Lomo Embuchado (dry-cured pork loin)

[Chuckwagon]

Aces n` Eights - The "Dead Man`s Hand"
The Legend Of Wild Bill Hickok

James Butler Hickok was born in Illinois on May 27, 1837 in a settlement known as Homer, now called Troy Grove. As a young man, he adopted the name William, from his father - an abolitionist and active early opponent of slavery. Unknown to most people, Hickok assisted his father in smuggling runaway slaves along the Underground Railroad, often hiding them inside a secret room in his parent's house. Involved in a fight in 1855 at age 18, with one Charles Hudson, both fell into a canal. Believing he had killed Hudson, the young man left home where he met 12-year-old William Cody (later known as "Buffalo Bill"), scouting for Johnson`s Army. Working as a station attendant, teamster, and wagon master, Hickok joined the Union forces when the Civil War began, serving mostly in Kansas and Missouri, where he earned a reputation as a skilled scout, guide, and... gambler. Hickok was an impressive figure, standing 6` 1", wearing his long, blond, perfumed, hair swept over his shoulders. He wore a white shirt with starched collar, scarlet vest, a black frock coat, and calf-skin boots. Somewhere along his way, referring to Hickok`s long nose and protruding lip, he was tagged "Duck Bill", although as time passed, the title evolved into "Wild Bill". Most proficient with handguns, eyewitnesses claim Hickock could hit a dime nine out of ten times when tossed in the air. Observers also saw the man shoot an apple from a tree, then hit the apple with another bullet... before it struck the ground!

Hickok preferred to tuck his two ivory-handled .44-caliber pistols in his belt-sash, drawing them crosswise. Never using holsters, he was also known to carry a Colt 1851 Navy and a model 1866 Williamson derringer, although at the time of his death, he was carrying a lighter caliber Smith & Wesson .32-caliber pistol. At age 24 in 1861, Hickok killed David McCanles, in Rock Creek, Nebraska. Working for a freight company that owed McCanles money, an unarmed Hickock was confronted by the man collecting his debt. Hickok shot the man from behind a curtain and was later arrested for murder. During the trial, McCanles's 12-year-old son, a witness to the shooting, was not permitted to testify, and Hickok was acquitted after pleading self-defense.

On July 21, 1865, Hickok killed Davis Tutt in one of the very few actual "quick draw" gunfights in the west. The incident, precipitated by a dispute over a gambling debt incurred at a local saloon, took place in the town square of Springfield, Missouri. The dispute became exacerbated by the mention of their long standing feud over a mutual girlfriend Susannah Moore.

A striking western figure, in 1867, an article in Harper's Magazine made Hickok famous as he was elected sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas at Hays, where he shot lawbreakers Sam Strawhim and Jack Mulroy in 1869. A year later, Hickok shot and killed army private John Kelly during a drunken fracus. Failing in his bid for re-election, he was appointed city marshal of Abilene, Kansas, where he set up his office inside the Alamo Saloon, spending much of his time playing poker and drinking. As marshal of Abilene, Hickok earned $150 a month, a nice sum in those days, and received a 50-cent bonus for every unlicensed dog he shot within city limits. Here, he shot and killed troublemaker Phil Coe, a business partner of gunman Ben Thompson in the ownership of the infamous Bulls Head Saloon. On October 5, 1871, Hickok ordered Coe to surrender his pistol after discharging it within the city limits. Coe turned his gun on the marshal but failed to shoot as he fell dead on the street. Then catching a glimpse of movement of someone running toward him, the marshal quickly fired two shots in reaction, accidentally shooting, and killing Deputy Marshal Mike Williams, who had been coming to his aid. Although the shooting had been entirely accidental, the event haunted Hickok the remainder of his days. The lawman continued drinking heavily, and though he kept the town relatively peaceful, the city council discharged him less than two months later. Later arrested for vagrancy several times, he somehow maintained his relationship with Mary Jane Canary - a woman known to many as "Calamity Jane".

In 1876, at age 39, Hickok was diagnosed having both gonorrhea and glaucoma. It became apparent Hickok`s extraordinary markmanship suffered with his poor eyesight, and the man`s general health had been suffering for some time. On March 5, 1876, despite his failing health, he married Agnes Thatcher Lake, a circus proprietor eleven years his senior. Mary Jane Canary (Calamity Jane) later writing her autobiography, claimed she was married to Hickok, but had divorced him so he could be free to marry Agnes Lake. Hickok left his new bride to seek fortune in the goldfields near Deadwood Gulch in the Indian Territory South Dakota. Shortly before his death, he wrote a letter to his new wife, Agnes which reads in part: "Agnes Darling, if such should be we never meet again, while firing my last shot, I will gently breathe the name of my wife--Agnes--and with wishes even for my enemies I will make the plunge and try to swim to the other shore" and "My dearly beloved if I am to die today and never see the sweet face of you I want you to know that I am no great man and am lucky to have such a woman as you".

