salt pork?

[jrbaker90]

I was watching a video on YouTube on salt pork it was by has Townsend and sons on salt pork he took a pork shoulder or a picnic roast and put it in a woodend barrel and salted my question what would be a good substitute for the wood barrel and how to cook the salt pork after its cured?

 

[Vaino]

An old bourbon aging bbl would be ideal, but any pot that would allow the pork to be totally submerged would suffice. Whether the pork is cured depends on the soaking time and brine solution.

It could then be smoked or boiled to get rid of the excess salt and then roasted. Smoked pulled pork is a good option for a tasty meal...w/ or w/o a sauce.

My son has a smoking grill and smokes slightly cured pork shoulders and serves them as is or as pulled pork w/ a salsa. I prefer just the plain smoked pork. A pork shoulder is a natural for this type of cooking...the fat really adds to the flavor and juiciness ....Fred

 

[omarick1948]

I have made salt pork in a FOOD GRADE 5 gallon pail with lid. I like to use about a 5-6 pound pork shoulder (also known as a pork butt) and totally cover it with curing salt(not iodized salt). Ready to use in 3-4 months, but better if left in the salt for 6-8 months. Has to be soaked then rinsed in cold water several times before eating.

NOTE!..Be sure to use curing salt, as it kills any dangerous bacteria that can make you very sick or even kill you!

 

[Claude Mathis]

NOTE!..Be sure to use curing salt, as it kills any dangerous bacteria that can make you very sick or even kill you!

Curing salts usually contain sodium chloride (salt), sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate. They can also contain sugar and other "stuff". :thumbsup:

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

When I was younger at home we would butcher hogs and cure all our own meat. My grand daddy did the cure he used curing salt (now referred to as mortons quick cure), black pepper, brown sugar, and salt peter. This was placed in a thick layer on the curing bench, the hams and shoulders were then completely covered with this and placed rind side down on the bench, great care was taken to work the cure into the hock area. He would take a sharpening steele an run it into the hock as far as possible then pack the cure into the hole. The meat then rested 21 days and every day we would give it a quarter turn and rub the cure. After this period it was washed with borax not the soap type. A metal rod was run through the hock and the meat was hung in the smoke house for two days to dry at which time it was smoked using sassafras, then placed in washed clean white hog feed bags. this was all done during the cold months usually around thanksgiving. I seen cured meat done in this manner last for years.

 

[omarick1948]

NOTE!..Be sure to use curing salt, as it kills any dangerous bacteria that can make you very sick or even kill you!

Curing salts usually contain sodium chloride (salt), sodium nitrite and sodium nitrate. They can also contain sugar and other "stuff". :thumbsup:

All commercially made and processed cured meats has sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite in them and perfectly safe. As an example of fresh sausage without sodium nitrates and sodium nitrites in their meats are Johnsonville. Where Hillshire brands of smoked sausage use them in curing.

 

[tenngun]

I make mine using kosher salt, in a clay crock. I also have a one gallon candy type jar that it works well in.
I make it with much like townsend but just pick up pork steaks or loins or chops on sale, and only make three or four pounds at a time.
Putting it in to bean/peas or cooked with krute and potatoes you can just toss it in the pot, maybe cut up in to bite sized pieces. for a stew like lobcose or just cooked with onions and mushrooms you just need to cover it with fresh water and leave soak for three or four hours, changing the water every hour. Using bread crumbs or crushed hard tack you can bread half pound chunks and fry, served with hot mustard it was a british tars treat. It picks up a rich flavor on curing after about a month in the brine.

 

[crockett]

On the smoking, I thought smoking the meat turned fat back into salt pork.

 

[Black Hand]

Salt pork is just pork that has been salted.

Fatback is a specific cut of fat from the back of the pig and can used to make salted pork, but contains no muscle. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatback

Smoking would make it "American-style" bacon as opposed to Pancetta, Italian "Bacon" which is cured but not smoked. However, bacon is usually cured & smoked pork belly, which contains a mix of meat and fat.

 

[necchi]

smoking the meat turned fat back into salt pork.

Nope, the smoking process is what turns salt pork into "Bacon" and/or a rump roast into "Ham".
Smoking and Salting are two different methods of meat preservation,, granted there is a brine process for bacon and ham but it's different then true a "salting".

 

[Gene L]

When we made ham and bacon, we never brined either. Dry salting only.

 

[nhmoose]

Made salt pork with my family for years when raising pigs. The fat with the skin was what we made salt pork with. Some of the Fatback (side meat with the lean) the bacon was made from also just salted.

Layer of salt about 2-3 inches in the 25 gallon crock, then the fat with the skin was packed in a circle skin side out leaving about and inch from the sides. When layer filled the edges got salt and another 2 inch layer of salt and the next layer placed and so on till the crock was filled. top layer was again 2-3 inches of salt.

NO WATER WAS ADDED EVER

A board was placed on top with a weight so when the water from the fat could not make the meat float. At 2 weeks the crock was tipped and water drained salt was added to the original top of the fill.

Sometimes it was drained when needed and salt replaced to the 2-3 inch level over the meat

When meat was taken out for cooking or giving some to neighbors and such the salt was always brought back up to the 2-3 inches over the pork.

The salt pork was good for at least a year or two doing this.

 

[R.C.BINGAMAN]

Nope bacon

 

[Gene L]

I don't know but believe the British Navy in the period and also the American Navy furnished salt pork and beef, no brine.

Also, if I remember, smoking was done in the spring to keep out skippers. It protected the meat, but not from rot but from bugs. Smoking meat was not something approached lightly, as the temp had to be held way down. The smoke taste was strong, nothing like modern smoked meat.