Dave,
I have been making this for new years for the past three years. My wife looks forward to this every year as her favorite cook. I usually read this entire thread to remember how to do this once a year cook. This year I decided to consolidate all the pieces into a single post.
I think I have it about right, but feel free to correct me. Cooking temperatures and duration may be a bit subjective and vary by the smoker. Hope you enjoy this, and if I have totally blown it let me know.
Fresh Pork Picnic
Ingredients
Pork Picnic 10#'s.... ~4500 grams....
Weights are per 500 grams injection liquid (10% injection) no salt vegetable stock
Amesphos............ 18 grams ~0.4% (0.3-0.5% recommended)
Sugar, white ....... 45 grams ~1%
Salt, pickling ...... 90 grams ~2%
Cure #1.............. . 11 grams ~153 Ppm nitrite ( edit .. OR 2 tsp for 10#'s)
NOTE: If your picnic weighs in at 20 pounds, double all of the above. If it's an off number i.e. 24 pounds then you can create a ratio that will allow you to multiply the above weights in grams. See below:
Given a 10# pork picnic weighs ~4500 grams, then:
24/10=2.4 ratio
Now multiply all the ingredients by 2.4 to get the correct measurements in grams for each ingredient. Easy.
Optional: Whole cloves (makes my wife happy to see these stuck in the ham.
Directions
1. Figure out the ratios for cure/meat weight.
2. Mix all the cure ingredients in a large bowl. I warm up my chicken broth so all the rest dissolves more easily.
3. Score the skin on the picnic using a sharp box knife with a new blade. The squares should be about 2-3 inches across. You need to do this so when you inject the ham you don't have to punch through the tough skin.
4. Inject the ham in a method that starts with injecting deep down to the bone all around the bone. It's important that the area around the bone cures or it can "sour" the entire ham. After this is done then systematically inject the rest of the ham until all of the cure is used. A lot of the cure will start to leak out don't worry. This usually ends up at about every inch or so stick the needle in. When finished either wrap the meat really well or stick it in a huge BPA safe bag. This year I'm using the Ziploc Storage Bags, Double Zipper Seal & Expandable Bottom, Jumbo from
Amazon.
5. Cure time. Five days is the bare minimum, but I recommend between 10 and fifteen days. Time is your friend.
6. When the cure is finished place the meat in a 28" cotton ham bag (
amazon). Then figure out how to hang the ham in your smoker.
7. Preheat smoker to 275 degrees. Place the ham in the smoker and immediately turn temp down to about 180 degrees for the next 8 hours. Then raise the temp to about 200 until internal temp reads about 165 degrees. Last few hours may need to turn temp back up to 225-250 degrees.
