Threw some porkstrami ribs in to cure last night.

[realdocBBQ]

I got a couple of pork bellies (skin on, ugh) at Costco, getting a little better at pulling the skin off, but it's still a PITA and no one in my family will eat anything I make with pigskin. And I hate my bacon with it on, but oh well. I skinned 'em.

Also grabbed a 3-pack of St. Louis ribs and have been wanting to try porkstrami for a long time now, just haven't ever gotten around to it. Decided to make up a cure for it and try it out.

Pastrami Pork Rib Cure (Master Batch ~318 g)

171 g kosher salt
25.7 g Cure #1 (Prague Powder #1)
70 g sugar

20 g coarse black pepper
20 g coarse ground coriander
6 g granulated garlic
3 g mustard powder
2 g ground allspice
0.3–0.5 g ground clove

Usage: Apply at 2.5–2.7% of total rack weight.


I do a dry EQ cure for my bacon, but finding a number of good reliable DRY cure recipes for pastrami was not easy. Seems like 99% of people out there do a wet brine, which I don't like. Just takes up too much space, or using big big Ziplocs or whatever - it's just not my favorite way. I have tried it, yes, I know, just don't like messing with... well, the mess. So I apply my dry cure, then vac seal and I can throw all of them in the meat fridge, flip 'em around, shift 'em, stack 'em, whatever, and not worry about things sloshing, splashing, spilling, making a mess, etc.

Problem is - once I got the ribs vac sealed with the cure applied, I realized - I forgot the damned sugar. Dangit. Well, I can apply a light dust of sugar when it's time to smoke, and I know sugar doesn't penetrate the meat anyways. Just irritates me that I left it out, I had so many things going on - wife out of town, taking care of the house, the dog, the meat, Costco trip (40 min each way), post office, accountant's office (taxes), quick lube for transmission fluid change, all the... stuff. Just missed it.

I DIDN'T miss it on my pork bellies, though - I use a different EQ cure, so that was when I noticed it - when I grabbed the sugar to measure out for a new batch of bacon cure. Dangit. Oh well.

So, in a few days, I'll have me some porkstrami ribs! Can't wait!

 

[DRKsmoking]

Sounds like a good plan, and foods

Love doing cured ribs.

David...... I'm in for the final.

 

[mneeley490]

You can scrape the fat off the backside of the skins, cut them into strips, and smoke them until hard to make some great dog treats. My dog loved them.

 

[realdocBBQ]

You can scrape the fat off the backside of the skins, cut them into strips, and smoke them until hard to make some great dog treats. My dog loved them.

Probably what I am going to end up doing. I just hate paying for something I don't want, AND have to process it AND all the hassle. They used to carry skinless pork belly here at Costco, now they've switched to skin-on completely. Same price, they didn't cut us any breaks for the cost they're saving on processing, nor the reduction in loss from discarded skins. Essentially they've foisted it on the consumer and made us pay for it, even if we didn't want it. I hate it. Hate it, hate it, hate it. Dammit.

 

[mneeley490]

I made some skin-on bacon a while back. Sliced thin, it just gives it a little crunch. Reminded me of the bacon we used to get when I was a kid in the 60's.

 

[realdocBBQ]

I made some skin-on bacon a while back. Sliced thin, it just gives it a little crunch. Reminded me of the bacon we used to get when I was a kid in the 60's.

That wasn't my experience at all. We like ours slightly thicker cut, so that might be part of it - parts of the 'rind' were more than crisp but actually HARD, like... mmm... harder than uncooked pasta, and other parts super chewy. We did not like it. Matter of fact, last batch I fried up this weekend, I actually took the time to separate all the rind after it was cooked and am slowly mixing it in with the dog's food each night. I listened to others, I gave it a try - it wasn't for us.

 

[jcam222]

I've never done cured ribs. I have a ton in the freezer so adding it to the summer list

 

[realdocBBQ]

Pulled 'em out this morning from their vacuum sealed bags, did a quick rinse. I am (probably stupidly) following some advice from ChatGPT here, but this is an experiment, so that's what it's all about.

I would normally have let them cure 3-4 days, but Skippy told me they would suffer in texture AND become more 'hammy' with a longer time.

Just out of the bags:

I was a little worried when I first got them bagged up that I have some unevenness to the application of the cure, and my fears were confirmed.

After a quick rinse (something else I normally don't do when EQ curing:

So, yeah, some parts aren't cured too well. That's ok, they'll be fine, just may have some variances in flavor when eating them.

This was an experiment to determine whether I will change things up next time. I am learning toward probably sticking with a similar amount of cure (the ~2.6% by weight) or whether I will leave to cure longer - I'm skeptical of Skippy's assertion that the longer they cure, the hammier. I've really had no problems at all with my bacon curing, and I've done... jeez, a couple hundred pounds in the last year and a half, probably? I think I've got a reasonable handle on it.

I also know Skippy (ChatGPT) is a gaslighting blowhard a lot the time. Like, a LOT. I catch him in all kinds of bullshitting and when I call him out, he usually bloviates his way around to make it look like he was talking about something else, or I was looking at it from a different angle, or whatever. But at least I know his limitations and can work around them. He HAS helped me come up with some decent dishes on the spur of the moment sometimes.

I'll report back in when I cook them. I resealed them after a rinse, then I'll add a pepper, coriander and garlic powder rub, maybe with a touch of sugar since these are pork and I did miss adding that into the cure initially.

I might even do one rack like that, and one with my standard MMD+ rub for an A/B comparison. We'll have to see how I feel.

 

[Astralogics]

Yeah, you were right, Chat was a liar haha. I let them go for 3-4 days minimum or up to a week, and don't find the texture weird, nor flavor "too hammy" at all. Trust your experience, we ain't ever letting AI tell us how to cook!

They'll still be great regardless! Reminds me of Bear's bacon-on-a-stick. Didn't need to cure all the way through since it's hot smoked, and it was just for the flavor.

 

[Fueling Around]

Along for the ride. Porkstrami is going to be one of my next curing adventures

 

[realdocBBQ]

Yeah, you were right, Chat was a liar haha. I let them go for 3-4 days minimum or up to a week, and don't find the texture weird, nor flavor "too hammy" at all. Trust your experience, we ain't ever letting AI tell us how to cook!

They'll still be great regardless! Reminds me of Bear's bacon-on-a-stick. Didn't need to cure all the way through since it's hot smoked, and it was just for the flavor.

Keee-rekt. I was skeptical, but rolled with it because the risk was minimal. One of 'em looks pretty decently cured, but the other... definitely some spotty areas.