Techniques Home "ham"- Brined & smoked

[Bert2368]

First time I have tried this.

Got two half "pinic hams" (pork shoulder) about 9 lb. total and 4 pieces of pork sirloin, about 8 lb. total reposing in a couple of differently spiced brines right now. Will be doing the sirloin for Easter dinner, the picnic hams later this week, larger pieces take longer according to recipe.

I followed a couple of recipes found on the New York Times last week:



Loin:


https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes...tion=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

Shoulder/picnic ham:


https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1021994-honey-cured-hickory-smoked-shoulder-ham

Wondering about trying a different cook & smoke regime for the picnic hams? Say, sous vide pork shoulder, 36 hours/140°F water, then a shorter time in water smoker, perhaps 2 hours?

Anyone tried such a thing?

 

[Michi]

Cooked ham is on my todo list. Sous vide should work well, followed by smoking. I would consider putting the ham into an elastic net first, so it holds its shape once it goes into the smoker. (I would net the ham before sous vide because, once it's been in the bath and has softened, it'll be difficult to get it into the net without doing a lot of damage.)

I can't access the recipes you linked to behind the paywall, but what you describe sounds about right. Two days of curing strikes me as too short though. Even for bacon, which is smaller, I tend to let it cure for about a week. Longer won't do any harm because the salt content will equilibrate and then just stay constant. But too short is no good because you don't want to end up with uncured meat in the centre.

 

[Bert2368]

I have discovered that on my Samsung S8, if I start to load a NY Times "paywalled" article, then hit "stop" as it begins to render? I may not be able to see all the pictures, but THE TEXT RENDERS FIRST, and the blasted popup which obscures it a second or so after rendering, telling you to pay if you want to read the article renders LAST. I've read a good few NY Times articles and some Washington Post ones this way... Just sayin'. Actually works best in a poor reception area!

As far as the time spent to brine, both recipes directed to inject them every inch or so with the brine using a marinade injector (big hypodermic with holes out side rather than end of the needle...).

So these should have even the centers of the pieces pretty well exposed to marinade, speeding the process.

 

[BillHanna]

I have discovered that on my Samsung S8, if I start to load a NY Times "paywalled" article, then hit "stop" as it begins to render? I may not be able to see all the pictures, but THE TEXT RENDERS FIRST, and the blasted popup which obscures it a second or so after rendering, telling you to pay if you want to read the article renders LAST. I've read a good few NY Times articles and some Washington Post ones this way... Just sayin'. Actually works best in a poor reception area!

just did this on an iPhone 7 connected to hospital WiFi.

 

[Bert2368]

Hope "they" don't figure it out...

 

[Bert2368]

The "ham" pork sirloin was indeed nice and pink inside after 2 days, cured all the way through, and I'm doing this again!

Along with the last of the "Uncle David's Dakota Dessert Squash", roasted spring dug parsnips/carrots/red onion, BBQ grilled asparagus marinated in balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and olive oil. Blueberry pie for dessert.

Food coma ensuing in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...


Will try smoking the larger "picnic ham" pork shoulder pieces next Friday after sous vide starting Wednesday or so.

Will either screen shot or transcribe the original recipes after the food coma abates.

 

[Michi]

The "ham" pork sirloin was indeed nice and pink inside after 2 days, cured all the way throughthrough, and I'm doing this again!

Nice! Yes, with an injector, you can cut down on curing time. Good to hear this worked out!

Will either screen shot or transcript the original recipes after the food coma abates.

Please do! I have hams on my “must try” list

 

[coxhaus]

I buy HEB cured hams and smoke them on my smoker on indirect heat for about 4 hours. It always takes me an hour or more to get the pit hot so I mean real cooking time. It is one of my daughter's favorites. This is where fruit wood works well. I mainly use pecan wood as I get very little fruit wood. But I have used peach and pear wood when I can get it.

When the pit is cold you start with black smoke which I think tastes bad and then as the pit warms up the smoke goes blue which tastes better to me.

 

[Bert2368]

I use a charcoal heated water smoker and add the smoke wood and meat only after the fuel has become fully ignited and smoker is up to temperature.

It's the tool I could afford at the time and I've had good results. I would not mind using a gas or electrically heated smoker, such tools would probably be easier to control and less variable in results.

I used fruit (apple) wood obtained from pruning my own trees on today's project, as I have on most of my other home smoked meats. I have used mesquite and nut woods sourced from other's properties as well, if not from farmed trees which might have had pesticides & etc. used on them.

PLEASE! Don't use wood you don't know the history of for smoking food, there have been a number of highly questionable agricultural chemicals used on orchards this last century +. Such things as Mercury or Copper based organic antifungal chemicals were once commonly used on commercial orchards.

 

[Bert2368]

Here is the recipe for the pork loin I served on Easter as a series of screen shots-

Note that this recipe as given was for 3 lb. of boneless pork. I had a total of 8.75 lb. pork in 4 pieces, so I made a triple recipe of the brine and used two one gallon sized ziplock bags with two of the pieces in each, which bags also initially held about 3/4 of that brine. I had a bit of bag leakage during the time it was reposing in fridge, which I made up from the 1.5 quarts or so of extra brine which didn't fit in the bags originally.

