Cured ham

[maineman]

Hi all, I was just asked to try and “salt cure” a couple hams from a wild pig. I have my granddads old Morton salt book and it has some info in it but I still need some advice….
First, is there a substitute for Morton sugar cure? I can find any local. Second, it appears as though this process is done with the skin on, I’ve yet to see the Hans but if they are skinned can it still be done?
My plan is to follow the guidelines in the book by injecting around the bones, surface rubbing and setting in a fridge at approx 38degrees for the required time. After it’s done I was going to soak in water for an hour or so then let air dry and freeze. Does this make sense? I’m open to any suggestions from others. Thanks much

 

[thirdeye]

Sugar Cure is long gone, in fact when Morton decided to discontinue the product, they realized it had name recognition so they phased it out by replacing it with Tender Quick for a couple of years and advertising that the two products could be used interchangeably. I would think you could add more sugar to Tender Quick when making your "sweet pickle".

I have an old Morton's Home Curing booklet too, but your cover looks older. Does your version have injection diagrams in what they call the "x-ray" view that show where to place the needle?

In my booklet, on the "cutting" page, they go into detail on the "short cut" and "long cut" versions, and my book has instructions for injecting and applying dry cure to the surface (a combination cure) and talks about re-application. My grandfather was a salt-box curing guy for things like bacon, but they did follow the Morton instructions when doing picnic hams from the front shoulders... I can't say how closely the instructions were followed. And I seem to recall a real long curing time.

 

[maineman]

Yeah, I remember the hams and bacon hanging and taking a long time to cure. My book does have the injection X-ray.

My recioe in the book calls for both the tender quick(injected) and the sugar cure(rubbed). Is there any substitute for the sugar cure?

 

[thirdeye]

It looks like you have a book, where I have more of a booklet. Mine has drawings only no photos.

 

[tallbm]

Hi all, I was just asked to try and “salt cure” a couple hams from a wild pig. I have my granddads old Morton salt book and it has some info in it but I still need some advice….
First, is there a substitute for Morton sugar cure? I can find any local. Second, it appears as though this process is done with the skin on, I’ve yet to see the Hans but if they are skinned can it still be done?
My plan is to follow the guidelines in the book by injecting around the bones, surface rubbing and setting in a fridge at approx 38degrees for the required time. After it’s done I was going to soak in water for an hour or so then let air dry and freeze. Does this make sense? I’m open to any suggestions from others. Thanks much

If it's a wild/feral pig I would almost guarantee there will be no skin on the leg. Why? No one preps and is ready or cares to scald and scrape a wild pig. Heck many people don't even want to skin them or fool with them after they knock em down and drag em away.

It should not be an issue if there is no skin. I've done wild pork hams before but on something like a 70 pound feral hog so both hams deboned came out to almost 10 pounds of meat total. No issues other than me trying a boxed cure that was too salty. I fixed that by just following straight forward calculated curing practices.

thirdeye beat me to the punch about mentioning tender quick.

Honestly I would recommend you cut out all the guess work around how much to use and if you should soak to remove salt and how long.

How is this done?
I recommend an equilibrium cure/brine where you also inject the solution into the ham along the bones like your book shows AND all over and then just soak in the solution.
This way it cures from inside out and outside in while drastically speeding up the curing process while ensuring it is completely cured all the way through :)

In short to do this you:

• Total Weight = Add the weight of the hams + the water weight to cover them and convert to grams
• Salt = 0.0165 x Total Weight, which is 1.65% salt (this is a great never too salty number for me)
• Sugar = 0.01 x Total Weight, which is 1% sugar ( you can increase this if you want)
• Cure #1 = 1.133gm x Total Weight, which is proper amount of Cure#1 needed and is in grams. This is not a percent but will give you exact cure

If you do this you will cure those hams without them ever being too salty. You wont need to soak.
You cut out ALL guess work.
You know your cure amount is dead on. Not too low and not at some dangerous level.
Finally, you have learned the practice to equilibrium cure anything and if you eliminate the cure you have a simple equilibrium brine.

It's called "equilibrium" because the salts and cure and such want to travel around in there so that it will equalize between the meat and the water so that you never have more than 1.65% salt in either the meat or the water. You can let it cure/brine for as long as makes sense and never have to worry about it.

The hardest part is finding a bucket to fit the meat and having the fridge space for it.
Let me know if this makes sense and ask any questions you have :)

 

[maineman]

Tallbm,
Thanks, that does make sense. What is a good time to leave in the brine? Dies it depend on weight?
Once done in the brine do I just pull it out and let it dry before carving and packing for freezer?

 

[tallbm]

Tallbm,
Thanks, that does make sense. What is a good time to leave in the brine? Dies it depend on weight?
Once done in the brine do I just pull it out and let it dry before carving and packing for freezer?

It depends on thickness of the meat more than anything else.
It's been my understanding that salt and cure travels 1/4 inch every 24 hours.

So you leave it in long enough for the cure to penetrate fully (inside out + outside in). Hence injecting the crap out of it with your solution like 1-1.5 inch apart as well as along the bone and all throughout the meat.

I've done 10 pound pork shoulders and they cured in 5 days no problem but again I injected thoroughly.
With cure #1 you can leave 14 days and longer no problem. Cure#1 keeps it from spoiling, that's its main purpose where secondary purpose is to give you that ham flavor, color, and texture.

I pull mine out and go right into the smoker. I've done experiments where I dry and form pellicles and as well as going right into the smoker and could tell no difference so I save time and headache by going right into the smoker.

