The First Ham

[Jim_C]

Took a shot at a ham. Put on brine Sept. 05, pulled from brine Oct. 08. Almost a month. Pink all the way through, which is a good sign. Didn't feel like setting up the smoker so it went into the oven, with the probe inserted. Started oven at 325, and ended up at 350 to move things along. Ham was 42 degrees IT to start and two and a half hours later it hit 145. As a result the skin was rubbery, so it was removed prior to carving.

My thoughts...........I am disappointed in the ham, but need to give myself a break since it's the first one. I'm ready for round two.

For the amount of honey and sugar in the brine it wasn't prevalent in the final product. I may increase the amount of honey and sugar. The wife thought it was a bit salty, but I thought it was much less salty then the store bought stuff. I cannot mess with the amount of cure (.25%), obviously, but I am wondering how much I can play with the salt (1.25%).

The ham had a bit of an "off" flavor. The kind of flavor where you know the meat is not bad, but you tell yourself; "I'm glad I didn't let this go any longer". Not sure where it came from. Perhaps too much time on brine, or the formula is off.

Here's the formula I used:

Injection Brine
SmokinEdge Recipe		Ingredient	Unit of Measure	Percentage by Weight		Based on Actual Weight
Ham - 3 pounds (1362g)		Ham	Pounds	100.00%		2.70	<< Enter Weight in Pounds
Water - 10% (136g)		Water	Grams	10.00%		122.58g
Salt - 1.25% (17g)		Salt	Grams	1.25%		15.32g
Phosphate - .4% (5.4g)		Phosphate	Grams	0.40%		4.90g
Cure #1 - .25% (3.4g)		Cure #1	Grams	0.25%		3.06g
Honey - 3x Amount of Salt (51g)		Honey	Grams	3.75%		45.97g
White Sugar - .5% (6.8g)		Sugar	Grams	0.50%		6.13g
NaE - .05% (.7g)		NaE	Grams	0.05%		0.61g

Thoughts and input is appreciated.

 

[smokerjim]

I dont think adding more honey will do anything, I dont think it will get sucked into the meat like you think, better off just making a honey glaze when your cooking it. As for the formula I can't comment on that I usually just use pops brine.

 

[Jim_C]

I dont think adding more honey will do anything, I dont think it will get sucked into the meat like you think, better off just making a honey glaze when your cooking it. As for the formula I can't comment on that I usually just use pops brine.

Thanks for the input..........this is an injection brine, so I would hope I would be able get some honey into the meat?

 

[chopsaw]

wondering how much I can play with the salt (1.25%).

You're already to low in my opinion . Some things need the salt content to bring the flavor .
I would also lose the honey .
Use unsalted veg stock in place of the water .
White sugar at 1%
Add some smoke
Take your finished IT to 150 / 160 .

Phosphate works at your amount , I use .5%

Edit: I see you went a month . 14 days is good . I would watch that long hold time at low salt levels .

 

[zwiller]

First off, looks good. 1.25% is a pretty good number for salt on the low side ( chopsaw beat me on most all of this). You can go lower but I wouldn't unless you are aiming healthier product over quality. Needs smoke to taste like ham and can be gamey otherwise. IT a little low for me as well. You are gonna need to cheat a little to get honey flavor in that bad boy. Flavor extract is what the pros use use but a glaze at end might work.

 

[chopsaw]

Can certainly adjust the salt level , but I would not go a month and 3 days at that rate .
Texture will suffer at lower levels too . Won't be as tender as it would with say 2% .

At this point do it the same , but go 14 days and smoke it . Glaze at the end . Take the IT higher .
I bet it's a better result .