Cured Rack of Pork … Lessons Learned

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Found a nice 5lb Rack of Pork, Bone In, at Costco and decided to cure and smoke it with Hickory.  Found some Hi Mountain Buckboard Bacon Cure at Bass Pro Shop but didn’t know how long to cure it.  I really learned a lot from this experience.  Some good … Some bad …

Chose to cure it for 10 days like Hi Mountain recommends for a Pork Butt and I think that was my first mistake.  I think I should have taken it to about 7 days max cause it turned out really salty near the edges.  I will say that the 10 day cure did cure the entire Pork Rack but maybe 7 days would have done so also.

After curing in the fridge for 5 days I rotated the Rack of Port for another 5 days as instructed.  Rinsed it under cold water and patted it dry.  I think next time I will soak it in cold water for maybe 3 hours rotating the water every hour.  Rubbed it with some Roasted Garlic EVOO and dusted it with some seasonings.  Next time I will forgo the seasoning and just use the EVOO.

At our house it’s a tradition that we must have Scalloped Potatoes with Ham or anything that’s close to Ham.  I use an easy recipe that I found years ago in a Betty Crocker recipe book.  It calls to grease the pan, layer it with sliced potatoes, onions, sprinkle some flour, seasonings, and some pats of butter.  Repeat the process 2 or 3 times and top it off with a layer of taters.  Then pour some warm milk, to create the white cream sauce while it bakes, to about 2/3 full.

Preheated the MAK 2 Star Pellet Grill to 235ºF using Hickory wood BBQ pellets.  Slapped the Rack of Pork on the bottom rack and used a half rack for the Scalloped Potato casserole.  Another lesson learned was that that since it normally takes 1½ hours @350º to cook the casserole it will not properly cook in time at the 235º.  After 3 hours, I removed the casserole and popped it in the oven @375º for an hour.

Pulled the Rack of Pork when the Internal Temperature reached 160º.  Took about 5 hours.

Sliced the Rack of Pork and they smelled wonderful.

The money $shot … a slice of Pork, some taters, and a portion of corn … Variety is the spice of life

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