Salt Cured Ham

[NeilMacleod]

Removed and placed in my Biltong box to further dry.
15% reduction in weight so far.

 

[JeffG]

I have three smoked ham hocks in the freezer just waiting for smoky hollow soup. A recipe I developed with pork sausage, hocks, navy beans, red potatoes in a pea soup base.

 

[LME]

Get ready for some "red-eye" gravy. Can't tell if the skin's still on or not. Always did ours with the skin on, hang 'em from rafters and enjoy months later. Smoked makes them even better. Check out "Burgers' Smokehouse" website to see what an authentic country cured ham sells for. They've been doing this, selling world wide for many, many years. Curing hams is part skill, part art, part luck. Go for it !

When you test a cured ham, always take a plug from deep inside. Sometimes the outside's good but the middle is rotten. The "ham breakfast" at Missouri's state fair and county fairs is an old tradition. Champion hams can bring well over $1,000 - nearly all bought by politicians and farm-oriented organizations.

I use to help in the hog killings and one of my jobs was to rub salt into the fresh hams! Some smoked them aftered the hams would not take any more salt some didn't? I liked them both ways. It was the Redeye gravy on grit, rice or just sopped up with a home made biscuit that I dearly liked and still do to this day.

 

[NeilMacleod]

Hanging now. 30% reduction in weight.

 

[LME]

Hanging now. 30% reduction in weight.

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I have seen a lot of cured hams but never even one that looks like these?

 

[NeilMacleod]

I did add penicillin culture to the cure so might be taking effect, the white look.