Fresh Ham

[scott in kansas]

This monster 27-pound ham is from the last pig we got from a neighbor/friend. I brined it for 16 days and now have it in the smoker with my new A-Maze_N. Might be a late night!

 

[SmokinEdge]

Tell me about your recipe, and did you inject along the bone?

 

[kilo charlie]

Welcome to SMF! That's a heck of a ham!

Did you inject it too? How long do you think it's going to take to smoke? What's your target IT?

 

[GaryHibbert]

BIG ham!!! Gonna be a lot of eating from that boy.
Gary

 

[scott in kansas]

Tell me about your recipe, and did you inject along the bone?

I'm using a recipe from "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. I like this book. Basically, the brine was salt, pink salt, and brown sugar. I brined for 1/2 day per pound plus a couple extra due to scheduling. After a couple of hours on the smoker, I rubbed on a glaze of brown sugar, dijon mustard, and garlic. I did not use an injection.

I'm looking for an IT of 155. After six hours, I'm at 99. Got the smoker set at 200.

Smoking with a layer of hickory underneath a layer of cherry (suggestion for using cherry in A-Maze-N instructions). Using MES40, chip tray out, top vent halfway open. Again, this is my first time using A-Maze-N so I relied on hints from this forum!

 

[thirdeye]

If you are following the recipe for American-Style Sugar Glazed Ham.... I've helped reverse engineer this recipe because Rhulman did not explain how to calculate the Cure #1 or salt and just used a generic amount for a 10# or 12# ham. He typically is heavy handed with ingredients but your ham is outside the weight range of this recipe.

The reason several others have asked about your recipe specifics is that a ham that large benefits from some special attention when curing. So how did you calculate the amount of Cure #1, and was there a reason you did not inject some of the curing brine? A potential issue called bone sour can occur without injecting some of the brine around the bones and joints.

EDIT - Here is a very basic 5-point injection sketch for a rear leg ham so you can see what I was referring to. Some folks will shoot them in more spots.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I'm using a recipe from "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn. I like this book. Basically, the brine was salt, pink salt, and brown sugar. I brined for 1/2 day per pound plus a couple extra due to scheduling.

Ruhlman has many flaws in his recipes. Please refer to SMF or a credible source like Stanley Marianski.
With no injection and such a short cure time on that ham, I am very worried. Without injection, that ham would easily take 30-45 days to cure. Skin on even longer. You almost have to inject a 25# plus ham. No way around it.
I’m not impressed with Ruhlman at all.

 

[SmokingUPnorth]

Man can’t wait to see finished pics.

 

[daveomak]

We need the amounts of stuff in your brine..
You should inject 1.5% salt, 1% white sugar and 0.25% cure#1, based on the weight of the ham, that have been dissolved in 1 qt. salt free vegetable stock...

Inject along the bone first to insure y you don't get bone sour... Have the ham cold, in the refer for 2 days first, then continue in the refer for 2 weeks, for the best flavor...

 

[daveomak]

IMO, Ruhlman is not a mentor in meat curing... His recipes are VERY suspect....

 

[Gonna Smoke]

scott in kansas listen to these guys on here and ask them questions, they are the gurus when it comes to this stuff.

 

[scott in kansas]

If you are following the recipe for American-Style Sugar Glazed Ham.... I've helped reverse engineer this recipe because Rhulman did not explain how to calculate the Cure #1 or salt and just used a generic amount for a 10# or 12# ham. He typically is heavy handed with ingredients but your ham is outside the weight range of this recipe.

The reason several others have asked about your recipe specifics is that a ham that large benefits from some special attention when curing. So how did you calculate the amount of Cure #1, and was there a reason you did not inject some of the curing brine? A potential issue called bone sour can occur without injecting some of the brine around the bones and joints.

EDIT - Here is a very basic 5-point injection sketch for a rear leg ham so you can see what I was referring to. Some folks will shoot them in more spots.

View attachment 504568

Wow, I've never heard of bone sour and I've never heard of injecting brine! I'll have to learn more about this. I followed the recipe for the brine. It is dependent on the amount of water so you maintain a certain level of salinity. I had to mix three batches to get enough brine to cover the ham in the cooler.

Now, when I do a rub for bacon with pink salt, I base the amount on the weight of the meat. I have a bacon spreadsheet to help me with both salts in grams.

Thank you!

 

[thirdeye]

Scott, the terms I was introduced to as a little boy were 'pumping' (injecting) and 'sweet pickle' (a curing brine containing salt and sugar).... so 50 some odd years later if I replied with "man... did you pump a 10% sweet pickle into your ham?" you would have no idea what I was talking about.

Your bacon cure sounds like a dry cure, so weight of the bacon is all you need for the calculations. Adding water to the equation like with your ham requires you to add the weight of the water to the meat weight.

So how did that monster ham come out? Bone sour is appropriately named, if it happened you would know it.

So here's the deal, most of the questions ↑↑↑ were asked because it's more likely you have too weak of a curing brine.... or too strong of a curing brine instead of a curing brine with the correct percentages of Cure #1, salt and sugar. So, we know the ham is 27 pounds and if you confirm the amount of water (is this 3 gallons?) and the amounts of Cure #1, amount of salt, and amount of sugar you used, we can run a very simple calculation to see if your amounts are within the proper parameters.

 

[chopsaw]

I'm using a recipe from "Charcuterie" by Michael Ruhlman and Brian Polcyn

I have that book .
I learned meat curing on this forum before I was gifted that book . That's how I knew there are errors in his recipes .
If a first timer uses the book , you would not know that his amounts are off and heavy handed as said above .

 

[scott in kansas]

Scott, the terms I was introduced to as a little boy were 'pumping' (injecting) and 'sweet pickle' (a curing brine containing salt and sugar).... so 50 some odd years later if I replied with "man... did you pump a 10% sweet pickle into your ham?" you would have no idea what I was talking about.

Your bacon cure sounds like a dry cure, so weight of the bacon is all you need for the calculations. Adding water to the equation like with your ham requires you to add the weight of the water to the meat weight.

So how did that monster ham come out? Bone sour is appropriately named, if it happened you would know it.

So here's the deal, most of the questions ↑↑↑ were asked because it's more likely you have too weak of a curing brine.... or too strong of a curing brine instead of a curing brine with the correct percentages of Cure #1, salt and sugar. So, we know the ham is 27 pounds and if you confirm the amount of water (is this 3 gallons?) and the amounts of Cure #1, amount of salt, and amount of sugar you used, we can run a very simple calculation to see if your amounts are within the proper parameters.

Thanks everyone for the advice and concern. Luckily, I didn't have bone sour and it turned out tasty. Next time I will do more research and not rely on Ruhlman. And it sounds like I need to get an injector. I really appreciate the helpful comments. -Scott

 

[thirdeye]

Thanks everyone for the advice and concern. Luckily, I didn't have bone sour and it turned out tasty. Next time I will do more research and not rely on Ruhlman. And it sounds like I need to get an injector. I really appreciate the helpful comments. -Scott

Once you get an injector, one of the many things you can do is try the daveomak injectable curing ham brine. He has several postings about it and I have one long thread where I used it on a pork loin, a shoulder picnic and a shoulder butt. It's a wonderful technique.

Off topic but one of the wildest injector uses I've seen was a guy that shot some seasoned clarified butter into grilled lobster tails a few minutes before serving.

 

[daveomak]

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

Read through this thread....