Buckboard Bacon


 
I was reading more about this and I came up with a question. Where would you buy a good sized boneless pork butt? The ones I buy and cook always have a bone in them. Anyone have any ideas?
 
Do you have any Chinese markets near by? There's one near me that sells boneless pork butt.

Buckboard bacon isn't that hard to do and it has always turned out great when I've made it. I'd encourage you to get your own pink salt and make your own cures. You don't have to include pink salt, but it keeps longer in the frig if you use it. It is a lot cheaper to make your own cure than to buy it and you can go in a lot of directions.
 
I've found the BB from hi-mountain spices to be easy and delicous. More importantly, my teenager snapped it right up and requested a repeat. He actually has pretty selective tastes, so this is a pretty good testimony. Anyway, I recommend you try it.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by David Lohrentz:
Do you have any Chinese markets near by? There's one near me that sells boneless pork butt.

Buckboard bacon isn't that hard to do and it has always turned out great when I've made it. I'd encourage you to get your own pink salt and make your own cures. You don't have to include pink salt, but it keeps longer in the frig if you use it. It is a lot cheaper to make your own cure than to buy it and you can go in a lot of directions. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

This sounds like a lot of fun and satisfying as well. I haven't searched for any cures - David, any suggestions on recipes or where to look?

I've never seen "pink" salt before. I've seen gray salt. I've seen Morton's pickling salt and Kosher salt, but not curing salt. I doubt it is in the local grocery stores. Is it something I should order if I try the buckboard bacon?

Darin, don't know if you have Costco's in AZ but here in AK, the Costco stores offer 4-packs of cryovac'd boneless butts.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Darin Hearn:
I was reading more about this and I came up with a question. Where would you buy a good sized boneless pork butt? The ones I buy and cook always have a bone in them. Anyone have any ideas? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>Butts are very easy to bone yourself. As you know from cooking bone-in butts, the bone is relatively short and relatively flat. Simply insert your boning knife (use a stiff or semi-flex) at any point where flesh meets bone and, keeping the knife as close to the bone as possible, sever the meat, slowly working your way around the bone, not too deeply. Repeat, working deeper each time till you reach the end of the bone. (You can pry the meat back periodically to see where you are in the process.)

When you are near or at the end of the bone you have a choice: You can make a single cut from the top of the butt just above the point where the bone ends, straight down to a point just past the end of the bone, and sever the meat from its end, or you can do what many 'butchers' do (the reason why so many commercial boneless buuts are a mess) and make the cut I just described plus a horizontal cut, from the side, near the bone's end.

Alternatively, you can do what's done to the really mangled boneless butts one finds: Rather than careully working a knife around the bone as described, simply cut into the flesh on the side of the butt closest to where the edge of the bone is, and cut into the flesh the entire length of the bone. Then, from the end of the butt where the bone is visible, insert your knife in the cut you've made, and sever the flesh from the top flat side of the bone, using a sawing motion and keeping your knife as close to the bone's upper flat side as possible, till you reach the opposite edge of the bone. Repeat, severing the flesh from the bones flat bottom side. This will create a large flap of meat. Fold the flap back with one hand and with the other sever the meat from the inside end of the bone. You'll end up with a this large flap and fairly rough interior portions where you sawed flesh from bone (much like the butts from Costco I'm told) but this really isn't an issue for buckboard. It's cured and smoked flat. The meat flaps will stick together fairly well.

Hope this makes sense.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Eric Aarseth:
I've never seen "pink" salt before. I've seen gray salt. I've seen Morton's pickling salt and Kosher salt, but not curing salt. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Eric,

Pink salt is not regular salt. Though it contains regular salt, it also has sodium nitrite (or nitrate) mixed with it. IMO, it's much easier to use a pre mixed cure (like the high mountain stuff, or even Tender Quick from Mortons). If you use pink salt, the amount you need to use is sooooo small that you'll need a very accurate scale (kitchen scales won't cut it) to measure it out. I guess some people use volume (i.e. 1 teaspoon) but IMO that's just not safe. What's great about the premixed cure is that 1) If you use too much cure, you'll know it when you're eating it because your food will be too salty, and 2) the nitrites are already evenly distributed throughout the cure. On a final note, you really have to be careful with curing salts. Too much and it could poison you (no antidote), too little and your meat will spoil when curing. I guess the benefit of using pink salt would be greater versatility in recipes, but as a relative beginner I've had a lot of success with Tender Quick (regular and sugar cure) and am really happy with it.

Check out these books...

