Smoking ham steaks

[SmokinEdge]

These are 3” thick leg sections that we butchered by hand (Yorkshire) in April. The idea was to make the legs into portions that could be consumed in a few days rather than doing them at 20# each. These are daveomak style cured. I’m putting these on wire racks in the fridge tonight for applewood smoke sauna in the big smokehouse in the morning. I will cheese cloth bag these to smoke. Stay tuned.

 

[smokin peachey]

Looks good

 

[bauchjw]

Looks great! Looking forward to seeing the end results!

 

[jcam222]

I’ll bet these will be tasty. I bought a local hog earlier in the year. I had the hams all steaked too.

 

[SmokinEdge]

I’ll bet these will be tasty. I bought a local hog earlier in the year. I had the hams all steaked too.

Yes sir. We used to do 3/4” ham steaks, but those didn’t work as well as we hoped, so for the leg hams we are trying 3-4” steaks the shoulders are separated into butts and picnics. We basically grind the picnics and save the butts for PP. Just trying to maximize the hog and not waste much on left overs. I grew up on left overs, but kids these days won’t eat them. It’s crazy to me, but is what it is.

 

[JLeonard]

In for the finish. Looks like a great start.
Jim

 

[zippy12]

Get on it Edge!

 

[SmokinEdge]

One is 8# the other is 9# smokin.

 

[chopsaw]

Holy smokes . Never would have guessed that weight . Those would be great double smoked .
When I was buying a half hog the one guy cured the hams in 3/4 " steaks . I now know he did it like that to get it done and out the door . Not my favorite either .
So I started getting them cut into fresh slabs like you have here . I didn't know about curing back then .
Be watching .

 

[Brokenhandle]

Heck ya! Definitely in for the finish!

Ryan

 

[SmokinEdge]

 

[SmokinEdge]

The cut shows some discoloration, these cameras today are amazing in that you really can’t notice it in person but on the camera screen it’s pronounced. At any rate that off color comes from the vegetable stock injection. It’s the residue of the stock. This is completely normal with this curing process.

 

[Brokenhandle]

Took on some beautiful color! Looks like its still moist!

Ryan

 

[chef jimmyj]

They look fabulous. Great color inside and out...JJ

 

[chopsaw]

Came out great . Gonna be some good eats from those .

It’s the residue of the stock. This is completely normal with this curing process.

Yup . Some of the different brands of veg stock are darker than others , which adds to the effect . Like you said , completely normal for this style of curing .

 

[SmokinEdge]

Came out great . Gonna be some good eats from those .

Yup . Some of the different brands of veg stock are darker than others , which adds to the effect . Like you said , completely normal for this style of curing .

I use Kitchen Basics vegetable unsalted broth. Out of the several brands I have tried in hams that one tastes the best, to us, hands down. Once I tried an organic brand that had little bits of vegetables and parsley in the stock. That made for a very interesting cut profile for sure, and didn’t taste that great either.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Took on some beautiful color! Looks like its still moist!

Ryan

Thank you Ryan. These finished right at 10 hours with apple wood smoke. The ham is very moist for sure, the recipe calls for phosphate that helps a lot.

They look fabulous. Great color inside and out...JJ

Thank you JJ. They taste delicious too.

 

[indaswamp]

Beautiful.... I love it. I'm gonna try and find another deal on a hog this winter. Doubt I'll beat the price I got last year though. And if the crunch gets worse, I'll look into raising a pig.

 

[SmokinEdge]

Beautiful.... I love it. I'm gonna try and find another deal on a hog this winter. Doubt I'll beat the price I got last year though. And if the crunch gets worse, I'll look into raising a pig.

Get one while you can. I’m afraid meat is going to get real pricey by this winter. I’m putting another hog in the freezer at the end of the month.

 

[Robert H]

Wow, they turned out great and thanks for posting. Gonna have to give that a whirl.