Dry cured smoked leg of lamb

[Odie Oskarsson]

Hi all, a few years ago I posted a thread about making Icelandic Hangikjot using a brine cure. I have made it a dozen times since then and it is always great (I have one stabilizing now after a 2 week cure and 3 day smoke to make for Christmas)
My local grocery had a good deal on some nice looking lamb shoulders a week ago so I decided to pick one up and on a whim boned it and put it on some salt for a dry cure.
My question is did I do this right (I'm pretty sure i did but I've never done a dry cure) and can I leave it on smoke until I get my 30% weight loss(it averages 40‐55 deg F this time of year around here and over the next month it will do nothing but get cooler, probably not cold enough to freeze in my cold smoker). My process is so far: bone the lamb, spread 3% kosher, 2% sugar, .25% cure #2 and a good few grinds of black pepper (I did not weigh the pepper) and vac sealed. I plan on curing for 14 days (total thickness of the meat is about 2.5 inches) and then putting it in my cold smoker until it loses about 30% with about 8-10 hours of smoke every morning.
My smoker is a 20x20x48" plywood box with wooden slats and I use a amzn maze smoke generator so my interior doesn't get too warm if my outside temps are above 60 (like today) I'll pull it and refrigerate until temps are cooler.
Thanks in advance,
Cheers,
Odie

 

[normanaj]

As an Armenian I consume a fair amount of lamb,even when smoked its hot smoked.What you're doing is something I've never heard of until now.

Can't wait to see the outcome.Post pics please!

 

[Odie Oskarsson]

It truly is fantastic, the wet brine that I do is really good but I know that the real deal done on the small farms just hangs in the smokehouse for a long time. Once I put it on smoke I'll start taking some pics, right now it's just a lump of meat in a bag. If you want to see my first attempt search hangikjot and it should pop up, I can't imagine too many people post on the subject, lol. Davemac (maybe? It's one of the names I see alot on here and is very similar to that) helped me out with the basic cure math immensely, I have applied it to venison pork and lamb always to great effect.