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 the meat side... and everywhere else...
I injected about 500 cc into each ham for a ~10% pump.... I used a plain brine of pickling salt, white sugar, Amesphos and cure #1... The last enhanced picnic I did was sooo good I thought fresh picnics would be a good test... They will hit the smoker in about 7 days.... AND they will be in my newly ordered stockinettes... ain't that something...
(I have since started using soup stock for the liquid to additionally enhance the flavor of the bird.. Turkey, Chicken or Vegetable Stocks are good starts..)(no salt vegetable stock is my favorite, awesome flavor)
For those of you wanting to try this injection method in place of brining in a bucket, here's what I did....
In the order recommended by a reputable source, to the water carrier for the ingredients.. picnics weighed ~ 10#'s.... 4500 ish grams....
Weights are per 500 cc /grams injection liquid (10% injection) no salt vegetable stock
Amesphos............ 18 grams ~0.4% (0.3-0.5% recommended)
Sugar, white ....... 45 grams ~1%
Salt, pickling ...... 90 grams ~2%
Cure #1.............. . 11 grams ~153 Ppm nitrite ( edit .. OR 2 tsp for 10#'s)
A question arose, on my previous thread, about the exclusion of using "total" weight for the calculations....
My explanation .... Since I'm adding the individual ingredients to the meat product, and since the water will "mostly if not totally" evaporate, I don't calculate the water weight into the formula... I also didn't subtract the weight of the hide from the weight of the ham... If a slab of bacon is ~10% hide, a ham must be around 3% hide... insignificant... And then there is the leakage into the zip bag...
All things considered, this method is more accurate than the method employed by the "HAM" manufacturers.... They mix up hundreds of gallons of cure/spice mix and randomly inject meats of different weights and thickness...
If absorption is off by 20%, the values are still well within recommended values...
I feel this method is more consistent, faster, less expensive and a lot more convenient than brining in a bucket... YMMV.....
The syringe in the picture is from a jar of Cajun Injector marinade..
...click on pics to enlarge...
.. ..
Many, many injections of a curing brine to make them hammy... around the bones and joints and along the hide from the meat side... and everywhere else...
I injected about 500 cc into each ham for a ~10% pump.... I used a plain brine of pickling salt, white sugar, Amesphos and cure #1... The last enhanced picnic I did was sooo good I thought fresh picnics would be a good test... They will hit the smoker in about 7 days.... AND they will be in my newly ordered stockinettes... ain't that something...
(I have since started using soup stock for the liquid to additionally enhance the flavor of the bird.. Turkey, Chicken or Vegetable Stocks are good starts..)(no salt vegetable stock is my favorite, awesome flavor)
For those of you wanting to try this injection method in place of brining in a bucket, here's what I did....
In the order recommended by a reputable source, to the water carrier for the ingredients.. picnics weighed ~ 10#'s.... 4500 ish grams....
Weights are per 500 cc /grams injection liquid (10% injection) no salt vegetable stock
Amesphos............ 18 grams ~0.4% (0.3-0.5% recommended)
Sugar, white ....... 45 grams ~1%
Salt, pickling ...... 90 grams ~2%
Cure #1.............. . 11 grams ~153 Ppm nitrite ( edit .. OR 2 tsp for 10#'s)
A question arose, on my previous thread, about the exclusion of using "total" weight for the calculations....
My explanation .... Since I'm adding the individual ingredients to the meat product, and since the water will "mostly if not totally" evaporate, I don't calculate the water weight into the formula... I also didn't subtract the weight of the hide from the weight of the ham... If a slab of bacon is ~10% hide, a ham must be around 3% hide... insignificant... And then there is the leakage into the zip bag...
All things considered, this method is more accurate than the method employed by the "HAM" manufacturers.... They mix up hundreds of gallons of cure/spice mix and randomly inject meats of different weights and thickness...
If absorption is off by 20%, the values are still well within recommended values...
I feel this method is more consistent, faster, less expensive and a lot more convenient than brining in a bucket... YMMV.....
The syringe in the picture is from a jar of Cajun Injector marinade..
...click on pics to enlarge...
.. ..
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