"Cured!" Throwdown (Entry & Discussion Thread) LASTS Through Monday, Feb 7th!!

Moose · Jan 20, 2022

Our New Throwdown Category is...

"Cured!"

This was Fatback Joe's winning entry in the 2017 "Cured" Throwdown

As chosen by sudsandswine for winning the "Comfort Food" Throwdown.

CATEGORY DESCRIPTION - PLEASE READ:

sudsandswine said:

Hey Moose - I’ve been on a cured meat kick while I’ve been bringing my curing fridge online, so how about a Throwdown that has to include cured meat in it? Figure there’s lots of ways it could go, the cured meat can be the star of the show, or as a featured ingredient in a dish. Things like corned beef or pastrami to pepperoni/salami….ham… or even something with bacon come to mind. You can use your own cured meats or store bought cured meats are also fine. The cured meat in your entry MUST be cooked.

Click to expand...

You may submit entries that are cooked from Friday 1/21 through Monday 2/7.

Entry pictures must be submitted by Noon Central US Time on Monday 2/7.

Click here to read the rules for the BBQ Brethren Throwdowns...

Best of luck and even better eats to all!

Moose · Jan 20, 2022

SMOKE FREAK · Jan 20, 2022

Just tossing this out for discussion.

For folks who have no curing experience, can a store bought cured meat be prepared and entered? Or is it just restricted to meats cured/processed at home?

sudsandswine · Jan 20, 2022

My intention was not for people to have to cure their own meat as part of the TD, just utilize cured meat somehow in the dish, whether that be store bought or homemade.

Moose · Jan 20, 2022

SMOKE FREAK said:
Just tossing this out for discussion.

For folks who have no curing experience, can a store bought cured meat be prepared and entered? Or is it just restricted to meats cured/processed at home?

sudsandswine said:
My intention was not for people to have to cure their own meat as part of the TD, just utilize cured meat somehow in the dish, whether that be store bought or homemade.

Glad you brought this up, Craig, and thanks for the clarification, Neal! I've amended the category description to include home cured and store bought cured meats.

LordRiffenstein · Jan 21, 2022

I was gonna comment that people might prefer a little more time if they´re curing themselves but I see it is not a must.

thirdeye · Jan 21, 2022

Bummer.... I'm making a corning brine as I speak, but my full process is 16 or 18 days. Maybe I'll freezer dive, Lord knows I have a lot of home cured meats in there. :mrgreen:

sudsandswine · Jan 23, 2022

Doesn’t have to be home cured, just any cured meat though!

Yellowhair42 · Jan 24, 2022

Some rashers I just finished

Please accept this picture as my official entry. I raised this pig in my back yard during this past summer. I "harvested" it and boned it out myself. EQ cured for 14 days with 1.8% salt, 1% brown sugar and 0.25 % Instacure #1. Cold smoked with black cherry wood for 40 hours. Uncovered refrigerator rest for two weeks. Sliced, vacuum packaged and refrigerated for two weeks to equalize the moisture and then frozen.

LYU370 · Jan 25, 2022

Making it a little different than I normally do. In Progress...

LordRiffenstein · Jan 26, 2022

Cured meats platter:

All ingredients came from a local farm, every item on the platter home made.
From top to bottom:

Polish Kabanossy, cured/cold smoked/hot smoked/1 day dried
Pork Rilette
Pickled onions
Beef salami, cured/hot smoked/4 weeks dried
Smoked ham, 10 days cured/cold smoked/4 weeks dried

Moose · Jan 26, 2022

Please Read: Moderator's Note Regarding Entries in this Throwdown

***Moderator’s Note:***

There’s a couple of things I would like to point out about our first two entries, and this Throwdown category in general:

After conferring privately with sudsanswine, he confirmed what was obvious to some, and not to others, and that was that entries should be cooked in this Throwdown. So, that would mean that any cured meat that you entered, whether store bought or homemade, be cooked, even if they were already pre-smoked. That means if you entered bacon, for example, you would either cook the bacon standalone or as an essential ingredient in a dish.

Additionally, we don’t have any way of knowing whether the first two entries submitted were smoked or finished smoking during the time this Throwdown has been running. This is why we strongly suggest posting a cook thread in Qtalk, or a cook thread here, in the Throwdown entry threads.