Curing in the liquid will NOT cook it or make it edible without cooking it.
I would NOT cure it then slice it up and vac seal it and expect to safely eat it out of the package. It would have to be cooked no matter what, cure just helps protect from spoilage, not cook it.

If you are trying to do more of an old style purely cured country ham that is a whole other thing of using Cure#2, curing chambers with proper temp and humidity, and many many many many months.
This is a completely different topic.

What I and thirdeye have been discussing is curing a ham to smoke/cook and eat.
In this case you pull from the cure/brine solution and smoke.

Being a wild hog you may have to worry about micro parasites so you would want to take the internal temp to 165F unless you are sure your hog was clean and ok to cook to an internal temp of 145-153F degrees.

Fire off any questions you have :)

 

[maineman]

Thanks, yes smoking after the cure to cook.

 

[maineman]

On a different note, how about a bacon? Would I soak it in brine as well then pull and slice then freeze?

 

[tallbm]

On a different note, how about a bacon? Would I soak it in brine as well then pull and slice then freeze?

You can.

Bacon is much thinner so a wet cure is overkill and more work than needed. Myself and most others do a dry cure on skinless bacon.

The equilibrium cure method is exactly the same BUT there is no water so Total Weight is simply just the meat.

You cut your pork bell to fit your bags and then weigh. Measure your salt, sugar, and cure according to that weight and mix up then put in the bag and massage all over and squeeze out the air.

Flip every day and ensure you wait long enough so the cure can travel all the way through the meat. Add a day or 2 to be sure it has completely cured.
In this case you get 1/4 inch travel of salt and cure #1 from each direction so you get like 1/2 total penetration a day.

Rinse off and smoke. Many will make a pellicle on bacon. I hot smoke mine and noticed that the pellicle doesn't matter... did eperiments with this as well hahaha. I take my bacon to an internal temp of 145F degrees and I can eat it directly out of the pack and snack on it while I'm slicing it.
It's like cold cut bacon and honestly I eat most of it without it ever hitting a skillet hahaha :D

Even simpler! :D

 

[daveomak]

Picnic HAM, cold smoked... Injected using my method... MONEY... sliced..

Lookin' pretty good to me.... ............... For this ham, I decided I would cold smoke it for approx. 12 hours over a few days to see if the smoke flavor penetrated deeper.... 4 hours this afternoon... 4 hours tonight and 4 hours tomorrow... I'm gonna try and get 3-4 hours breaks...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

~5 days from Picnic to Ham....

I use non enhanced picnics... enhanced is OK but I cut the ingredients in half (1/2), to accommodate all the stuff processors add... Gently heat 10% the weight of the picnic, of Low Salt Vegetable stock, to about 100F.... 9# picnic ~400 grams of stock.... Once warm, ADD IN ORDER and...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

HAM from fresh picnics.. update 10/21 ... MONEY ..

My neighborhood small grocery had fresh picnics, non enhanced, for $1.49... sooooo, 2 came home with me... Bride wanted these done with the hide on so that's what I did.... Many, many injections of a curing brine to make them hammy... around the bones and joints and along the hide from...

www.smokingmeatforums.com

 

[maineman]

• Total Weight = Add the weight of the hams + the water weight to cover them and convert to grams
• Salt = 0.0165 x Total Weight, which is 1.65% salt (this is a great never too salty number for me)
• Sugar = 0.01 x Total Weight, which is 1% sugar ( you can increase this if you want)
• Cure #1 = 1.133gm x Total Weight, which is proper amount of Cure#1 needed and is in grams. This is not a percent but will give you exact cure

Dumb question….If I convert meat and water to grams then all the math is is gram correct?
Seemed odd to me for some reason. Say meat and water is 20lbs, that means only about 15 grams of salt?

 

[chopsaw]

I use the method as shown in post 11 . Makes fantastic ham . You should try all ways , but don't miss that info .

 

[JckDanls 07]

I was going to suggest daveomak 's way...

 

[maineman]

Ok, so I must be a realty moron…. I have two hams spirit 12cd each from a wild hog. If I use davomacks recipe do I weight the hams, convert to grams, and make the injection? What is sttp and is there a substitute? Once injected they are not submerged in brine?

 

[thirdeye]

Ok, so I must be a realty moron…. I have two hams spirit 12cd each from a wild hog. If I use davomacks recipe do I weight the hams, convert to grams, and make the injection? What is sttp and is there a substitute? Once injected they are not submerged in brine?

I think the confusion is two different curing methods. One method is an equilibrium brine cure (meat + water + salt + sugar) in which you will inject some of the brine (about 10% of the meat weight), then cover with the remaining liquid, in order to cure the meat. For this method you weigh the meat and the water, then calculate the amounts of salt, sugar and Cure #1.

The other method is Dave's Injectable cure. Your liquid is injected, there is no covering brine needed. Here are the breakdown of the ingredients and number of grams per (one) pound of meat. After injecting I take any leftover and pour in into the bag. These ingredients are mixed in this order, the STPP goes in first.

STPP is a phosphate based food additive and it helps with moisture retention and is used to preserve the natural color of meat and fish products while improving their texture. It acts as an emulsifier and helps to prevent meat, poultry, or fish from becoming greasy and falling apart during heating.

Here is a post where I made several types of hams (picnic, butt and pork loin), it's loaded with photos and comments. Give this a read.

I Made a "daveomak" Ham Using a Picnic Shoulder, a Loin, & a Boneless Butt.

After reading through THIS thread I had to give this technique a try, I'm a big fan of injecting for flavor, and have used injectable brines and cures with good success, so Dave's method for injecting a curing solution was right up my alley. I followed the recipe exactly and stayed very close...

www.smokingmeatforums.com