Curing and Smoking Pork Shanks

[gmarino13]

Used Pop’s brine 5 days, rinsed for an hour, dried at room temp for 8 hours. Smoked to 150, took 7-8 hours raising temp 10 degrees until done. They were unbelievably salty!! I hate store bought ham hocks, want my own shanks. They look pretty though. Any thoughts?

 

[Nefarious]

Used Pop’s brine 5 days, rinsed for an hour, dried at room temp for 8 hours. Smoked to 150, took 7-8 hours raising temp 10 degrees until done. They were unbelievably salty!! I hate store bought ham hocks, want my own shanks. They look pretty though. Any thoughts?

I did some last year for an Octoberfest party. I smoked them for six hours at 180 on my recteq, then finished in the oven. They were delicious. I got them from a butcher so we're not salty at all. I did not brine mine. There is a brief thread here, I'm on my phone or I would post it.

 

[thirdeye]

Are you positive these were fresh shanks and not previously cured? Which version of Pop's Brine did you use (the range of salt is 1/3 cup to 1 cup of salt)? Generally speaking, previously smoked shanks are split, and fresh shanks are not split.

 

[gmarino13]

Are you positive these were fresh shanks and not previously cured? Which version of Pop's Brine did you use (the range of salt is 1/3 cup to 1 cup of salt)? Generally speaking, previously smoked shanks are split, and fresh shanks are not split.
View attachment 679194
View attachment 679195

Definitely fresh shanks. Here's the recipe I followed:

5 pounds pork shanks, approx. 1 pound each
1 quart water
7 1/2 ounces salt, 70% brine solution
45 grams brown sugar
30 grams cure #1

Inject shanks with 2 1/4 ounces of brine solution. Place injected shanks into remaining brine mix and place in refrigerator for 5 days.

Rinse shanks with cold water and soak in running water for about an hour.

Place shanks on racks and let dry for 6 to 8 hours at room temperature.

Put shanks in 130F smoker (hickory chunks, WSM), gradually raising temperature to 200F in 10 degree increments over 7-8 hours.

Cook until internal temperature of 150F is reached.

Shower shanks in cold water to reduce temperature. Allow shanks to dry.

 

[zwiller]

Love Pops brine but hate the volumetrics. What salt you use? Pops used SEA salt. Table salt is 2x saltier.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Definitely fresh shanks. Here's the recipe I followed:

5 pounds pork shanks, approx. 1 pound each
1 quart water
7 1/2 ounces salt, 70% brine solution
45 grams brown sugar
30 grams cure #1

That is definitely not Pop’s brine.
The salt and cure #1 are way to high for a quart of water and 5# meat as well, that’s a crazy hot brine.

That is over 200g salt, maybe a misprint?

 

[tallbm]

Definitely fresh shanks. Here's the recipe I followed:

5 pounds pork shanks, approx. 1 pound each
1 quart water
7 1/2 ounces salt, 70% brine solution
45 grams brown sugar
30 grams cure #1

Inject shanks with 2 1/4 ounces of brine solution. Place injected shanks into remaining brine mix and place in refrigerator for 5 days.

Rinse shanks with cold water and soak in running water for about an hour.

Place shanks on racks and let dry for 6 to 8 hours at room temperature.

Put shanks in 130F smoker (hickory chunks, WSM), gradually raising temperature to 200F in 10 degree increments over 7-8 hours.

Cook until internal temperature of 150F is reached.

Shower shanks in cold water to reduce temperature. Allow shanks to dry.

Hi there and welcome!
Yeah I can imagine those shanks were salty, I calculate about 6.6% salt was used!

I find I like 1.65% salt and people try not to go over 2% salt. You are more than 3X those salt percentages.

When curing or brining I always recommend going equilibrium cure/brine of 1.65% salt and using the DigginDog calculator here:
http://diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

In short, enter the weight of Meat and Water in grams.

