Yes You Can: Cure and Smoke Your Own Ham!

I'm excited to share this post with you, because it was such a wonderful revelation that we could make the best ham we've ever had-- at home, with relative ease.  I am really picky about pork, and to be honest, wasn't sure I'd like the ham well enough to do it again-- but I was so curious about the process that I decided to give it a go, just for fun.  Well.  It turned out to be easy and incredibly delicious.  So much so, that I've already done it again.  So you should definitely try it!  The instructions may look a little daunting at first, but keep in mind that you'll be doing this over a period of 1-2 weeks-- it's really not hard at all, I promise.

What You'll Need for Curing

Equipment:
You will definitely need a kitchen scale for this project.  I have one like this, which is super easy to use and clean.
A medium-sized glass bowl, large enough to hold your cut of meat, plus a little extra space. 
A ceramic ramekin or two to set the meat on inside the larger bowl.


Ingredients:
A nice piece of pork to cure, skin-on if possible-- I have made three hams so far, all with a leg cut, deboned and bound with butcher's twine
Sea Salt-- finely ground (find it here)
Curing Salts, or Prague Powder (find it here)
(note: you can cure meat with out the curing salts, which contain nirtrates, but you will not keep that nice pink color, and you have to be a little more careful about spoilage.)
Muscovado Sugar (find it here) or other flavorful natural sugar
Ground Allspice (find it here)
Ground Cardamon (find it here)
Ground Cloves (find it here)
Ground Black Pepper
*There is definitely room for you to monkey around with the spice blend!  I just made mine up based on what I thought would be good-- the important elements are the salt, curing salts, and sugar.  Juniper berries and rosemary are a combination I'd love to incorporate next time.  That said, I really liked how the spice blend I chose came out, and you probably will, too.

What to Do:

1. It all begins with some math.  Start by weighing your piece of pork. You will mix your salts according to the amount of meat you will be curing.  It's not hard, so even math-phobes can do it, I promise.  Get a calculator out if you need it.  For each kilogram of meat, you will use a mere 2.5g of the curing salts/ Prague Powder; 30g sea salt and 5g sugar.   Weigh that out and put it in a bowl.  Add about 1/4 tsp. of each of the spices you'll be using.  This is pretty inexact, just don't go crazy with the spices. Mix your curing blend together.
2.  Rub the salts all over your pork.  Get into all the nooks and crannies you can-- the full amount should be used!  I had to open up the bottom part of the pork a little to press the mixture in.


3.  Set your ramekin(s) inside the glass bowl, and put your salty meat on it.  This is how you will let the moisture drain out of the pork and away from the meat.
4.  Put it inside your fridge, and let it cure.  Periodically drain the liquid away-- honestly, I just drained mine once or twice.  This is the formula for deciding how long to let it cure for: The diameter of your piece of meat in inches + 3 days. (Example: 4 inch diameter ham would be 4+3= 7 days)  My smallest one took 6 days, and the largest 8 days.

5.  Once you've reached the right number of days for your ham, take it out of the fridge, and give it a good rinse.  Get all of the curing solution off, and pat it dry with a clean dish towel.  Wash the bowl and ramekin, and set it back in the fridge for 3 days.
Now you're ready to smoke it!
Note: Some mold is completely normal.  According to my butcher, white and gray molds are totally fine and even good, while green or blue are not.  Here's what one of mine looked like before smoking:

What You'll Need for Smoking

Equipment
A simple kettle-style barbecue (like this.)  You can also use a gas grill-- just look up  the instructions for that one, but it's very similar.
Charcoal
Apple wood chips (find here)
A small pan that will fit inside your BBQ-- (if it's one you like, then you might want to line it with foil)
A meat thermometer (like this)

Ingredients
an onion, quartered
hard apple cider (or apple juice)-- we used some cheap stuff that we don't like that we had on hand-- perfect!

1.  For the smoking instructions, I will refer you to this video, which I think is the clearest way to communicate this part!  Follow the instructions to get your smoker going.  Put your ham in there, and smoke it over indirect heat.  Plan on 40 minutes per pound, but you are done when the internal temp reaches 170º to 185º.

2.  Halfway through the smoking process (estimated according to weight) take the ham out and remove the skin (also now called the rind.) You'll need a sharp knife and tongs for this.  Don't cut off any more fat than you need to-- it will be sweet and buttery, so you definitely want to keep it!
3.  Return it to the smoker to finish smoking.  Ours took about 2 hours.


 And... you're done!  Let it rest and cool off, and then enjoy that beautiful ham.  It should keep for a week in the fridge.

It's the perfect food for picnics and hot summer meals when you don't feel like doing much cooking.

You'll be so glad you made it, and-- be warned-- you'll be sorely disappointed with store-bought hams forever after.


For further reading check out my new favorite cookbook Food DIY, which has lots of really cool curing projects. If you are interested in butchery and charcuterie, I think you'll love seeing photos from the lesson my butcher gave me on breaking down a pig.


This post was shared at: The Homestead Barnhop, Thank Goodness it's Monday, Fat Tuesday, Wildcrafting Wednesday, Party Wave Wednesday, Frugal Days Sustainable Ways, Pennywise Platter, Eat Fat Friday, Unprocessed Friday, From the Farm Bloghop.

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