Cold Smoking, how much of the Bisquetts

[Pebbles]

Hi there,

I be very new to the whole Smoking process, I do have a Bradley with Cold Smoke Adapter.
Soon I like to Cold Smoke my first German Ham, it has to be for 4 Days in the Smoker at a temperature of 30 Degrees, Know my Question Do I have to fill up the Tube for the whole time (4Days) with Bisquetts? This would be a very expensive Ham than   ;

Thanks
Pebbles

[Habanero Smoker]

Hi Pebbles;

Welcome to the forum.

Is the temperature you mentioned in celsius, which would be 86°F. If so that would be a good temperature to smoke at.

I've never made German ham before. One thing about the Bradley smoke, it is very concentrated, and you would not want to apply smoke the full three days. When I make triple smoked bacon, I apply 3 hours each day, then hold the bacon at 70°F - 80°F for the rest of the time. You may want to do that with your ham. Just apply 3 hours of smoke, then hold it in the smoker at 30°C when the smoke is not being applied. The non-smoke time will reduce the moisture in the ham, and concentrate the flavors.

How is this ham eaten. Does it require any further cooking prior to eating? At the end of the smoke period, is this ham then fully cooked?

[GusRobin]

Do you brine it with cure or heavy salt prior to smoking?

[Pebbles]

Hi, thanks for the quick answer :-)

It is Celsius what I mean, first the ham get's rubbed in coarse salt for 24 hours, then it has to stay in the brine for 1 day/kg.

After this it has to airdry for some days. After this it needs to be smoked, and to airdry again for 2-3 Days, than it is ready to eat. It is a very old Recipe from my Grand Grand Ma. So I try this the first time, and if it turns out good, I will give it to you. Very good with Souredough Bread

How do I keep the smoke in the smoker? Just closing the damper?

I hope that I do not do to many english mistakes, sorry if it is so and don't hazitat to tell me  ;D

Pebbles

[watchdog56]

do NOT close the damper. I always run mine at least 3/4 open. You need to get the moist air out or you will get black moisture drops on your food called black rain. Also the temp stays cooler because of the moist air.

[Habanero Smoker]

Your english is good. I've tried salt cured hams in the past, with not much luck. After 24 hours are you placing the ham in a wet brine, or do you keep it in the same dry brine that you started with? How large of a ham, and is the bone still in? If you are successful I may try again to make a salt cured ham.

You don't need to keep the smoke in the chamber. As mentioned above keep the vent open. The smoke that was apply would have penetrated and adhered to the ham. For cold smoking I use an opening from 1/4 to fully open. I will adjust the vent until the smoke will flow freely out of the vent. I also remove the drip tray, so the smoke circulates better.

When the smoke is not being applied, I would open the vent as wide as you can and still maintain the 30°C temperature. In this case you want to moisture to escape so that the ham dries properly. Then the next day when you apply the smoke a second time, adjust the vent.

[Pebbles]

Thank you

after the 24 hours Salt it gets into a wet brine, for 1 day ea KG, turn every day around and keep Temperature between 8 - 15°C, than it needs to hang for a couple days to burn (we call it so, it means the the salt gets through the meat and it starts drying) at a Temperature not higher than 8°C than the smoke and then it needs to rest for couple days again.

I do 4 pieces ea about 1 kg. No Bone

I will do Pictures when they are done. And post the whole process.

The Recipe is more than hundred Years old, and at this time they did it different then we now  ;) so it is not so easy to figure how to do. But till now it looks good.

You can vacuum seal the meat with the brine and keep them in a Fridge but than with a dry brine, I may try this the next time.

Thanks for the Help, I really appreciate this

[Habanero Smoker]

I am very interested. I definately would like to see the hams when they are finished.

[Pebbles]

You bet, I just hope they get done well.

I do have an other question, what is the max Temperature for the drying, I mean can it be around 15-20 Celsius? or is it better when they dry in colder Ambient ?

[Habanero Smoker]

While drying, if you can kept it between 13°C - 15°C (55° - 59°F) that would be best; but definitely try to keep it below 20°C. In my area, this time of year after I had applied the smoke I would have to take the ham out of the smoker and place it in my dry curing cabinet, or a cool area of the house to maintain those temperatures.

[Pebbles]

Thank you

I will do so. I allready ordered a drying cabinet at my Hubby   ;D we just have to figure out how we control the Temperature and keep it under 15 Celsius. The humidity shout be not a problem we have not so much here and I can add moisture by using a bowl with water
Till it is done I use a little wine cooler, but I wanna do bigger meats and sausages as well sooo ....   

Sunday night I will put the ham the first time in smoke will do pictures before and after and load up here in the Forum

Do you have experience with curing in a vaccuum bag? I heard that from an other German Guy he is doing so with dry brine

[SamuelG]

This is what I have done.  Hope it helps:

http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=20546.msg250969#msg250969


http://forum.bradleysmoker.com/index.php?topic=19720.msg248973#msg248973

SamuelG

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Habanero Smoker]

I  made mine from a refrigerator, but didn't make to many modification. In the summer I use it for extra storage of food. If you purchased a ready built dry curing cabinet, that should come with some type of controls.

The equipment I have for controlling the humidity is a Green Air Products Model THC-1, humidifier and dehumidifier. You can set the THC-1 to humidify or dehumidify; depending on the device you have it hooked to; but not both at the same time. Before purchasing a humidifier you may find it is not needed, and that you need some way to exhaust the humidity that is given off by the meats and sausages you are drying. Since I didn't want to install an air exchange vent, I am experimenting with a small dehumidifier.

For the temperature, in order to control my refrigerator I use the Ranco ETC-111000-000 Digital Temperature Controller. It can control a cooling device or a heating device, but not both at the same time. If you want a controller that does both at the same time they have a model for that.

[photobyallen]

Thank you

I will do so. I allready ordered a drying cabinet at my Hubby   ;D we just have to figure out how we control the Temperature and keep it under 15 Celsius. The humidity shout be not a problem we have not so much here and I can add moisture by using a bowl with water
Till it is done I use a little wine cooler, but I wanna do bigger meats and sausages as well sooo ....   

Sunday night I will put the ham the first time in smoke will do pictures before and after and load up here in the Forum

Do you have experience with curing in a vaccuum bag? I heard that from an other German Guy he is doing so with dry brine

What kind of ham is it? I would love to try this out.