(1 qt water weighs about 2.083325 lbs which = 944.97539gms, and 5 pounds = 2267.95gms so Meat and Water weight = 3212.89137gms)

Change Salt % Desired to 1.65. Click Calculate and boom!
Salt Needed would be 45.49 grams.
(This calculator takes into consideration the salt in the Cure#1 as well to make sure you total to 1.65% desired salt overall)

Inject all over and cure for 5 days, 7, days 14 days... it doesn't matter you will never get too salty because you cannot go over 1.65% salt of all the stuff in your curing bucket.

This is exact. No guessing about ratios of water to meat and such.
Also this works almost exactly the same if doing a non-cure#1 brine.

In a non-cure#1 brine, just know you would add like 7grams more salt to make up for the salt missing from cure#1.
But honestly in 5 pound of meat + 2lbs of water (roughly 1 quart) you aren't likely going to miss the taste of 7 gms of salt if you just use the Salt number alone at 1.65%. Alternatively, when doing a brine with no cure#1, you could just bump up the desired salt to like 1.8-1.85% salt and get your missing salt grams that would have been in the cure#1 that you are not using :D

Let me know if this makes sense because once you are armed with this knowledge you will never have a cure or a brine that is too salty, not ever again :)

 

[gmarino13]

Love Pops brine but hate the volumetrics. What salt you use? Pops used SEA salt. Table salt is 2x saltier.

Used Kosher Salt

 

[gmarino13]

Hi there and welcome!
Yeah I can imagine those shanks were salty, I calculate about 6.6% salt was used!

I find I like 1.65% salt and people try not to go over 2% salt. You are more than 3X those salt percentages.

When curing or brining I always recommend going equilibrium cure/brine of 1.65% salt and using the DigginDog calculator here:
http://diggingdogfarm.com/page2.html

In short, enter the weight of Meat and Water in grams.

(1 qt water weighs about 2.083325 lbs which = 944.97539gms, and 5 pounds = 2267.95gms so Meat and Water weight = 3212.89137gms)

Change Salt % Desired to 1.65. Click Calculate and boom!
Salt Needed would be 45.49 grams.
(This calculator takes into consideration the salt in the Cure#1 as well to make sure you total to 1.65% desired salt overall)
View attachment 679230


Inject all over and cure for 5 days, 7, days 14 days... it doesn't matter you will never get too salty because you cannot go over 1.65% salt of all the stuff in your curing bucket.

This is exact. No guessing about ratios of water to meat and such.
Also this works almost exactly the same if doing a non-cure#1 brine.

In a non-cure#1 brine, just know you would add like 7grams more salt to make up for the salt missing from cure#1.
But honestly in 5 pound of meat + 2lbs of water (roughly 1 quart) you aren't likely going to miss the taste of 7 gms of salt if you just use the Salt number alone at 1.65%. Alternatively, when doing a brine with no cure#1, you could just bump up the desired salt to like 1.8-1.85% salt and get your missing salt grams that would have been in the cure#1 that you are not using :D

Let me know if this makes sense because once you are armed with this knowledge you will never have a cure or a brine that is too salty, not ever again :)

Thanks for all the responses! Feel bad the I've wasted about $25 in good product, but I'l try again and try to make heads/tails of cure recipe. What kind of salt is suggested? Just went to the website and at first read, it's not specified. And I take it that while the calculator just says "weight of meat" you include the weight of the water as well?

 

[gmarino13]

Thanks everyone. I'll try again and report back soon!

 

[BigW.]

Can you use the hocks in a pot of soup? Maybe that would pull some salt out.

 

[tallbm]

Thanks for all the responses! Feel bad the I've wasted about $25 in good product, but I'l try again and try to make heads/tails of cure recipe. What kind of salt is suggested? Just went to the website and at first read, it's not specified. And I take it that while the calculator just says "weight of meat" you include the weight of the water as well?

Glad I glad the info helps.
Yes in a liquid cure/brine it is weight of meat and water.
If you do a non liquid cure/brine, like with pork belly to make bacon, you only have the weight of the meat.

