Porkstrami St. Louis pork ribs on the way

[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 - so as to adapt to my own uses and tastes, so I had to go essentially from scratch. 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!

[SheilaAnn]

realdocBBQ there is a great burrito place (owner is a friend) here in SoCal that braises the pig skin (chicharrones) in lots of chiles and spices. Unbelievably good! They let me customize a burrito with beans, cheese and chicharrones. My mouth is watering right now thinking about it!

[realdocBBQ]

I ain't opposed to it... but I can only eat so much of it. No one else here is going to.

[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.

[HawkerXP]

Pic's?

Not showing.

[realdocBBQ]

I dunno. I can see 'em - anyone else?

[Ace]

Not showing for me either...

[realdocBBQ]

Well, that's messed up. I may delete that post and try it again. Is anyone actually SEEING the pics from today's post, #3?

It's weird, I am hosting them on SmugMug, same way I've done for years...

[Jerod Broussard]

Tis blank spaces.

[realdocBBQ]

Did one of my racks of porkstrami ribs on Sunday.






These were good. Did them on the Weber kettle with the Fireboard Ring, kept temps around 250, later bumped to 280. Wrapped around 3.5hrs when bark looked good, but only for about 40 minutes. Then unwrapped and put back on for another 45-55 minutes or so? Lemme check my Fireboard log...

https://share.fireboard.io/F64AD6

Ok, wrapped for 39 minutes, then unwrapped to finish for about 26 minutes. Total cook 4h27m. Not bad.


They came out good, but not as heavily cured as I had expected. Of course, they were only in the cure for 36h before I rinsed them and froze them. Eh... I think next time I will cure them longer - I don't care what ChatGPT tells me. The saltiness was fine, but they weren't quite as flavorful otherwise as I'd hoped they would be.

I used some sugar in my pastrami rub before smoking, I'll leave that out next time - it mostly caramelized too much and made for some crust that was hard to cut through and I don't think it added much in terms of flavor at that point. Maybe if I just added a little sugar in the wrap phase alone, but I just am not sure they need it at all.

Overall this was a good experiment, but needs a little more tweek - I want more cure flavor, so I'll probably do it for longer next time - 3-4 day cure I think. In my experience making bacon, using a dry EQ cure, I haven't found leaving it longer than necessary to be detrimental. ChatGPT was telling me it was going to make them too hammy and the texture was going to change, etc., I dunno. It may be right, but I didn't have as much overall cured flavor as I like - even though it did seem to penetrate all the way through.

Looking forward to trying again, but relying on my own experiences more than ChatGPT. Shoulda trusted my instincts, lol. I wasn't 100% on board with its suggestions, but I decided to roll with it. Now I know.

[Mosca]

My thought is that once you’ve decided you’re “porkstrami-ing”, what Skippy calls hamminess is actually a characteristic you’re looking for.

You should definitely trust your instincts. You have experience that belies hive mind aggregate information.

[Spinaker]

As you know, dry curing presents a few challenges. Most notably, time. Dry curing needs a lot more time to be effective. I also wonder if vac sealing and removing the oxygen inhibits the dry curing process? Wet curing is depriving oxygen as well, but some of the ingredients dissolve so I do not believe it would be the same....but I could be wrong there.

I am sure you already have but it might be worth a read through again.....I would check out Dry curing section from Meathead https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...-meats-safely/

If you are going to dry cure these ribs, you are in for the long haul to really get those flavors to break down and make a lasting impression on flavor. As opposed to wet curing where the cure breaks down quickly and can reach equilibrium with the 70% water that is contained in the meat. Wet curing also allows the flavors and cure to be distributed more evenly.

"The cure dissolves and disperses in the liquid and the liquid has a uniform concentration of cure throughout as long as you stir it occasionally. Because meat is about 70% water, the cure tries to achieve equilibrium with the liquid in the meat. Wet curing takes less time than dry curing, sometimes only days."

Another thing to consider is buying the freshest ingredients for the pickling spices and make it yourself. When I make my own wet cure with free ingredients the meat does not come close when compared with a store bought corned beef. The cure I make from scratch is much much better and has much more of a flavor punch to it.

[realdocBBQ]

Very true. I think it just needed more time - the cure penetrated throughout, but I don't think it really had time to achieve the flavors I was looking for. I'll definitely do longer next time. The dry cure works great on my bacon, as long as I leave it long enough. I've never wet cured bacon, did a couple pastramis, but I don't really like it as it's much messier and more hassle for me. Limited sink and counter space, etc. Meh.

[Meathead]

I think Spinaker has offered good advice. Prof Blonder and I have worked VERY hard on the curing methods and calculator on this page and others https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...-meats-safely/

Because nitrite and nitrate are preservatives and improper use can be a health risk, I cannot comment on other methods. You might also look into my pickling spice recipe https://amazingribs.com/tested-recip...-spice-recipe/