Well the day has come, the ham came out of the brine this morning. I'd actually forgotten about it until I saw this:
Ironically, I was on here at the time.
Here are the first pics. Didn't take any of the mixing up of the brine, but here she is coming out. I trimmed off some of the fat as it had gotten a bit gelatinous. No off smells or textures, just a pretty decent looking ham. Actually, it's the picnic, so not technically a ham, but it looks, feels and tastes like ham, so there.
Basic recipe was Pop's brine with an extra TB of cure for shorter cure time and also some clove and juniper berry.
Before trimming.
After trimming.
All important fry test. Seasoning was just perfect and it's really tender. Salty and sweet with a nice earthy back note from the clove. In fact the flavor was so good, I was almost afraid to smoke it. Almost.
It goes in the smoke in just a little while, more pics to come.
Ironically, I was on here at the time.
Here are the first pics. Didn't take any of the mixing up of the brine, but here she is coming out. I trimmed off some of the fat as it had gotten a bit gelatinous. No off smells or textures, just a pretty decent looking ham. Actually, it's the picnic, so not technically a ham, but it looks, feels and tastes like ham, so there.
Basic recipe was Pop's brine with an extra TB of cure for shorter cure time and also some clove and juniper berry.
Before trimming.
After trimming.
All important fry test. Seasoning was just perfect and it's really tender. Salty and sweet with a nice earthy back note from the clove. In fact the flavor was so good, I was almost afraid to smoke it. Almost.
It goes in the smoke in just a little while, more pics to come.