First ever ham attempt

[Bowfineater]

First ever attempt at making ham

I ordered a whole pig this fall from a farm that raises them outside, quite expensive but worth it to me.  I asked for the “hams” to be left raw and cut into 2, so I have 4 raw hams approx 8 lbs each

I am using a recipe from one of my favorite cook books, “Garde Manger” it is one of the text books from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park NY

Ham      7lb 11oz


Basic Meat Brine
2      gal      Water
21    oz        Salt  (I used pickling salt)
11    oz        Brown Sugar
4.62 oz        Prague Powder #1


I added some pickling spices, but did not measure

Bay leaves
Black peppercorns
Juniper berries
Yellow mustard seeds
Cinnamon stick
Cloves

I used 4 cups of the water to bring to a boil and added the spices, salt, sugar, and cure, then mixed in the rest of the water

Pump the ham with 10% of its weight in brine

Cure the ham in the fridge for 7 days

Rinse ham, and soak in fresh water for 1 hour

Let ham rest in refrigerator uncovered for 36 hours


I am now smoking the ham using a step technique similar to the one for jerky listed in the smoking guide, using 10 oz of maple wood, cut into 9 pieces

1    Hour      120F  no smoke
2    Hours      140F
                    190F  to internal temp of 145F

 

[Lonzinomaker]

That is a lot of wood

 

[old sarge]

That is a lot of wood

To that I add 'cowabunga!'
Hope it turns out well.

 

[LarryD]

I am thoroughly amazed at that much wood weighing less than 10 oz.  Are you *sure* your scale is accurate?  If so, is that balsa wood or incredibly dry?

In my experience, 2 oz is roughly the size of a child's alphabet block.  I totally would have expected that pile to be somewhere around 30 oz of wood.

 

[Bowfineater]

It may have gotten dry on me.  It’s smokinlicious wood.  I will invest in a moisture meter.  I went back and checked on the pork butts I made, and I liked the last 2 the best and I used 10 oz of wood on those.

 

[Bowfineater]

The picture must be deceiving, this chunk is roughly the size of 2 kids blocks, and weight 3.6 oz. 

The chunks I used for the ham were cut into smaller pieces, due to the lower smoking temp, but I think I should have cut each piece in half, rather than thirds.

Either way, the ham will be smoked to 145 today, then sit in the fridge for 3 days, and be reheated for Christmas. 

I have found that when I make bacon, the smoke flavor is much better, if I let it sit for a while rather than eat it right away.

 

[Bowfineater]

Reheated to 140F uncovered in the oven.

Very good flavor, a little too Smokey, and a little too salty, will definitely do again, with some slight variations

 

[old sarge]

Nice cook.  Everyone has their own preference for smoke and salt.

 

[Bowfineater]

Going to wet cure a shank and some pork chops tonight.  I did some googling on equilibrium brines, and found this calculator someone made.  Lots of great information here, and a link to a cure calculator he made also, just wanted to share.

https://genuineideas.com/ArticlesIndex/saltbrinecalculator.html