anyone try it? I know the process of curing then smoking but havent given it a go myself yet and was wondering if anyone here has . . . may start one this week but kinda 2nd guessing potentially wasting a whole green ham for an experiment.
I'm not sure a country ham is smoked, although don't see why it couldn't be.
The ones I saw on a trip down South were more or less packed in salt then wrapped good in muslin or whatever, then hung up in the rafters of the tin shed to cure for a year or two.
hit it with another does of cure today. Looking good but not much moisture loss yet (a cup at the most). Still have 12 days to go b3for I take it off cure. More updates to follow
Here she is, probably another 10-14 days in the fridge, then a good rinse cover in black pepper and lard, wrap her in cheesecloth, and hope everything goes well.
View attachment 85115
HELL YEAH!!!
Punk Domestics has a lot of links to dry/air cured ham recipes and info. Check out also the links to the 2011 "Charcutepalooza" challenge on some food blogs. I've been checking them out over the last few days.
I'm going to give some of therecipes a try, hopefully in the next week or so. I have 4 portioned slabs of pork belly in my freezer.
I checked out your hog killing blog - loved the gumby suit. Wish I'd bought a meat saw, we did it redneck style with an axe. On the plus side, had a friend and his family heirloom scalding tank plus a tractor with a front end loader and a boom pole on the pack.
I've got pics of my pancetta in another thread. Should be smoking bacon today, but I didn't make it to the saw mill for wood yesterday.
Since I've already completely derailed poor Puumba's thread...
Go for it! Pork belly is an artist's palette. Did you see these lovely numbers?
anyone try it? I know the process of curing then smoking but havent given it a go myself yet and was wondering if anyone here has . . . may start one this week but kinda 2nd guessing potentially wasting a whole green ham for an experiment.
So, a few questions for you . . . but first a statement. I loathe sugar cured hams because they are not the salty Country Ham I grew up eating. Aside from that, sugar cured hams don't make good Red-eyed gravy and sugar cured ham doesn't taste good with home-made biscuits. With that having been said, and remembering that you specifically stated that you desired to make a *Country Ham*, what kind of salt are you using?
Virgina style or country
but I'm using a cure made of kosher salt, dark brown sugar and a bit of pink curing salt. ratios is about 3:1:a touch. I have exact weights upstairs somewhere. I get as much on as I could get to stick all over including the shank end (cut very low not much meat there so I rubbed under the skin) and paid extra attention to the cavity created by the removal of the aitch bone. Not sure what ya mean by "tend your cycles" BUT so far what I have done is get a good thick rub on it and re-rubbed a week later. Will probably put another coat of rub on tomorrow and let that sit until 01 Dec. After that plan on letting it sit and "equalize" for 2 weeks then gonna cold smoke it until it's a good dark brown . . .1 day, 4 days, a week. . . I dunno depends how the smoke and outside temp is think it's about 35 in the garage atm . . . After smoking it's gonna hang in the basement either over or in the sump until at least Easter (cooler and more humid and the water is potable so not worried about contamination).So what salt are you using and how do you tend your cycles?
thinking I might use a blend of apple or cherry with a touch of hickory but still not sure. Need to see how much of each I have on hand. Wish I would have had time to powder up my pecan wood but oh well maybe next time. Still need to try and get my hands on a good supply of sassafras wood . . .Are you planning to smoke and if so for how long using what wood?
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