picnic ham

We had pork shoulders on sale this week for .99 per pound. I was wanting to try curing a ham but decided I couldn't pass up this chance.

Here is my 8# Shoulder.



ready to inject with 1 1/2 cups of brine



Here's the brine cooking



and finally the brined shoulder ready to go in the fridge for the next 7 days




I got a little crazy with my brine. :roll: We like a real sweet sugar cured ham and we love to cook it with pineapple, sooooo, I added orange zest and pineapple juice to my brine along with some aromatic spices. Here is the brine recipe.

2 Gallons water
2 Cups Pickling salt
2 Cups Brown sugar
3 tsp Prague cure #1
12 oz Pineapple juice
2 TBSP Honey
1 TBSP Pickling spices
1 TBSP whole cloves
4 sticks Cinnamon
1 tsp Orange zest
1/4 tsp Allspice


Boil for 10 minutes, cool to 40 degrees, inject shoulder with 1 1/2 cups of brine

Don't know if it will be worth a flip, but it only cost $8.00 to try 8)

 

Come on down :P :!: By the way, I just picked up a 40# box of Oak Grove sweet taters a few days ago. Made some french frys last night. :D Man they were good.

 

fry them at 375 for just a couple of minutes. Soon as they start to brown get them out. They are great with just a sprinkle of brown sugar. :D

 

I finally got off work and got my picnic out of the brine cure and here is where we stand.

Picnic just out of the rinses from the brine and ready to hit the smoker,



Here is the picnic after 3.5 hours at 133 degrees,




I'm headed to 160 degrees to get fully cooked to make a pineapple glazed picnic for Thanksgiving.

 

No, my wife requested cherry and pecan. I just pulled it off and foiled it at 160. Sliced a little bitty slice to see if it was too salty. Tasted pretty good hot.

 

Hi guys,

Richard here's the link to Prague powder ,

http://www.sausagesource.com/catalog/4.html

Cajun_1, I just tasted a little bit and it was pretty good. We will finish cooking it with a pineapple glaze for Thanksgiving. If you can get here in time there will be plenty for all of us. :D

 

Hey Richard,

No, I just smoked it like it was. The recipe says to remove the skin and leave the fat and bake it to 140 degrees fat side up in a roasting pan before glazing. I am trying to get the picnic to the state that the recipe calls for but control the salt and taste of the meat. I have bought smoked, fully cooked picnics before that were so salty that I could not eat them. If I were doing it over I would not put so much cloves in my brine. The ham tastes a little too much like cloves. However, the glaze calls for studding with cloves, so we are just going to skip that part. Basically the glaze is just brown sugar, honey, pineapple rings, cherries and cinnamon other than cloves.

I'll put a pic up on thanksgiving when it is done if the wife doesn't hide the camera from me :roll: .

Hope you guys have a great holiday!!