I'm working on a blog post with recipe for this. I thought I would share it here and see what questions come up and deal with them in my blog.
Tasso is a highly spiced cured pork product that is used to season and enhance dishes in Cajun and Creole cuisine. It isn't often served by itself. It is most often made from pork shoulder (these days), and that is what I used for mine. I bought an 8 pound Boston Butt and cut three nice thick boneless steaks from it and cubed up the rest for some Mexican chorizo.
There are tons of recipes out there for tasso, with a broad range of spice levels and combinations. For mine, I started out with the curing process from Michael Ruhlman's book (which I trust) and put together my spice blend by gathering ideas from lots of web sites and drawing on my own preferences. I'm thrilled with the results, but I've just nibbled at it. I've got a recipe for shrimp and grits that will be its first test later this week.
It's pretty simple, you cut the steaks about 1 inch thick, dredge them in Ruhlman's basic cure, let them suck that up for 4 to 8 hours, rinse, dry, dredge in spices and then smoke at 225ish to 150-160 internal. I'll link the full recipe and procedure here when I get it done.
Here they are on the smoker almost done.
Tasso is a highly spiced cured pork product that is used to season and enhance dishes in Cajun and Creole cuisine. It isn't often served by itself. It is most often made from pork shoulder (these days), and that is what I used for mine. I bought an 8 pound Boston Butt and cut three nice thick boneless steaks from it and cubed up the rest for some Mexican chorizo.
There are tons of recipes out there for tasso, with a broad range of spice levels and combinations. For mine, I started out with the curing process from Michael Ruhlman's book (which I trust) and put together my spice blend by gathering ideas from lots of web sites and drawing on my own preferences. I'm thrilled with the results, but I've just nibbled at it. I've got a recipe for shrimp and grits that will be its first test later this week.
It's pretty simple, you cut the steaks about 1 inch thick, dredge them in Ruhlman's basic cure, let them suck that up for 4 to 8 hours, rinse, dry, dredge in spices and then smoke at 225ish to 150-160 internal. I'll link the full recipe and procedure here when I get it done.
Here they are on the smoker almost done.