Ham's & Bacon's

[sunny2000usausa]

Hi all, this is first time to site, My husband wants to smoke our hams and bacon's when we butcher in September.  Does anyone have a recipe or name of book of instructions for a brine and how much to inject, how long to smoke, etc.?  Any information would be very helpful.

Thank you in advance for you suggestion.[:)]

[Oldman]

First welcome to this place.

Next, we have a couple of really good bacon folks on this board. I beleive when they see your request they will jump in and post. However, just to give you something to think about until then I suggest you look this item over: http://susan.rminor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=34

As far as hams go you will need to explain what type of ham you want. There are many types and ways of curing a "ham." Just saying I want to cure and smoke a ham is kind of like saying I'm going to the store to get a soda--that can be anything from a orange drink to a cola. So let us know what type you want... [:D]

Just to give you an idea here are a few examples:

COUNTRY CURED: This process is a dry salt cured, smoked product with most of the best hams being aged from 6 months to over 2 years. The raw pork legs are rubbed down with salt and sodium nitrate and placed in containers with pre-measured amounts of salt, under controlled temperatures for about a month. They are then removed to another controlled room and hung for about two weeks.

Next they are move into the smoke room where generally today hardwood sawdust is burned and the smoke is blown around the hams at 110 degrees until the hams develop a deep burgundy rich color. Generally the saw dust is a mixture of Red Oak (for coloring) and Hickory (for flavor.)

At this point the smoke flavor is only on the surface. The next step is the aging @ a temp. of 75 degrees for several months to years. Yield loss is 20-25%.

COUNTRY HAM: This is more than likely the oldest way ham is produced. It a long process of salt curing and smoking.

DRY CURING: Now dry cured hams are cured without water injection and they come in many flavors. If I remember correctly in Italy alone there are either 16 or 18 types of Dry Curing. They may or may not be smoked. Most are salt cured.

HONEY CURED: This is a wet cure done with various salts and flavorings: i.e. sufficient amounts of honey,and it may or may not be smoked.

WATER ADDED HAM: Without a doubt this is the most common ham you will find in the store. Check the label on these. Some may contain as much as 35% of body weight in water--generally the 35% percenters are boneless and package in plastic. When I worked and managed a couple of delis here these were called Cuban Ham. There was so much water added to these hams the hams looked like they were floating in water. I don't know why they were called Cuban Hams, as I believe the Cuban people are smarter than this. My suggestion is a maximum of 10% water per weight.

WET CURED: These are fast turn around hams. Soaked or injected with curing compounds in a liquid form. The wet cure can produce a ham in a week. If injected the turn around time is about 24-30 hours. This method IMO is all but the same as WATER ADDED HAM: if not injected.



Olds

[JJC]

Welcome to the Forum, Tami--please be sure to share your experiences with us . . .

John
Newton MA

[Foam Steak]

There is a good book called "Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing" by Rytek Kutas.  I just made a ham out of a little wild pig leg that turned out spectacularly well.  I used his brine recipe and injected 10% by weight.  Then I used his honey cured bacon recipe on the outside of the ham instead of soaking in a regular brine.  

Great place to get ingredients is the butcher packer www.butcher-packer.com.

What kind of pigs are you raising?  How big are they going to be when you kill them?  I raised some hogs when I was a younger.  Looking forward to doing it again some day.  Make sure when you cut them up to keep that big artery in tact.  Makes it easier to inject the whole ham instead of injecting with a needle.

[sunny2000usausa]

thank you all for the replies  [:I]

We have been raising our own meat for over 20+ years and have been processing it ourselves for over 5 years except the smoking of hams and bacons which we have taken to a regular butcher shop to get smoked. I vaccum seal all of my meat and just bought a professional sealer (the others are nice but too slow for me).

This year we have Duroc pigs. (They will dress out around 200 pounds). My husband just wants to try and smoke a one ham and bacon.  Basically just like the butcher does. (All I can tell you is that he uses a brine and inject them and than smokes them). We take it over, tell him we want it smoked and a few weeks later it is done.  Nothing fancy.  No special honey taste or anything like that, just a basic recipe to get a nice smoked ham flavor throughout the whole ham and a nice taste to the bacons.

I hope this additional information helps, please let me know if you need more.  [:)]

[Phone Guy]

Curing and smoking your own bacon is easy. I have not injected mine but have cured in the refer for 7-10 days.

[Foam Steak]

mmmmmmmmm Duroc......I always wanted to try a Birkshire, do they taste that good? or is it all marketing?  Only one way to know for sure.  If you are raising hogs and have a good smoker I really think you should do yourself a favor and get that book I mentioned by Rytek Kutas.  Its a great resource.  Try the recipe for honey cured bacon.  Spectacular.