Spiced and Cured Pork Shoulder

Picnic shoulder -- Upper part of the shoulder, right behind the neck

55% salt, 45% sugar, chili, Madras curry, Sichuan peppercorns, garlic

Mix the dry cure mix

Rub and massage the meat

Suck and Save, leaving almost all the cure behind. Cure for 10-14 days.

Salted beef bung

Soak bung for 72 hours

Clean and rinse out bung

Check for leaks

Firmer to touch and apparent water loss

Remove from bag

Wash and dry cured shoulder

Bung and shoulder

Put shoulder into bung

Tie shoulder nice and tight. Once tied, make small pricks with a needle to remove air pockets.

Hang in 60°F fridge with RH of 60-70%

Dry for 4-7 weeks 'till solid to touch, no squishy give

Nice and dry on the outside, firm and moist in the middle. (Yes those are cured rabbit faces in the background.)

Slice nice and thin

Sliced, spiced pork shoulder

Tags: cure, pork, shoulder, spicy

7 comments

Barzelay on May 26, 2009 at 7:33 am

Looks great, but try putting “bung” on a menu. By the way, where do you get your Sichuan peppercorns? The only place I’ve seen them on order is L’epicerie, and their peppercorns are not potent at all. Not even worth buying. Thanks for the whole pig demo Sunday. I loved it.
grundoon on May 26, 2009 at 5:26 pm

Sichuan peppercorns (an utter misnomer in any case… not at all related to pepper) are available in just about any pan-Asian market. Look for ‘prickly ash’. I’m not sure if this labelling is a carryover from when SP were (ludicrously) banned from import a number of years ago, but that’s what they actually are anyway.
Collins Anderson on May 26, 2009 at 9:42 pm

I bought some at le sanctuaire 6 months ago and they were great their website is http://www.le-sanctuaire.com/
Ryan Farr on May 27, 2009 at 7:36 am

Devinitely Le Sanctuaire for all things great, http://www.le-sanctuaire.com/. My favorite is the green Sichuan peppercorns if they have them in stock, much better and cleaner in my opinion.
Barzelay on May 27, 2009 at 7:43 am

Yeah, that was my go-to, but they’ve been out of them for months. I’ll check out some Asian stores.
Ryan Farr on May 27, 2009 at 2:49 pm

If Le Sanctuaire is out the I would check out New May Wah on Clement, San Francisco Herb Company and of course always so enjoyable… Rainbow Grocery, they have a great selection of dry bulk.
cubrikaska on October 2, 2009 at 7:34 am

De nada semejante.