Pointers on making a country ham

Newbie Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 15 : Items

Last week I did a few of picnic shoulders. To put things in perspective this is what I usually do:

- brine for about a week on 6.4% salt, a cup of sugar, black pepper, garlic powder.
- Rinse and soak for about six hours
- Pump homemade beef stock with beef (non sweet) rub
- Dry, apply dry rub (sweet pork rub), and let air dry for at least six hours under a fan.
- Smoke at 260f until meat reaches 176f, rest to 180f (Where I'm from we like our meat chewier).

This time I had some double strength cure (12.5% sodium nitrite by weight) I got for making bacon and decided to throw about 2 tablespoons on the brine. Long story short, it turned about an inch-deep of the shoulders into ham. I wasn't that happy with the result (mostly because it wasn't what I was expecting), the wife thought it was pretty good. In any event, with the winter weather conductive to keep a long brining session at the right temperature, I’m thinking about making a country ham.

Based on research it looks like I want to wet cure with a nitrite solution for around six weeks between 35~40f), then soak for a day, dry rub, rest for a day or so, then smoke at a very low temperature (easy to do this time of the year) for a day or two (I would probably build one of those cold smoking gizmos to put on the fire chamber).

Or would I want to go ahead aond cook it at 250f until it reaches an internal temperature of about 160f? I’m not really aiming for preservation, more for flavor.

Also, with the 12.5% sodium nitrite solution, how much would I want to add to the brine?

Any other pointers would be appreciated.

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 2:52 am

Look up pink salt and use as directed and include the weight of the water for the amount of time you want to brine.Dont forget to inject alongside the bone.

Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 8:59 am

What do you mean by 'country style'? I thought country style hams were dry cured and hung for 6 months...

If you just want a regular cured ham, this recipe works well.
http://www.dizzypigbbq.com/recipesHam.html

Newbie Joined: 23 Oct 2011 Posts: 15 : Items

Sorry, piss-poor terminology on my part, my bad. That recipe looks just about right. I'll run with that one and see how it goes.

Thanks a lot.

Posted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:14 pm

I'm sure it goes without saying since you already pointed out that your cure was double strength but make sure you cut back on the prague in the recipe by 50% and then up the salt!

Clark