I initially injected the brine on about a 1" spacing. I did NOT inject the pork a second time, total time meat spent in brine before rinsing/drying/smoking was about 40 hours.

I made a double recipe of the glaze and applied it 3X during about 2 hours in water smoker to achieve the 160° F. internal temperature recommended (I checked temps on each piece individually, first was done closer to 1.5 hours).

I obtained the pink curing salt (AKA Prague powder #1) through Walmart-


https://www.walmart.com/ip/Hoosier-...m-msg-id=679bd5fc-1430-419e-bc66-6fb26b751094

 

[why-am-i-bleeding]

I get the best results by way of brining for 4 days > smoke 4-6 hours > finish in a 190-200*F oven for ~10 hours (overnight). I put the hams in a hotel pan with about 1/4" of water in the pan and wrapping the pan with plastic wrap and foil. This is from 700g salt, 720g brown sugar, 84g pink prague salt, smoked on maple and apple woods. After / before pics

 

[Bert2368]

I get the best results by way of brining for 4 days > smoke 4-6 hours > finish in a 190-200*F oven for ~10 hours (overnight). I put the hams in a hotel pan with about 1/4" of water in the pan and wrapping the pan with plastic wrap and foil. This is from 700g salt, 720g brown sugar, 84g pink prague salt, smoked on maple and apple woods. After / before pics

View attachment 121390View attachment 121391

Are those a couple of "bone in, skin on" half shoulders?

 

[why-am-i-bleeding]

Are those a couple of "bone in, skin on" half shoulders?

Bone-in, skin on half shoulders weighing in at about 11lb ea

 

[Bert2368]

I processed the two half pork shoulders as planned, 5 days in the brine followed by 40 hours in sous vide @ 140°F. Then about 2.5 hours in the charcoal fired water smoker with apple wood chunks from my trees added at the beginning and replenished at about .5 hour intervals. Picture is after removing from sous vide bags and before smoking, 8 forgot to get a picture of meat as it came out of the smoker, just grabbed it and started devouring. The smell was intoxicating and I was pretty hungry.

Net results: Better than store bought! The quart or so of liquid removed from sous vide bags took a good bit of the excess salt with it, the ham was both firmer and less salty than the pork sirloin which I did for Easter dinner. Not dry by any means, just right for my tastes. As usual in my experience, the "bone in, skin on" hams had superior flavor to the boneless, skinless sirloin. Plus, the bones, skin and trimmings made a nice ham stock which is presently becoming part of a batch of bean soup.

For the first time making ham, I am very pleased with all the several dishes outcomes. I'll be looking at a traditional dry cured ham next... Prosciutto? Clinch Mountain? The story never ends.

 

[Bert2368]

I picked up a 5.25 lb. (before trimming, about 4.75 after) pork loin to try making a more traditional version of "Taso" with:

http://www.nolacuisine.com/2005/11/03/homemade-tasso-recipe/
I modified the spice rub: Along with the 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, I added 1/8 t each of cloves and allspice and 1/4 t of the ras el hanout spice mix I originally compounded for the veal/venison tangia recipe. Just drying in front of fan, the whole kitchen now smells like a fat hog baking Christmas cookies in Algeria.

Pork covered with spice/salt mix has been reposing in refrigerator since Tuesday, now sitting under a fan to dry out as per recipe. Will be smoking it this afternoon. More as that develops-

 

[Bert2368]

After cutting up the "tasso", only change I would make for next time, I would split the pork loin down the middle in the long direction.

Thinner strips would give more surface area for drying and for the spice mix & smoke to permeate the meat.

There were small areas near center of the meat which had not turned pink even after 5 hours in smoker, cross cuts in center looked like a deep "smoke ring" with some unaffected meat at the core- It all tasted good, regardless of appearance.

 

[Bert2368]

I did another large (8.5 lb. before trimming) whole pork loin as canadian bacon. This time, I split the loin lengthwise down the middle as well as cutting in two the long way, intending to give more surface area for the brine, spice mix and smoke.

Reposed it in the last 1.5 gallons of the liquid I had made for the first two attempts at ham & cured/smoked pork loin for 5 days in refrigerator. I DID NOT inject with the brine this time, I let it soak in a 2 gallon ziplock bag with air squeezed out, just let it sit & turned it every day or so.

Drained and blotted meat dry.

Applied a spice mix very similar to the tasso mix given above BUT: left out all salt, as the brine soak had plenty of salt & dome nitrite. And only used 1 tsp. of cayenne.

Reposed the spice mix covered meat for another day, then smoked in water smoker, I did use water this time. Spent about 2 hours in smoker with home grown apple wood for smoke.

Came out very nice for my tastes. "Canadian bacon, extra spicy". We did eat some of it warm out of the smoker, but it's really a condiment/ingredient more than a main course.

I portioned it into 8 oz. chunks, vacuum sealed and froze most of it, should be a nice ingredient to have around.