Why must you include the weight of the water???
Because salt wants to travel equally between all of the "stuff" in your curing/brining bucket, hence "equilibrium" cure/brine.
If you only used the meat weight, you wouldn't get correct measurements since the salt will equally distribute between both the water and the meat. If you have the water weight with the meat weight then you guarantee you get your salt % in your meat (and in the water) when the salt equals out.
It's just how salt behaves. Make sense? :D

As for salt, I use just Plain salt with nothing else in it. Kosher salt works well too. Just be sure you don't heat your liquid to dissolve the cure and salt into your water. It's my understanding that hot/boiling water will kill your cure#1. I just use my blender and water to dissolve my cure#1 and salt. Super simple :)

WAIT! You can still get great use out of those over salted shanks, so don't throw them out.

If you like beans, they would be awesome in there. Same with something like ham/pork navy bean soup.
Finally, If you want to soak them in cold water and switch out the water every 4hours or so, you can leach out the salt. It may take a little while but it's possible.

I personally would turn those things into amazing pots of pinto beans. Once you get your fill of a big pot of pinto beans you can refry those beans for all kinds of tex-mex or mexican food dishes. These things will add a ton of salt and flavor!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Another thing with hocks to keep in mind is the bone weight. You really need to subtract that when figuring for cure. Only the estimated meat weight should be used.
There are many ways to approach this project with predictable great outcomes.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Yeah I can imagine those shanks were salty, I calculate about 6.6% salt was used!

There is 25% salt in that quart of water. Near salt saturation which is 26% the point where salt stops dissolving.

 

[tallbm]

There is 25% salt in that quart of water. Near salt saturation which is 26% the point where salt stops dissolving.

Ah good info to know for sure. Yeah it was a ton of salt. I can imagine the salt bomb those things are :D

 

[SmokinEdge]

Ah good info to know for sure. Yeah it was a ton of salt. I can imagine the salt bomb those things are :D

I store my natural casings in that but never meat.

 

[thirdeye]

Definitely fresh shanks. Here's the recipe I followed:

5 pounds pork shanks, approx. 1 pound each
1 quart water
7 1/2 ounces salt, 70% brine solution
45 grams brown sugar
30 grams cure #1

Okay, lesson learned and with the provided information you now have a better battleplan going forward. I noticed your recipe mentioned 70% brine solution, which is confusing.

I'm wondering if that should have been 70° (degrees)? In this case, 70° refers to the "strength" of the brine, not the temperature of the brine during curing. So, if my hunch is correct, and looking at a brine strength table showing salometer degrees, your brine is 18.48% salt. Well above the range for modern equilibrium curing brines.


Brine Strength in degrees --------- % by weight of salt

70​

18.48 %​

Making brine

The main advantage of making your own brine is that you have total control over it and there is no guessing involved. Basic brine has always been salt and water and all other ingredients are extras.

www.meatsandsausages.com

 

[SmokinEdge]

This is an information post for any that it may help now or later down the road.

To find salt percentage in a brine, we need to know two things.
1) the weight of the water
2) the weight of the salt (including cure #1)

So here in this OP post we have:
1 quart of water= 945g
7.5 oz. Of salt= 212.6g
30g of cure #1
Total salt is 242.6g (we will just leave it at 242g)

To solve for salt percentage we need to add the water weight and the total salt weight together, then divide that into just the total salt weight then multiply that by 100% (move the decimal to the right two places to find salt percentage, looks like this:

212 + 30= 242g + 945g= 1187g total weight now divide that into the total salt:

242/1187= .203 x 100%= 20.3% salt in brine.

This is a very strong gradient brine, but if you were to inject this brine at a rate of 10% to actual meat weight and NOT cover with the rest of the brine, you would impart 2% salt to the meat, this is a very acceptable salt level. The cure #1 in this brine is 1984ppm nitrite so at a 10% injection you will impart 198ppm which is below the maximum allowable for whole muscle which is 200ppm.

As a 10% to meat weight injection only brine cure this will work perfectly fine, just don’t inject and cover with this brine.

I hope this information helps somebody at some point.