Pork, Pickled, Alton Brown

Ingredients

• 2 cups water
• 1 cup apple cider vinegar
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons yellow mustard seed
• 2 tablespoons hot sauce
• 1 tablespoon celery seed
• 1 bay leaf
• 1/4 teaspoon whole black peppercorns
• 8 ounces ice by weight
• 1 1/2 pounds fresh boneless pork butt, cut into 2-inch cubes

Directions

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the ice and the pork in a 2-quart nonreactive saucepan, set over high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and maintain a simmer for 3 minutes. Remove from the heat, add the ice and stir. Place the pork into a 1-gallon zip top bag and add the cooled pickling liquid. Remove as much air as possible; seal the bag and place in the refrigerator for at least 3 days, turning the bag occasionally. Use within 2 weeks or remove from the pork from the brine and freeze.
2. Take the pork out of the refrigerator and cook it in accordance with whatever recipe you are adding it to. Although the pork is pickled, and thus preserved, the pork does still need to be cooked over some kind of heat.
3. This version of pickled pork is used often in red beans and rice in New Orleans, where it is often called “pickle meat.” Simply add the pickled pork to the beans in the early phase of cooking them, as one would do with bacon.
4. This variation of pickled pork can also be added to a variety of greens, such as collards, while stewing them.
5. This can be used in the following recipe
6. [recipe:Pickled Pork, Slow Cooker]