Is it Bacon or Ham

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kihler

Smoke Blower
Original poster
Mar 14, 2015
133
35
Arizona
Curing and smoking beef, pork, fish and chicken is a great past time. But pork is my favorite. I make pork belly bacon, pork loin bacon and coppa bacon. I bought a pork shoulder to cut out the coppa muscle for bacon but decided to cure and smoke the entire shoulder. I wasn't sure if I would get a bacon flavored meat or a ham. I followed my bacon cure process. I use 1 tablespoon of Morton tender quick per pound of meat, I also added 1/4 teaspoon of pink salt to give the meat a "cured look". I like using Morton tender quick, the final product always comes out the same.  

Before adding the curing salts, I deboned the pork shoulder and removed the pork skin. I put curing salt on the meat, bone and skin. The bone and skin are good for soup or eating. After adding the curing salt, it all goes into the frig for 10 days. After 10 days out comes a cured looking pork shoulder. I let the pork shoulder, bone and skin soak in cool water about 2 hours. This gets a lot of the salt out.

Here is a first for me - I used meat glue to reshape the pork roast into a roll, tied it into shape and put it back into the frig for 24 hours.

On to the smoker. I smoked the pork shoulder 6 hours, the IT was 160. I used apple and alder wood. Both apple and alder give a mild smoky flavor. The meat glue worked, and I have a ham flavored pork roast. Check out the pictures below.   


10 pound pork shoulder


Deboned and the skin removed


After curing.

Meat glue added, rolled and tied


Ready for the smoke, note pork skin above the roast. They drip fat during the smoke process


6 hours later
 


Some good looking eats


The glue worked and it looks like ham, tasted like ham, it must be ham.


The bacon skin turned out to be pork skin chews. Like a smoked pork jerky
 


This will make a great pot of soup. Nothing wasted.
 
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Reactions: crazymoon
K, That looks delicious! 
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Yes, tender quick contains both sodium  nitrate and sodium nitrite. I added a small amount of pink salt (1/4 teaspoon) to give my final product the cured ham look. Tender quick by itself may not always give that "pink" ham look.
 
Kihler,

 Do you know where I can get some tender quick? Only place I have found it is walmart.com, but it is 12-2lbs packs.

Thanks

Dave
 
Looks Great, Kihler!!
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We call it BBB (Buckboard Bacon).

When you use the right amount of Tender Quick, you should not add any other cure. Tender Quick has the right amount of cure in it & will always give the "Pink" cured look & taste.

Here's some BBB and also some cured Pulled Butt Ham:

Buckboard Bacon and Pulled Cured Boston Butt Ham    

Bear
 
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