I have revised the category description to reflect the fact that entries must be cooked(grilled or smoked) per suds’ intention. Rules 4 & 5 state:

4. Entries must be grilled or smoked during the cooking process, or must prominently feature grilled or smoked ingredients which you prepared. Photos of your food on the grill or smoker are encouraged but not required (we love action shots). Using a gas grill is perfectly acceptable, unless a particular category requires the use of a wood or charcoal cooker. Additionally, other forms of wood or gas cooking are fine, which would include a wood fired fireplace (indoor or outdoor), a firepit(gas or wood fired), and other gas/propane powered cookers like pizza ovens, flat tops, and griddles.

5. Entries MUST be prepared during the time that the Throwdown Category is accepting entries. This period of time is specified in the first post of each Throwdown entry thread.

Thanks fer listening, and carry on!

LYU370 · Jan 26, 2022

Count me as one of those that didn't get it. And I'm allegedly supposed to be a :mod:. :tsk: :tsk: I thought (cold) smoked would be good enough.

Oh well, off to the store to start on Plan B which is what I was originally planning on doing anyway.

Swine Spectator · Jan 26, 2022

Does cold-smoked count as cooked?

LYU370 · Jan 26, 2022

Swine Spectator said:
Does cold-smoked count as cooked?

I wouldn't consider it cooked, for cold smoking you generally want to keep temps below 90, that's not really going to cook anything. It's really preserving and adding flavor.

Moose · Jan 27, 2022

LYU370 said:
Count me as one of those that didn't get it. And I'm allegedly supposed to be a :mod:. :tsk: :tsk: I thought (cold) smoked would be good enough.

Oh well, off to the store to start on Plan B which is what I was originally planning on doing anyway.

Swine Spectator said:
Does cold-smoked count as cooked?

LYU370 said:
I wouldn't consider it cooked, for cold smoking you generally want to keep temps below 90, that's not really going to cook anything. It's really preserving and adding flavor.

Here's some clarification from suds on the matter:

sudsandswine said:
4. Entries must be grilled or smoked during the cooking process, or must prominently feature grilled or smoked ingredients which you prepared. Photos of your food on the grill or smoker are encouraged but not required (we love action shots). Using a gas grill is perfectly acceptable, unless a particular category requires the use of a wood or charcoal cooker. Additionally, other forms of wood or gas cooking are fine, which would include a wood fired fireplace (indoor or outdoor), a firepit(gas or wood fired), and other gas/propane powered cookers like pizza ovens, flat tops, and griddles.

In Andy’s example, it looked as though he was curing and cold smoking salmon and that it would be edible after that process. In his example I’d say yes.

“Entries must be grilled or smoked during the cooking process” while he technically doesn’t need to cold smoke it to be edible, cold smoking introduces flavor and seems to comply with the “grilled or smoked” theme of that rule.

Not sure what swine spectator had in mind, if he was cold smoking bacon and then using the cold smoked bacon in another dish that is edible I’d say yes. If he was just going to cold smoke some bacon but would not/could not eat it in that post cold smoked form, then I’d say that wouldn’t comply.

If whatever “smoking” or “grilling” process results in an edible dish then I say yes. If further cooking is required and the submission doesn’t include it being in an edible state, then no.

sudsandswine · Jan 27, 2022

Sorry everyone - I didn't expect this TD category to become so nuanced, although I guess I shouldn't be surprised considering how creative everyone tends to get with their submissions. I also understand wanting clarification before spending the time and money to make a dish to submit. Using some sort of combustible fuel like wood, charcoal, gas, or wood pellets to grill or smoke a dish has always been one of the requirements for submissions, so as long as whatever you submit adheres to that (and the other standard TD rules) and is edible after that process completes I don't personally see any issues.

LYU370 · Jan 30, 2022

How about a Lamb BLT with home cured lamb bacon.

Cook thread.

Please use the photo below as my entry.

SmokinAussie · Feb 2, 2022

I'll throw another log on the fire here.

I cure my own biltong. It's very good. looks amazing on a plate, but it's air dried.

I'm not sure why if something is cured it needs to be cooked because you do commonly cure and air dry.

for example, if you cure a salami and put that on a board to present that for an entry, it's a DQ? Why should you have to cook it?

sudsandswine · Feb 2, 2022

Because this is BBQ Brethren, not Charcuterie and Jerky Brethren :thumb: :becky:

"Cured!" Throwdown (Entry & Discussion Thread) LASTS Through Monday, Feb 7th!!

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