- Nov 15, 2012
- 1,025
- 105
Hi folks,
I've made ham from 5 lb deboned pork leg sections several times with good success so far. However, tonight I sliced into a freshly baked ham which I cured and smoked this week, and found that the cure hadn't quite made it all the way through the center.
Here are the pictures. You can see the circular spot of uncured meat in the center of the slices in both pictures.
This was a fast cure, so the pork only started curing last Saturday 6/29. 3 1/2 days of cure, rinse and soak for 1 hour, overnight pellicle formation, cold smoking for 4 hours with temps from 63 - 79 deg F on 7/4, then baking tonight to an IT of 135 deg F with IT reaching 149 deg F after resting.
I'd already eaten a fair amount of the ham from the outside before I sliced into the center and saw the uncured area. Hopefully I'm not going to die.
Should I throw out the whole ham, or can I just cut out the uncured part leaving a good margin around it??
Thanks in advance,
Clarissa
I've made ham from 5 lb deboned pork leg sections several times with good success so far. However, tonight I sliced into a freshly baked ham which I cured and smoked this week, and found that the cure hadn't quite made it all the way through the center.
Here are the pictures. You can see the circular spot of uncured meat in the center of the slices in both pictures.
This was a fast cure, so the pork only started curing last Saturday 6/29. 3 1/2 days of cure, rinse and soak for 1 hour, overnight pellicle formation, cold smoking for 4 hours with temps from 63 - 79 deg F on 7/4, then baking tonight to an IT of 135 deg F with IT reaching 149 deg F after resting.
I'd already eaten a fair amount of the ham from the outside before I sliced into the center and saw the uncured area. Hopefully I'm not going to die.
Should I throw out the whole ham, or can I just cut out the uncured part leaving a good margin around it??
Thanks in advance,
Clarissa
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