Living less than four decades, on Aug. 2, 1876, James Butler William "Wild Bill" Hickok entered Nuttal & Mann`s #10 Saloon, a Deadwood benzenery bit house and thirst emporium, by the rear door. Habitually seating himself with his back towards a wall, this day he found his favorite chair occupied by another gambler. The game must have been intriguing, as Bill took a chair with his back unprotected. For some time, Jack McCall, a paranoid coward with nothing beneath his hat but hair, had confronted Hickok, taunting the man and spreading the rumor that Hickok had killed his brother in Abilene. Bill, realizing the man was not in his right mind, had always managed to diffuse a bad situation using carefully chosen vocabulary. McCall, originally from Kentucky, had eventually drifted west, becoming a buffalo hunter. By 1876, he was living in Deadwood using the name Bill Sutherland. During the evening of August 1st, McCall began playing poker with Wild Bill. By the wee hours of the morning, he had lost everything he owned to the gambler. Hickok, not wishing to leave the man completely destitute, offered to buy him breakfast - a gesture McCall interpreted as the inimitable insult.

Returning to the gambling table later during the day, McCall sneaked behind Hickock. As the gambler played poker, the coward shot Wild Bill through the back of the head using a new model "double action" revolver. Jack McCall reportedly uttered, "Take that, Hickok!" When shot, Hickock was holding a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights. The fifth card, according to first-hand accounts, was a five or nine of diamonds. Thus was born the expression "dead man`s hand". Unbelievably, McCall was found innocent by a jury of miners and businessmen, following merely two hours deliberation, in a spontaneous court held inside McDaniel's Theater. A free man, Jack McCall immediately fled to the Wyoming Territory where he bragged at length and in detail, just how he had killed Wild Bill Hickok - the man who had killed his brother in Abilene. He also stretched the truth just a bit, indicating he had shot Hickok in a "fair fight".

Now pards, I believe the wheels of justice grind slowly, but they do grind! It seems that Wyoming authorities refused to recognize the verdict of McCall`s trial on the grounds that Deadwood was located in the Indian Territory - and with no legally constituted legislative or judicial systems, any trial at Deadwood had been held illegally, thereby rendering the verdict invalid. The federal court in Yankton, Dakota Territory, declared that double jeopardy did not apply, and contended that McCall could legally be tried again. Jack McCall was re-arrested re-tried in Yankton, Dakota Territory in 1877. Found guilty of the premeditated murder of J. B. Hickok, the twenty-four year old man was hanged upon the gallows. Following his execution, it was determined that McCall had been raised with three sisters; he`d never had a brother!


"Aces And Eights" Lomo Embuchado

The Spanish make a nice dry-cured pork loin using Cure #2, called Lomo Embuchado (Loin Cold Sausage).

1 pork loin of 6350 grams (14 lbs.)
30 grams of Cure #2
170 grams of salt
6 grams paprika
9 grams of freshly ground black pepper
2 or more fresh cloves of garlic (or 2 grams of garlic powder)
2 grams of onion powder
2 grams of ground thyme
85 grams of sugar

All ingredients are mixed together with just enough water to make a paste. The paste is hand-rubbed into the loin and the loin is placed into a zip-lock type bag for a week and three days (10 days), inside your refrigerator. Following the curing, the excess salt is brushed off and the meat is stuffed into a synthetic casing. Next, spray the cased loin with a little Mold 600 before hanging it in a curing chamber at 75% humidity at 46°F (8°C). During this period, the salt will have time to "equalize". The loin is then dried for nearly a month at room temperature for flavor development while at least 40% total moisture removal is achieved.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

[Baconologist]

Just a friendly heads-up!
There are some innocent errors in the recipe.
I know that you know that 6350 grams of pork loin requires more salt and cure than what you've listed.
I hope you'll post some pics of the lomo that you've made.

[Chuckwagon]

The Basic Rules For Applying Dry Cure:
(From Stan Marianski)

Important: When curing times are short (up to 14 days), use Cure #1 according to the standard limit of: 1 oz. cure for 25 lbs. of meat.

For longer times use Cure #2 containing nitrate which will keep on releasing nitrite for a longer period of time.

The amount of dry mix needed to cure 25 lbs. of meat by the dry cure method when making dry (fermented) sausages is:

56.7 grams 2 oz. Cure #2
340.2 grams 12 oz. Non-iodized salt
170 grams 6 oz. dextrose (brown sugar)
--- --- seasonings

14 lbs. Meat Formula:
30 grams 1 oz. Cure #2
170 grams 6 oz. salt
85 grams 3 oz. dextrose (brown sugar)

For small cuts, hams, and shoulders:

Using this mixture, a basic rule is 2 days per pound for the small cuts and 3 days per pound for hams and shoulders. For example, a six-pound bacon would require about 12 days in cure, while a 12-pound ham would need 36 days.

Another formula specifies 7 days of curing per inch of thickness. Thus, 5" fat X 7 days = 35 days.

Smaller meat cuts like bacon, butt and loins can be cured with a dry-mixture based on the following formula for 100 lbs. of meat:

4 lbs. salt
1.5 lbs. sugar
1 oz. Cure #2.

Divide the mixture into three equal parts. Apply the first one-third and allow the meat to cure three days. Next, overhaul and rub in the second part. Following three more days, apply the last third of the mixture and allow the meat to cure for about 12 days more. Generally, the addition of spices occurs after the last re-salting has been completed.

Best Wishes,
Chuckwagon

[crustyo44]

Bob,
Instead of knocking everybody and everything, don't you think it's about time you produced some recipes and photo's of what you made, so we might learn something.
Jan.

[ssorllih]

I think that it may be time to find Bob innocent by reason of mental defect. He seems to have a compulsion to find fault with any method used that is not carrying his stamp of approval.

[Baconologist]

Our friend Chuckwagon corrected his post and removed the direct quote that was in my post.
It was a serious safety issue that needed to be pointed out.

Stay safe everyone!!!