I'll try to make it short. My grocery has boneless pork but on sale this week for 1.49. I'm going to get some. Meanwhile, my wife went shopping and said "Look what I got for you!" She got this bone-in picnic, about 8 pounds. She was very excited. I said "Oh $hit." She said "What?" I said "That's great!"
Now, what do I do with it? Brine? Cure? Smoke? Roast? Any of the above? I know it won't pull like butt. Any suggestions would be warmly welcomed.
I'd cure it, smoke it - Make an ArnieHam!
The Picnic will pull or slice. I would do them both the same way although you don't need to do them at the same time unless you want lots of pulled pork sandwiches.
Dry rub and smoke.
Arnie, 10.5 did a brine and smoke from a net ham that was awesome looking.
I smoked picnics and unlike a butt it doesn't pull that great but you can chop the rest and it was good.
Arnie,
Take the skin off that bad boy, inject it and brine it the same as I did in the home cured ham post. You will love it!!
Another alternative is to make Cuban pork out of it. I have posted a recipe on this site somewhere, but have modified it to include not only brining, but injecting also. If you can't find it, I'll look for it later.
10.5 - Thanks, I found the post you referenced. Boy there's some serious time involved there! I'll check out that book at Amazon.
Habs - Thanks. I saw your cured ham recipe at susanminor. I haven't looked for the Cuban pork yet.
As usual, I don't have all of the ingredients for the cure/brine. I'm going to order up a bunch.
It looks like I have time.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Ham1.jpg)
If you can read the label, the "Use by" date is May 14, 10.
Since you already have pulled pork, why not try roasting it Puerto Rican style? Not outdoor cooking, but a great taste. Good & easy recipe here (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/dining/021mrex.html?_r=2&pagewanted=print) or Google "recipe pernil."
Thanks for the suggestion and the link KH. I think I'll give that a shot on Sunday.
The high temps here are predicted at freezing or below for the foreseeable future. I try to stay in the house.
That also gives me time to order up curing supplies for "the next one".
Quote from: ArnieM on January 08, 2010, 07:45:45 AM
If you can read the label, the "Use by" date is May 14, 10.
If that is fresh pork I find that VERY difficult to believe.
I think the date on the label machine was off or something.
I can't get fresh pork to last more than a week around here.
Quote from: FLBentRider on January 08, 2010, 08:40:14 AMIf that is fresh pork I find that VERY difficult to believe.
I think the cryovac packaging may be what allows the extended shelf life.
That's what I thought too FLBR. That date has to be wrong if that is fresh pig.
KyNola
Sad but true, I know sift through the supermarket ads looking for meat sales
I saw some shoulder as low as 89 cents a pound and some beef at 2 99 a pound
I did see the New York cuts and the butts as well
I even saw that Fortinos has sausage and salami making supplies as well as curing salts
They also indicate they have casings. I am going to have to swing by
At 89 cents a pund i will cut the butt off teh leg and brine a picnic ham or even roast it
How can you go wrong?
Quote from: Ka Honu on January 08, 2010, 08:52:34 AM
Quote from: FLBentRider on January 08, 2010, 08:40:14 AMIf that is fresh pork I find that VERY difficult to believe.
I think the cryovac packaging may be what allows the extended shelf life.
I've opened cryovac'd pork loins from Sams that are within the date and they were BAD.
FLB I'm with you it has been brined and or injected with something to add some shelf life. The label does say contains no artificial ingredients and no more than... The rest is covered by the store label so it has been enhanced in some way.
I'm sure the cryovac helps. But, my wife said they had a couple dated Jan 14 and others dated May 14. That DOES make me wonder.
So, it'll be pernil this weekend. I'll open it on Saturday and give it the sniff test. Assuming it passes, I'll spread on the paste and let it sit in the fridge overnight. If it doesn't pass, at least I'll have time to go to Plan B ;)
I appreciate all of your help and comments.
Quote from: ArnieM on January 08, 2010, 10:31:47 AM... I'll spread on the paste and let it sit in the fridge overnight.
Rub it in as much as you can (as the recipe I use says, "into every nook and cranny").
Might try this recipe in the pig roaster.
The recipe has not been posted on the recipe site yet.
Here is a link to it on this forum Cuban Style Barbecue Pork (http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=7159.0) . The current modification is that I still slit the shoulder, but I now inject it with 10% brine prior to placing the pork into the brine. I use the same brining times, and cooking method.
This is ending up not being smoked. I don't know how to move it to the non-smoked topic. Sorry.
I decided to go with Pernil using the recipe like Ka Honu provided here: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/dining/021mrex.html?_r=4&pagewanted=print
The original recipe mentioned a 4 pound picnic and mine was 8 pounds. So I upped the ingredients some, used dried oregano and added a handful of cilantro. Went with one medium garlic bulb, maybe 10-12 cloves, and two medium onions.
In the FP.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil2.jpg)
Added the dry ingredients.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil3.jpg)
The finished 'paste'.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil4.jpg)
Scored up the picnic. Now I know why they used that skin for footballs. Also made quite a few slits on the underside.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil5.jpg)
Not a job for little Johnny-clean-hands Rubbed and stuffed in the paste. Then into the fridge.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil6.jpg)
Low and slow in the oven tomorrow.
To be continued.
Is that link supposed to go to the New York Times?
Arnie's link requires registration with the NYT. This one should bypass that stuff:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/02/dining/021mrex.html?_r=3&pagewanted=print
Much better, it's interesting I was looking for mustard in the recipe because of the color, but see there is none.
Sorry about the link guys.
I figure on doing it with some traditional Puerto Rican rice and beans. I wanted to get frozen yucca root too, but my local grocery doesn't have it. The nearest store thad does is about a 25 mile round trip. I'll probably skip it.
OK, end of story. The pork went into the oven this morning at about 10. The oven is running about 200F. Cranked the oven up to about 270 after a few hours and put the probe in. Finally, the pork was up to about 183 (yeah after the usual stall point). Went to 400 in the oven for crisping.
Total time, about 7 hours. Here it is coming out.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil7.jpg)
I had a difficult time fending off my wife and the cats while it was resting - they seem to have something in common. Here it is getting hacked.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil8.jpg)
Anyway, made up the Basmati rice with onion, garlic, cilantro and a bit of lime juice. Then added the canned black-eyed peas at the end. My daughter helped out with an avocado, tomato and cilantro salad, lime juice and EVOO.
The finished product.
(http://i738.photobucket.com/albums/xx21/ArnieMauer/Pernil9.jpg)
I cut up the rest of the pork and sent about half home with my daughter. I kept the other half. My wife threw what was left of the bone over the stone wall out in back for the critters. We all share.
That looks mighty tasty.
How was the Ham?
Awesome job with the ham Arnie - just curious, do you eat the skin you left on? I never tried that before and suspect it wouldn't be edible but wasn't sure.
Quote from: classicrockgriller on January 10, 2010, 05:20:53 PM
That looks mighty tasty.
How was the Ham?
The ham was quite good; tasty moist and tender. It was difficult cutting slices because it was falling apart.
Quote from: KevinG on January 11, 2010, 04:11:40 AM
Awesome job with the ham Arnie - just curious, do you eat the skin you left on? I never tried that before and suspect it wouldn't be edible but wasn't sure.
Yes, you can. The skin was really thin. It must have gotten tenderized some during the long cook time with a little crisping added at the end.