I'm trying to find new things to do with pork butt since it usually goes on sale for CHEAP down here. Thought I would try making some Tasso Ham. Ruhlman has a recipe for this and I compared that with 3-4 others on the'net and settled on my version.

Started with a 4 lb butt and removed the small section of bone. I sliced it into four ~1 inch steaks. I guess they weighed about a pound each .
butt

Sliced
I completely coated them in a cure:
1 cup salt
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tbls black pepper
1 Tbls paprika
1 tsp pink salt (6.25%sodium nitrite)

In cure
I let the steaks cure in the fridge for three hours. After three hours they had given off a LOT of liquid.

Three hours
I rinsed off the cure and patted dry then placed them on a rack in the fridge to dry/cure for three days.

After three days they had firmed up quite a bit but were not hard.

Three days
I rubbed them with the following:

2 Tbls Cayenne
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp allspice

I then fired up the WSM and smoked for ~2.5 hrs with hickory. I pulled when they temped at 170 and let rest.

End result...VERY pink, quite hammy and HOOTTTTT. Incredibly juicy.

Finished

Juicy
I vaccuum sealed and threw in the freezer. Will use this to repace ham hocks in my beans as well as add to jambalaya. A great seasoning meat, definetly not a main course.

Excellent job David! That ham looks great.

Paul

[QUOTE].



I then fired up the WSM and smoked for ~2.5 hrs with hickory. I pulled when they temped at 170 and let rest.

QUOTE]

Wow, that sure looks good. At what temp did you smoke this?

Elsie, Paul

Thanks! It was fun.

Elsie,

I ran about ~225 at the dome with a ceramic saucer in the water pan. To be honest, my thermometer is ~10 degrees off but I can't remember in which direction. I have just gotten used to running at this setting. So...maybe 215, maybe 235.

quote:

Originally posted by David Somerville:
Elsie, Paul

Thanks! It was fun.

Elsie,

I ran about ~225 at the dome with a ceramic saucer in the water pan. To be honest, my thermometer is ~10 degrees off but I can't remember in which direction. I have just gotten used to running at this setting. So...maybe 215, maybe 235.

Thanks, David. Looks like the ham gets smoked at about the same temp as bacon which I have done. I'm going to try this the next time I do bacon as they can go on at the same time. (I've never done ham.) Don't think I can handle 2 tablespoons of cayenne, though!!!

Elsie

quote:

I let the steaks cure in the fridge for three hours. After three hours they had given off a LOT of liquid.

I could check my copy of charcuterie, but is this brief curing period typical? I know the steaks were 1" thick, but bacon goes for 5-7 days.

quote:

Originally posted by j biesinger:

quote:

I let the steaks cure in the fridge for three hours. After three hours they had given off a LOT of liquid.

I could check my copy of charcuterie, but is this brief curing period typical? I know the steaks were 1" thick, but bacon goes for 5-7 days.

I checked "Charcuterie" and the cure period is 4 hours. This is for a 5 pound boneless pork shoulder sliced crosswise into 5 even slabs.

quote:

I checked "Charcuterie" and the cure period is 4 hours. This is for a 5 pound boneless pork shoulder sliced crosswise into 5 even slabs.

thanks for doing the leg work.

anybody else find this strange? maybe belly being mostly fat cures slower.

I use John Folse's recipe for tasso.
http://www.jfolse.com/recipes/meats/pork31.htm
I reduce the amount of gran. garlic,though.

Well, I'm just guessing but.....While I rinsed off the cure after three hours I was using an extreme excess. It is possible that the steaks took up way more cure than needed and then redistributed over the next few days that it sat in the fridge. Going by how pink it was throughout I have no doubt about complete cure penetration.

I suspect one of the differences with the bacon recipes is that you are using an exact amount of cure and it is important to make sure the cure always is in contact etc.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: David Somerville,

David, thanks for posting this you're timing is amazing. I was just watching a Bobby Flay Jambalaya throw down and his opponent used this in his pot and I literally said to myself, "I need to make me some Tasso." Butts are on sale here for .99 a lb right now, I'm going to make a batch and vac seal them for future use. Thanks again!

quote:

Originally posted by David Somerville:
Well, I'm just guessing but.....While I rinsed off the cure after three hours I was using an extreme excess.

I'm guessing this is a typo and you meant 3 days?

quote:

I'm guessing this is a typo and you meant 3 days?

I know the thread is 12 posts long, but its clarified above.

I found many different appoaches..lots of variation in how folks make this. In addition to the Folse recipe linked above you might want to check these as well:

http://lpoli.50webs.com/index_files/Tasso.pdf
http://www.randyq.addr.com/tasso/tasso_prep.htm
http://porkandwhiskey.wordpres...007/07/19/tasso-ham/
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tasso-Ham/Detail.aspx

If anyone can figure out what is "right" please let me know!