North-Central Ohio smoker

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ohiocabinfamily

Newbie
Original poster
Nov 24, 2010
3
10
Hey people, Thomas and family here. As you might think from the screen name, yes we live in a cabin in Ohio LOL.  We build a new home 5 years ago with the intent of doing a little homesteading. We have our own laying hens, raise a few hogs each year, along with doing a lot of canning and freezing. Fenced in a little over 1.5 acres this fall for a spring calf. I have helped aunts & uncles butcher over the years. I never was around when the cured or when the smoking took place, so I have been doing a lot of reading.  This is the third year we raised hogs. Three the first year, all weighted around 245#. Last year Nine was raised, one for a roast at 150#, with the other butchered at 225-250#.   Each of those years we took them in, and I have to say very disappointed, will explain that at later time. Just really a poor job. This year we did everything from start to finish. We got four feeders on April 19 at 45# and a total of 800#s of feed per pig, they ran out of food and time on Oct. 14th.  8 o'clock am Oct 16 we started the butchering, Working with one hog at a time it took 2 days to have the fresh in the freezer and the bacon curing (TQ) and the soon to be hams in the brine. Well all the fresh turned out great, I think the sausage is the best I have ever had. Seasoned only with salt, pepper, sage, and a small amount of red pepper. It makes great gravy. The bacon with the TQ, W/sugar, B/sugar and Course black pepper & 12 hours of cold smoke at 77-80 degrees in the smokehouse with hickory and wild apple that we cut right here on our property has a wonderful flavor. Eggs over easy, fried taters w/onions, and bacon just make the start to any day that much better. Well I pulled the hams from the brine ((#1 cure, salt, w/sugar, b/sugar, little "real maple syrup") & some with (#1 cure, salt w/sugar)) Sun. and washed them well and air dried them. They went in to the smokehouse today 4pm. I will smoke them till they hit 140ish, again using hickory and wild apple. They will be sliced as ham steaks for breakfast & dinner or even grilled.  A little about the smokehouse: we have a saw mill around from us, I had hickory cut 2x4s and white oak rough cut 1" thick. We built the house 4'x8' with a 7' ceiling which worked out great so far. I am using a box stove coming in low on the back north-west side, with my vent on the upper south-east side to get a full cross ventilation. I have found it very easy to control the temp so far. I have a few Amish friends that have said it as fancy as a four door buggy, lol. A couple of them are trying to figure out how to put wheels on it so they can use it. Well I have to go check out the fire & smoke. Hope to talk and meet some of you here on the board sometime. Anyone close by, shoot me an e-mail. Oh ya I have pics......but there on my new droid X and I have no clue how to works it yet. Later Thomas
 
Take a look at these babies........27-29#s   Not bad...right guys?   Stay tuned, more to came.

Thomas

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Welcome fellow Buckeye.

  Having some Amish as neighbors is good, talk to them about canning meat,

I have a buddy  with Amish neighbors that talked him into canning some deer and it

literaly mealts in your mouth !
 
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First off Welcome  John Boy Thomas to SMF. You'll like it here for there are alot of really good folks here that would just love to help you with just about anything to do with smoking. Now there are alot of proven recipes for some amazing things here too. So if you need sign up for the E-Course it's free and it will give you the basics of smoking and some good methods to use also. So the next big thing for you to do is go out and get you something to smoke and if you happen to have any questions just post it here and we will be happy to answer them for you.

Welcome To Your New Addiction  
 
Hello all,   Well the smoker has been going for 25 hours, and have a internal temp on the hams of 127 and took a peek (and pic) and boy do they look good. The color on them look....well mouth watering.   I hope to post more pics later tonight.    Thomas
 
Welcome to the SMF. Glad to have you here. Lots of good folks, great recipes and knowledge. Your off to a nice start.
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