Cured Pork Recipes

Steps:

• Put 2 1/2 gallons cold water in a large, nonreactive container that will hold the meat and brine. Stir in the salt and sugar. Slightly crush and add the bay leaves, peppercorns, clove, allspice, and chili peppers. Add the garlic and thyme. Add the pork and put a plate on top to keep the meat submerged. Refrigerate for 5 days or more.
• Remove the pork from the brine and pat dry. Roast pork loin for about 1 hour, grill over a medium fire, or slice into very thin chops and brown them in a cast-iron pan. They will cook very quickly, about 1 minute per side. Finish with a good fistful of chopped parsley and garlic if you wish. A brined shoulder is good boiled or braised, and is delicious to add to cooked beans.

Steps:

• Put salt and sugar in a large nonreactive bowl (stainless steel or glass). Add boiling water and stir well to dissolve salt and sugar. Add peppercorns, mustard seeds, allspice berries, cloves, thyme and bay leaves. Leave to cool completely.
• Add curing salt and 1 cup white wine to cooled brine. Submerge pork tenderloins in brine. Place plate directly on top of pork to keep it submerged if necessary. Cover container and refrigerate for 5 days.
• Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Discard brine. Spread onions and thyme sprigs on bottom of a large shallow baking dish. Add brined tenderloins in one layer, then add 1/2 cup wine. Heat oven to 350 degrees; as it heats, bring meat to room temperature. Cover dish and bake for 45 minutes or until pork registers 135 degrees with an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven (meat will continue to cook and reach 140 degrees as it rests). Let cool before cutting into thin slices. Serve with buttermilk biscuits. May be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 1 week.

Steps:

• Mix all ingredients together on a smooth surface.
• Rub meat every morning and every night for 3 days, making sure you rub in good around the bones.
• After first rub, place meat skin- side up.
• Turn after each rub.
• On the 4th day, place a strong wire or hook through the shank of hams and shoulders, (and at corners of middlings, if you're doing them).
• Hang from rafters of your smoke house, placing pan underneath to catch the drips.
• As it takes the cure, the meat will drip almost continuously.
• If the meat becomes moldy after hanging for several weeks, not to worry.
• It's not spoiled, just aging.
• Just wash meat well when ready to use.
• This mix should take care of a 350# to 375# hog.
• My husband and I start our hams, shoulders, middlings, ham hocks and jowls, (500 to 600) mid-October and are finished by mid-April.
• Have fun and happy eating!