Morton's Meat Curing Guide
Charcuterie
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Phil R.:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Eric Aarseth:
I've never seen "pink" salt before. I've seen gray salt. I've seen Morton's pickling salt and Kosher salt, but not curing salt. </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Eric,

Pink salt is not regular salt. Though it contains regular salt, it also has sodium nitrite (or nitrate) mixed with it. IMO, it's much easier to use a pre mixed cure (like the high mountain stuff, or even Tender Quick from Mortons). If you use pink salt, the amount you need to use is sooooo small that you'll need a very accurate scale (kitchen scales won't cut it) to measure it out. I guess some people use volume (i.e. 1 teaspoon) but IMO that's just not safe. What's great about the premixed cure is that 1) If you use too much cure, you'll know it when you're eating it because your food will be too salty, and 2) the nitrites are already evenly distributed throughout the cure. On a final note, you really have to be careful with curing salts. Too much and it could poison you (no antidote), too little and your meat will spoil when curing. I guess the benefit of using pink salt would be greater versatility in recipes, but as a relative beginner I've had a lot of success with Tender Quick (regular and sugar cure) and am really happy with it.

Check out these books...

Morton's Meat Curing Guide
Charcuterie </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

To start I agree. I am definitely going to have to try the backboard bacon. I think I've seen some version of the Morton premixed cure in the commissary. Thanks.
 
Curing salt really isn't that hard to use. Your meat wouldn't spoil while curing if you didn't have enough. After all, you can cure many items just fine in the refrigerator with regular salt and other spices.

I just like to be in control when cooking in general, rather than use somebody else's premixed this or that. If that isn't your cup of tea, then by all means use morton tenderquick or hi mountain or whatever.
 
Agreed. Further, one doesn't need to struggle with tiny quantities for a single curing session. It's easier, imo, to make up a large batch of basic cure mixing salt, sugar and pink salt in proportion, then saving it for use as the base for all sorts of curing tasks, be it buckboard bacon, belly bacon, pastrami--whatever.
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Tony Serra:
Does anyone have the recipe to make Buckboard Bacon using Morton Tender Quick? </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

A real easy recipe I have used is simply 1 tablespoon of TenderQuick and one tablespoon of turbinado or brown sugar per pound of pork. Rub it around and in all the cracks and crevices, put it in a baggie, and let it sit in the fridge for 10 days or so (flipping half way)

You can also add some spices, for example I'll sometimes throw in a little cracked black pepper .
 
We'll see how they turn out! I was given a packet of Hi Mountain cure, picked up 16 lbs of boneless butt from Costco and mixed a 50/50 batch of Tenderquick and Brown sugar. Have them loosely vac sealed and plan to inject with Apple juice and Maple syrup before they hit the smoke.
Side by side comparison. Keep you posted!
 
Brian:

It's not readily obvious from the offical product directions, but bear in mind that one Hi Mountain baggie cures 8 pounds of butt. Oh, and the DEA probably views exchanging such baggies with other "afficianados" with a skeptical eye. Good luck.
 
I have a butt curing as we speak. I'll be smoking it next Sunday.

I agree with almost everything these guys have told you. The only thing I have a concern with is injecting a cured butt before smoking.

I've injected butts before, but part of the art of curing is that you're extracting fluid from the meat. Adding juice to the meat (IMHO), would promote spoilage.

If you're looking for the apple flavor, try brining your meat in apple juice and Tender Quick. From what I've read on other boards, you can brine cure a butt just a well as a loin for Canadian bacon.

One other thing, you don't want a whole heck of a lot of smoke when cooking your cured butt. The smoke flavor can get away from you really quickly. I usually use a small piece of hickory and a piece of pecan.

The 1 TBSP of Tender Quick per pound is pretty accurate. I add a good old helping of dark brown sugar also.

You can use some butcher's twine to better shape your butt. Usually I roll mine and tie it up.

Once you have finished cooking, remove from the WSM and wrap in foil. Let it cool for a couple of hours.

Now the hard part!!! Place it in the chill chest overnight. Trust me... that piece of meat will be calling you all night long. Take the cold meat out and slice it thin.

Fry some up, give some away, vacuum seal the rest. It's all good.

Keep the pieces you have that you couldn't slice for seasoning meat. You'll make a pot of greens or beans very happy.

Hope this helps.


-Matt
 
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by Brian Moriarty:
We'll see how they turn out! I was given a packet of Hi Mountain cure, picked up 16 lbs of boneless butt from Costco and mixed a 50/50 batch of Tenderquick and Brown sugar. Have them loosely vac sealed and plan to inject with Apple juice and Maple syrup before they hit the smoke.
Side by side comparison. Keep you posted! </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Brian - what were the results of your comparison? Was the High Mountain worth the bother???
 
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