Brine recipe for pork

[mitchntx]

Gonna take some of the pork we harvested and try processing it ourselves as an experiment.

Looking for tips and specifically a brining recipe.

 

[scgstuff]

I like getting a whole pork loin and brining and then smoking.

I usually boil about 4 cups of water, add 3/4 cup Kosher salt, 3/4 cup Sugar, 1/4 cup garlic powder and about 1/4 cup cayenne pepper. Then add about 4 cups of ice and water to cool it off. Should have a little bit of ice left in the mixture, or add a few more pieces. Let it brine overnight, remove and rinse and smoke with an offset smoker using hickory wood for about 4 hours. Remove it at about 145* internal and put some foil over it and let it rest. Slice some nice thick chops off and enjoy.

Oh, and I usually put fat side down as close to heat as I can for about 15-20 minutes, then flip it fat side up for the remainder of the 4 hours....

...and this is a store bought pork, not wild hog. Don't know anything about that (yet, but I wanna).

 

[TheDan]

I do pretty much exactly as scgstuff says except I use brown sugar and smoke with oak or pecan.

 

[kittyhawk]

For those wild piggies i just dump them in the river. The cat fish, turtles and gators don't mind that we use a muddy water brine........ Seriously I don't eat those nasty critters. We killed a few this year that were full of worms...


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[TheCytochromeC]

Home Cured Canadian Bacon « Putney Farm

You can make Canadian bacon if you smoke meats. The hardest part is finding curing salts. I haven't tried this yet but I intend to. Another indespensible resource would be the cooking and processing section on Texas hunting forum. There's so much information there.

Recipes & Cooking - Cleaning & Preparation | Texas Hunting Forum

 

[mitchntx]

For those wild piggies i just dump them in the river. The cat fish, turtles and gators don't mind that we use a muddy water brine........ Seriously I don't eat those nasty critters. We killed a few this year that were full of worms...

Seems to be more prevalent in older pigs and in warmer weather.
Found the same thing in 250+ Bandera hogs last May ... but not the ones I harvested in February from there nor the ones from up here last week.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

For those wild piggies i just dump them in the river. The cat fish, turtles and gators don't mind that we use a muddy water brine........ Seriously I don't eat those nasty critters. We killed a few this year that were full of worms...


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I grew up being told to hunt after the first freeze. Lots of animals seem to pick up worms over the summer. And the old thinking is after the first freeze the meat is better. Who knows but its what my Dad said they hunted to survive.

As for brining: I would never use straight sugar. Sugar only adds sweetness to it and nothing else. So go with brown sugar or dark brown, if you can afford the tariff go with coconut sugar, gives it a subtle flavor that is great. Put anything else in your brine that you would want to taste later on. Another old trick is to add Vanilla flavoring. Vanilla is a flavor booster and is used in lots foods for that reason. I put it in almost everything I make. You will also want to use only Pure, real Vanilla, the others will not stand up to the cooking. Same goes for any spices, fresh and pure and make sure you use spices that can hold thier own in solution and cooking or all is for naught. Rosemary is a good one, I also use a lot of lemon and or lime juice.

 

[TheDan]

The hardest part is finding curing salts.

You can make your own. Curing salt is just 95% regular non-iodine salt and 5% nitrates. You can use saltpeter, aka potassium nitrate.

 

[TheCytochromeC]

You can make your own. Curing salt is just 95% regular non-iodine salt and 5% nitrates. You can use saltpeter, aka potassium nitrate.

If you wouldn't where can you get a high purity salt peter?

 

[TheDan]

If you wouldn't where can you get a high purity salt peter?

Several years ago you could buy it at the grocery store... that is no more

Some old school drug stores still carry it, but spectracide stump remover is pure potassium nitrate. There's lots of places online you can buy it from, too. Even Amazon...

 

[TheCytochromeC]

Yeah, Wiki says it's more prone to facilitating bacterial growth than NaNO_3 so I'll try that first. Plus, I'm sure buying either by itself is suspicious. Perhaps even more suspicious than a PRESSURE COOKER!!! AHHH!!!