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

[daveomak]

After the sit in the refer, you might trim off the skin... save it for cracklins... Doubling the recipe is fine...

22# pig shank !!!! I want one... maybe 3 or 6.. I love smoked shanks... they seem to have TONS of flavor.....

 

[motocrash]

I love smoked shanks... they seem to have TONS of flavor.....

Yep.The dark pork meat is the best!

 

[slotown]

After the sit in the refer, you might trim off the skin... save it for cracklins... Doubling the recipe is fine...

22# pig shank !!!! I want one... maybe 3 or 6.. I love smoked shanks... they seem to have TONS of flavor.....

Dave,

1st thank you for all your great help and encouragement. When I got home with that 22lb beast I was initially quite overwhelmed. Wasnt really sure what I got into. Oh well, go big or go home...

After injecting the cure I discovered I did not have a sandwich bag big enough to fit the beast into. I improvised and wrapped in saran wrap and placed on a baking sheet for nine days, flipping daily. I was surprised at how little of the cure dripped back out. Almost none!

My next challenge was how to hang it in my MES. There are no hanging hooks built into the MES. No sweat, I improvised and built this hanger. Hooks came from Amazon. Wood came from a shipping crate. Ideas was all mine. Three holes in case I hang something smaller in the future:

 

[slotown]

So after nine days in the cure into the stocking, it went. Almost an oops here. I purchased the 36" stocking. Needed the 46". The beast barely fit:

Note how nice and clean the wood is. 24 hours later it has that great looking patina. I set the MES on 200 at 12:30 on Sunday. I figured this might take 24 hrs or so. At about 10:00 PM the internal meat was at 120. I did not want to wake at 4:00 AM so I dialed it back to 180 and let it rip. 6:00 AM it was at 145. Bumped it back up to 200.

 

[slotown]

At 1:00 PM, magic time it hit 165 internal.

Oohhhh. Isn't she pretty? Wife was shopping so I cut the temp back to 130 and let it coast till 4:30 PM. Today was cold with temp high at 42 degrees. The ham cooled to about 140.

 

[slotown]

Glad I used the stocking. It would have ripped right out of the hook without it. This meat was so tender.

Note the cross-hatching. The skin was so thick I was afraid it would block all the smoke. Glad I scored it before the smoke. The skin rectangles pop off like puzzle pieces.

The great surprise for me is there is two types of meat! On the very bottom, it was very similar to pulled pork. The rest of it slices very nicely. The sliced meat is so tender it cut with a fork.

GRAND SLAM!!

AGAIN THANKS!!!

 

[slotown]

BTW, I use a mailbox mod for the smoke pellets and one of those little rat maze gizmos. Filled the gizmo up three times. The pellets were beech and I ran the smoke for all 24 hours.

 

[daveomak]

My.... It sure looks moist... Was the flavor something close to what you were expecting ??
I like the idea of dicing up the skin first... I'm gonna use it....
Looks like it totally cured all over... Excellent job of injecting the beast...
Nice idea on the hanging bar... That will come in handy for sure...

 

[motocrash]

That couldn't be any prettier! Well maybe if it was in my fridge.

 

[slotown]

My.... It sure looks moist... Was the flavor something close to what you were expecting ??

The flavor was better than expected. My baseline was 40 years of store bought hams, then glazing them and warming them up. This had no added glaze, just the smoke and OK I did use turkey broth from our Thanksgiving dinner. I really did not expect the bold flavor straight from the smoker.

It will be a cold day in hell before a spiral cut ham comes through my door again.

 

[slotown]

That couldn't be any prettier! Well maybe if it was in my fridge.

Thanks! We ate about 3 lbs of the 22. Swing by I can help you out. I will definitely do this again but hopefully throttle back to 12-15 lbs.

 

[chopsaw]

Sure looks good . The part that shredded , was it closer to the heating element ? Maybe in a hot spot ?

 

[daveomak]

I'm glad you enjoyed it... Thanks for posting your test with the "BEAST".... others will enjoy it..... Dave

 

[slotown]

Sure looks good . The part that shredded , was it closer to the heating element ? Maybe in a hot spot ?

Yes it was much closer. But you could also tell it came from a different muscle group as well. Maybe getting up into the shoulder area? I'm not an expert on pig anatomy, so I don't really know.

 

[WillRunForQue]

Looks fantastic! I've only hung a ham once but will do it again for sure. I just used a dowel rod cut to length, which was a little trickier to work with than the sturdier setup you made. Very nice!

 

[ab canuck]

Wow!!! Points to you all, And yes I am late to the party...... I am going to try this method as well. We did up a couple pigs this fall and we have a couple hams we want to do. Thx for all the info, And Dave I will more than likely ask questions lol.

 

[slotown]

Looks fantastic! I've only hung a ham once but will do it again for sure. I just used a dowel rod cut to length, which was a little trickier to work with than the sturdier setup you made. Very nice!

Thanks! Cut it off the bone today. 13 freezer bags each about 1 1/2 pound. I'm set for awhile. Wait, that's what I said about Bears extra smoky bacon a while back....

 

[Slow42]

Daveomak I’m going to give your injection method a go. I have some 450 super phosphate can I use that in place or your Amesphos. Also whatever weight meat I get just use your 10% method, ingredients, as your recipe shows for the 500 cc per about 10 pounds? Hope this makes since to you.

 

[daveomak]

Single Super Phosphate Fertilizer
Rs 450/Bag 50 Kg

NO !!!! Get some FOOD GRADE stuff..... Use it at 0.25 to 0.4% addition...



Kosmos Q Moisture Magic Meat…

4.3 out of 5 stars(101)

Sodium Tripolyphosphate (1 lb) by…

4.1 out of 5 stars(14)

 

[daveomak]

ALSO.... http://store.theingredientstore.com/amesphos.aspx

theingredientstore.com/amesphos

Food Additives – Craft Butchers' Pantry

butcherspantry.com

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