I was marinating a pork butt in molasses for about four days and I
noticed that the molasses was of much thinner consistency by the 4th
day, meaning that there must have been a significant amount of water
coming from the meat. Did the sugar from the molasses draw water from
the pork? If so, can you cure with sugar just like you cure salt?

Sam's Butcher Shop wrote:

> I was marinating a pork butt in molasses for about four days and I
> noticed that the molasses was of much thinner consistency by the 4th
> day, meaning that there must have been a significant amount of water
> coming from the meat. Did the sugar from the molasses draw water from
> the pork? If so, can you cure with sugar just like you cure salt?

Correct. That's where there term "preserves" (as in jam preserves) comes
from. Sugar is a preservative in the same way salt is.

Any strong solute will act as a preservative in fact. It just happens
that sugar and salt taste good to humans, so that's what we use.

> Any strong solute will act as a preservative in fact. It just happens
> that sugar and salt taste good to humans, so that's what we use.

Ah, very interesting. So let's say I were to put 5 lbs of pork in 24
fl. oz's of molasses at about 35 degrees F. Could let it sit for 1
full week? 2 weeks? longer than that?

> Shouldn't he be reinforcing/replacing the molasses if it's getting runny?
> Presuming that means it's becoming more dilute...

How about just adding sugar to the molasses? a cheaper option

> And what sort of flavor are you expecting from this process? I would guess
> the taste would be rather overpowering.

I actually had great results when I just marinated it for four days,
then added a salt/cure rub and then smoked it.

> Cold smoked or hot smoked?

Hot smoked. It was just marinated at that point, not really "cured".

> Sugar cured ham is pretty popular.

So let's say I took a 1 lb piece of pork, covered it heavily in sugar,
and set it up so the water could drain, and put it in the refrigerator
and left if there for a month, maybe adding sugar occasionally. Would
get I dried cured piece of pork eventually?

> I know, but to me molasses is several times more intense than sugar and I
> would expect some residual sulphur flavor. But if it's working for him, all
> is well.
>
> MartyB

I use unsulfered molasses. Ever hear of molasses cured "black hams"
and "black bacon" made in the UK? Scroll down to see pictures:
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewt...ht=suffolk+ham

> You wouldn't happen to have a girlfriend named Alice and look like
> Barney Hefner, would you?

Haha!! Love it ;-) I did have a small specialty meat shop, that was
previously my father's and we're both named Sam. But truth be told, I
also use that name because of the "Sam the butcher" character in the
Brady Bunch.

On 9/22/2011 11:03 PM, Sam's Butcher Shop wrote:
> I was marinating a pork butt in molasses for about four days and I
> noticed that the molasses was of much thinner consistency by the 4th
> day, meaning that there must have been a significant amount of water
> coming from the meat. Did the sugar from the molasses draw water from
> the pork? If so, can you cure with sugar just like you cure salt?

Ask Steve to explain osmosis ;-)

Regarding my original post, I had good luck with the following recipe/
process for buckboard/molasses cured bacon. Feel free to give it a
try if you like.

- Take the fattier half the butt, about 2-3 lb piece, and butterfly
it.
- For every 10 lbs of pork, use 3-12 ounce bottles of black strap
molasses, and let sit in molasses for four days.
- After the fourth day, take pork out of molasses and rinse off.
You'll notice that molasses is much more watery, having drawn some
water from the pork.
- Make a salt/cure mixture of .23 lbs salt and .03 lbs of cure for
every 10 lbs of meat. Add some water to the salt/cure mixture and
then rub into pork. Let it sit overnight.
- Smoke the bacon the next day to an internal of 155-160 degrees.

Thanks for the recipe. Although the first question wasn't answered. "Does Sugar dehydrate the meat?" or Mort[_2_] already answered the question.