone) for .99 cent a pound! Its not too big is it? How long should i cure it?
4. Also, it looks like the sell by date on it, is withing couple of days, will it be an issue since i will be curing it well past that date?
5. You also recommended smoking it at 175F - I will be cooking it in my UDS and have quite a bit of cooking space, therefore i was thinking of smoking some ribs or something else with it? Will it be an issue if i am using this temp? Ribs would not be cured.

Sorry to bombard you with questions, i am just extremely excited to try this, I've been doing some hot smoking on my freshly build UDS (thanks to the other threads!) And this seems like a perfect step towards cold smoking.

Thank you!

 

[KnucklHed BBQ]

1. Do you de-bone the meat before you cure it?
a. is it a good idea too?
2. Is there a need to cut it in half, to make the meat thinner? - looked kind of thin in the picture.
3. You said 12 -14 days is good curing, is there some kind of suggestion on how long to cure it by pound? I bought a 9 pound boston butt (with bone) for .99 cent a pound! Its not too big is it? How long should i cure it?
4. Also, it looks like the sell by date on it, is withing couple of days, will it be an issue since i will be curing it well past that date?
5. You also recommended smoking it at 175F - I will be cooking it in my UDS and have quite a bit of cooking space, therefore i was thinking of smoking some ribs or something else with it? Will it be an issue if i am using this temp? Ribs would not be cured.

I'll try to help,
1: I like to debone before I cure and 2: I also cut it in 1/2 at the same time as deboning. It makes for thinner, more bacon-like strips than a whole thick hunk and it's easier to slice by hand after the smoke - I think the flavor turns out the same either way though...
3: if you cut it in 1/2 you won't need that long to cure it, belly bacon is much thinner and only takes about 7 days
4: I would think that as long as you rinse it & dry it and get it in the cure before the pull date there won't be any problems, the TQ will kill off any bacteria that would have made it go bad.
5: when I smoke mine I do it as slow & low as possible (last time I propped the hood of my CG open so that it was an even cooler smoke hitting it) about 5-6 hours for me at 150* or less. I plan on cooking my BBB so I'm not worried about it not hitting temp before I pull it.

It seems to me that if you cook it too high of a temp you'll end up with more of a ham than BBB... Maybe someone else can correct me on that??

 

[Bogus Chezz Hawg]

I'll take a pastrami & swiss on rye please!

 

[JCHjr55]

Great Tutorial Post!!

Thank you all who posted recipes and useful information.

As usual, the photos enhanced the post.

John
Seasons Greetings

 

[pomah25]

Just picked up the cure its called Legg's old Plantation Seasonings by AC Legg Inc. Its a 6.25% cure. Says 1 OZ is for 25 LBS of meat. Since i am doing only 8 pound butt, i was thinking maybe i should wet cure it? Is it possible? Any downsides? What should the recipe be? Same amount of time?

Thank you!