Cryoconcentration

rosem

I wanted to share an idea with everyone.

It's time to smoke a pork shoulder soon and I want to try an injection this time — I haven't done one before. Most of the injections for pork I've seen usually have a base of apple juice/cider with different mixes of added sugar, salt, apple cider vinegar, and spices.

I have a good knowledge of apple cider. I've been making hard cider for a few years now. Last year I got into ice cider (think ice wine, very high in sugar). I'll spare everyone the details, but basically the process to making ice cider is to start with a natural juice concentrate from the apple cider. Ideally with true cider apples that are higher in acid (and flavor)

One process to make the natural juice concentrate is through cryoconcentration. The principle is very simple — water in sugar freezes at a lower temperature. Because of this the first juice to melt has a higher sugar concentration.

A simple way to do this at home is to get a jug of apple cider, drink a little glass of it (you need room for it to expand), and then freeze it solid for a few days in your freezer. Once it's frozen you remove it from the freezer and invert it over another container to collect the concentrate.

The concentration that melts off is much higher in sugar and higher in acidity. It's also packs A LOT of apple flavor — very delicious.

Normally you monitor the drips to know how much sugar is remaining and stop when you drop below a certain level (measured in brix) — but if you don't have a refractometer just go with roughly 1/4 of the original amount. This will result in concentrate that is roughly double the sugar (and double the flavor). A 1/2 gallon container (in photo) will make 1-2 cups of concentrate.

I plan on injecting the pork should with only this concentrate. I'll apply a simple rub and then smoke with maple wood. I'm thinking the injection might need some salt and other spices, but I'll leave that for another day.

What does everyone think?

I'm going to be trying it soon (hopefully this weekend). I'll let everyone know how it turns out.

SGH

I myself am a fan of injecting certain things for certain reasons. I say go for it. My only concern is how strong is the elixir? If it's real strong or potent, the end result could be over powering. Short of this, no problem. Will be standing by for your results.

theyolksonyou

As I have been drinking hard cider, I don't really know what you're talking about. However, if it's an experiment, I'm in. Let us know how it goes!

Legume

Worth a shot - turkey is the only meat I've ever injected where I've tasted any of the injection flavor afterward (never tried chicken but assume it's the same as turkey).  If you can actually taste residual flavor in the pork afterward it might be worth it, but I gave up and just mix in whatever I want when I'm pulling.

Foghorn

That sounds like a great plan to me.  Please keep us posted.

fishlessman

with a long low and slow you will lose alot of the flavor profile if you inject before the cook. with whole hog cooks they sometimes inject during the cook, you can do this when the butt hits 180 in the egg, less messy and it will hold onto the flavor profile alot better. i do this with hot vinegar sauces sometimes, you get more of the juice in the meat as well once your in the plataue

GATraveller

Cool idea - I'm standing by for results.

rosem

fishlessman said:

with a long low and slow you will lose alot of the flavor profile if you inject before the cook. with whole hog cooks they sometimes inject during the cook, you can do this when the butt hits 180 in the egg, less messy and it will hold onto the flavor profile alot better. i do this with hot vinegar sauces sometimes, you get more of the juice in the meat as well once your in the plataue

Good idea. I was going to baste with the remaining liquid when the pork shoulder was ~2 hours until finished. I'm thinking the extra sugar in the concentrate would make an excellent bark.

NPHuskerFL

Interesting :-? I will standby for pending results. I would agree that injecting may give some flavor but, the the majority would likely be lost in the cooking/smoking process. Not sure if brining would give any different results vs injecting. Sounds like a worthy eggperiment to me. Have fun with it man.

rosem

Pick up a 7# pork shoulder from the butcher today. I'm going to put it on later tonight. Stay tuned!

http://www.slagelfamilyfarm.com/products.html#pork

rosem

Also, what's everyone's experience with a ~7# pork shoulder? Should I start checking it around 8-10/hrs @ 250 or longer?

theyolksonyou

Last 2 5-6#ers I've done went 10+ at that temp. You could bump it up if needed.

rosem

Just trimmed and injected 1 cup on apple cider concentrate into the shoulder. I only injected in the fat seams between the muscles. Seems to have held most of the liquid so far. Maybe a tablespoon or two leaked out. I'm going to rest this in the fridge for a few hours while I get the smoker setup.

Also, another thing I learned from making hard cider. Cider and other acidic juices doesn't react well with some metals — like those disposable aluminum trays — and makes it taste metallic. Because of this I put it in a ceramic baking dish. Just a heads up.

Little Steven

Sounds great. Like your kitchen wall/backsplash.

rosem

Last night around 11pm I got the pork shoulder out of the fridge and put a homemade pork rub on it. I'm still pretty impressed that only 2-3 tablespoons leaked out of the pork shoulder, it held all the rest (1 cup).

I must say I love the egg, I got it up to 250F around 12am last night, put the pork shoulder on around 12:30am, and then checked on it one more time at 1am to make sure it was locked in. I then went to bed and woke up at 8:30am this morning, still rolling steady at 250F. In Chicago I'm more worried about the egg being stolen than it not holding the temp overnight — lol.

Here is a shot of the pork shoulder at about 8 hours in. It's has a very good bark forming on it, more than usual. I'm assuming it's because while cooking it was basically "sweating" very high sugar cider. I wish I would have done two pork shoulders now to compare (1 without injection). 

Anyway, I'll post again once it's finished. It was only at 186* at that point and quite tough — still a ways to go.

theyolksonyou

Man that looks good! The egg is a machine as long as you have fuel.

rosem

12 hours in – getting close...

logchief

That's some awsome bark, nice work

rosem

Damn that took forever — didn't wrap — 14-15 hours total. Overall it doesn't have too much sweetness or apple flavor, but it's very moist and the bark is insane (I'm guessing from the sugar in the cider).

Poor color in photos due to the low light. Next time I'm going to start it earlier the day before.

rosem

Almost a year later and trying this out again. With a few adjustments.

~1.25 cups of apple cider concentrate — from freezing 1/2 gallon fresh apple cider. I just flip it upside down and let the sugar run out until I have the amount I need (1.25 cups in this case). The first liquid to run out will be the highest in sugar. 

This time around I also added 1 tablespoon of salt to the mixture (diluted in a small amount of hot water).

This was injected into a 9 lb. pork shoulder. I was able to keep about 80% of the solution in the pork.

The rub was simplified as well (no sugar either).

2 tablespoons of black pepper
1 tablespoon of salt (other table spoon is in the injection for 50/50 ration)
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon paprika

I just put it on the egg @ 300 dome temp about 30 minutes ago. I plan to wrap in paper this time around to speed things up. I'll post a few photos in a little bit.