dottie bast
Newbie
Hi Everyone,
I've read lots of posts here and decided it's time to sign up and say hi from Alberta, Canada. It's been warmer than usual for us this time of year so I thought I would try my hand at curing and smoking my first ham. We bought and butchered a pig a month ago and I have a freezer full of pork to go through :) I'll be smoking the ham using a 6 rack Bradley digital smoker with the auto puck feeder.
My husband and I live on a 56 acre farm we developed from bare land over the last few years and now we're raising a few head of Dexter cattle, some meat birds and turkeys, and soon we plan to buy a couple weaner pigs for a pig roast this summer and the other for the freezer this fall.
I'm a complete beginner at curing and smoking. The only thing I've smoked was a pork shoulder on my BBQ last fall and it turned out awesome. Last year we made smokies and pepperoni, but my husband and his father did all the smoking. A week ago, I tried a dry cure out of my sausage making and curing book using insta cure #1, salt and honey and it was salty beyond belief on day 2. On day 2, I soaked it in an ice bath for 3 hours to get it to edible salt level. Since then I started another slab of pork belly that's dry curing with MTQ using Bearcarvers recipe. That belly is on day 3 of 8.
I'll be using a 4 lb, boneless, full muscle, pork roast and I'll be trying Pops recipe. Wish me luck!
I've read lots of posts here and decided it's time to sign up and say hi from Alberta, Canada. It's been warmer than usual for us this time of year so I thought I would try my hand at curing and smoking my first ham. We bought and butchered a pig a month ago and I have a freezer full of pork to go through :) I'll be smoking the ham using a 6 rack Bradley digital smoker with the auto puck feeder.
My husband and I live on a 56 acre farm we developed from bare land over the last few years and now we're raising a few head of Dexter cattle, some meat birds and turkeys, and soon we plan to buy a couple weaner pigs for a pig roast this summer and the other for the freezer this fall.
I'm a complete beginner at curing and smoking. The only thing I've smoked was a pork shoulder on my BBQ last fall and it turned out awesome. Last year we made smokies and pepperoni, but my husband and his father did all the smoking. A week ago, I tried a dry cure out of my sausage making and curing book using insta cure #1, salt and honey and it was salty beyond belief on day 2. On day 2, I soaked it in an ice bath for 3 hours to get it to edible salt level. Since then I started another slab of pork belly that's dry curing with MTQ using Bearcarvers recipe. That belly is on day 3 of 8.
I'll be using a 4 lb, boneless, full muscle, pork roast and I'll be trying Pops recipe. Wish me luck!
