Picnic HAM, cold smoked... Injected using my method... MONEY... sliced..

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daveomak

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Nov 12, 2010
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Omak,Washington,U.S.A.
Lookin' pretty good to me....

..... ham5.JPG ..... ham6.JPG .....


For this ham, I decided I would cold smoke it for approx. 12 hours over a few days to see if the smoke flavor penetrated deeper....
4 hours this afternoon... 4 hours tonight and 4 hours tomorrow... I'm gonna try and get 3-4 hours breaks between the smokes...

I used my injection method and had it in the refer for 10 days....
... ham 3-24-19 (2).JPG ... 4.JPG

Pulled from the zip bag and let it dry a bit to start the pellicle in the refer... You can see the shiny surface noting it is drying...
... ham 001.JPG

Netted it with the aid of a stock pot...
.... ham 003.JPG ...

Hung it in the breezeway where my smoker is, to warm it up closer to ambient....
DON'T forget it's hanging there when you walk out the back door.... LOOK UP !!
.... ham 006.JPG

Hung it in the warm smoker 75F, that has been at 275F to sterilize the inside... It ain't clean but it's sterile......
.... ham 010.JPG

Got my AMNPS filled with a mix of 40% Cob, 40% alder or Pitt Choice and 20% mesquite... I like those flavors..
.... ham 008.JPG

This was approx. 8.5# picnic.....
Mixed into approx. 400 grams of no salt vegetable stock (10% weight of the picnic) ..
............ Veggie Stock.jpg

STPP food grade (sodium tripolyphosphate) 0.4% = ~15 grams
Kosher salt 2% = ~80 grams
White sugar 1% = ~40 grams
Cure #1 0.25% = ~10 grams

Thoroughly dissolve the STPP first, then the rest of the ingredients.... do not heat over 100F...
above 130, the nitrite starts to break down and you will not have any botulism protection..
Cool the mix to refer temp and inject...

Inject ALL of the mix at about 1.5" intervals...
Around the bones and joints FIRST to insure you don't get bone sour...
Then inject around the rest of the meat, making a valiant attempt to insure you get it thoroughly throughout the meat.... on a tray of sorts to catch any mix that runs out....
Zip bag the picnic and pour any escaped mix into the zip bag....
Place in the refer on a tray for 8-10 days, turning daily.. turning exposes the picnic to any mix that has seeped out of the leg...
My picnic had leaked about 50 mls the first day... by day 8, only about 5 mls was in the bag, the rest of the mix had reabsorbed... Perfect... I like it like that...

.......bbl....... Dave


When it cools I'll try slicing on my newly modified Chef's Choice slicer... we'll see how it performs....

....
 
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Watching this. I have thought about cold smoking then adding heat.
 
watching this as well. I don't know a lot about cold smoking meat beyond salmon so while I'm intrigued it will be a good while before I jump in.
 
Watching too . Are you going to leave it hang in the smoker over night , or back in the fridge ?
 
It's what happens when the cure does not reach the meat closest to the bone in time to prevent the rotting of the meat starting from the bone and moving outward. This is the reason for injecting the cure solution as close to the bone and joints and possible and working outwards towards the surface of the meat.
 
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Watching too . Are you going to leave it hang in the smoker over night , or back in the fridge ?

Evening chop.... I'm leaving it in the smoker for the duration... Takes too long to cool down below 60 and too long to heat up above ambient...
Bacteria grows pretty slow around 55F... I'll not be much above that... Then when I finally cook the ham, tomorrow evening, I'll cook it to 165 ish... That's where I like my ham cooked... After 70 years of eating well done pig, kinda hard to change...
 
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Evening chop.... I'm leaving it in the smoker for the duration... Takes too long to cool down below 60 and too long to heat up above ambient...
Bacteria grows pretty slow around 55F... I'll not be much above that... Then when I finally cook the ham, tomorrow evening, I'll cook it to 65 ish... That's where I like my ham cooked... After 70 years of eating well done pig, kinda hard to change...


Cook to 165 ish? Not 65.
 
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Gotcha... CRS... Old fingers too... YES !!!!!! 165F not 65.... Damn good thing you folks look out for me... At least I keep y'all busier than a cat covering it up on a tin roof... I guess that makes me a "multi-tasker"..... ;-)
 
Gotcha... CRS... Old fingers too... YES !!!!!! 165F not 65.... Damn good thing you folks look out for me... At least I keep y'all busier than a cat covering it up on a tin roof... I guess that makes me a "multi-tasker"..... ;-)


LOL Just trying to keep up with you here.
 
You and I both know this is going to be awesome! I have 2 pkgs(soon to be one) left in the freezer of the butt I did a few weeks ago. Yum yum.
 
Well, I just put the third batch of dust in the MB mod.... I think I'll crank up the smoker temp... It was 68F a bit ago... I think I've got 8 good hours of cold smoke... Let's see what 4 hours of warm smoke added to the ham looks like... Cold smoke does NOT make the outside of the meat look pretty... It disappears into the meat... doesn't make it look ready for the ball... no lipstick, no tie, no polished shoes...... just looks kinda so-so... A little smoke stuck to the outside surely dresses things up a bit.... set the smoker temp to shut off at 140 ish...
 
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Good stuff Dave... did you squizee out blood from artery that runs on inside from center bone down to hock cut before curing.... there is fair amount of blood in that artery....
 
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When I did my bacon, I didn't notice a good color until between 18 and 24 hours of cold smoke. Food for thought I guess. But I'm guessing you already know that because I stole your method of doing the bacon!
 
After the second day of cold smoke I thought the dust had gone out because there was very little color. Smoke flavor was surely there though.
 
Good stuff Dave... did you squizee out blood from artery that runs on inside from center bone down to hock cut before curing.... there is fair amount of blood in that artery....

Well, you caught me flat footed.... That lesson must have been on page #2... I never got past the first page....
Do you have any pictures of which you speak ??? I need pictures to learn most stuff... Like, where is that artery exactly??? I'll look for it when I cut into this picnic....
Every day man learns something new, don't count toward days lived on earth.. Today will be a FREE-BE !!!!!!

When you quit learnin', pack up your stuff...
 
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I don't have a pic but if you look at fresh ham cross cut at hock bone, you will see, just under the skin, red dot about size of pepper... that's the artery....it runs, almost in straight line all the way to the center bone... use your thumbs to squizee out as much blood as you can....
 
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