Homemade Sausage Making

I sure hope you injected them!

Nakom wrote:Thank you for the information I will let them stay in the brine alittle longer. They are fully covered and kept around 36 deg. I have Bacon/Jowls and Hocks to do anyway so alittle longer wont hurt a thing.

Nick

What you can also do is to take one of the hams out and just slice a small slice off the ham and pan fry it and see how you like it. Keep in mind since your slice is coming from the outer portion of the ham it will be about twice as strong as the inner meat. But if the flavor is reasonable take it out and allow it to equalize then do whatever it is you are going to do with it.

I did inject them as the directions said to. So each ham recieved 2.6 and 2.7 lbs of cure injected along the bones and through out. I am pulling them today and will start the rest of the process today.

On a side note the 40lbs of bacon i did turned out fantastic, the jowls were outstanding as well. The hocks could have been alittle better but they worked great for bean soup which was there purpose anyway. They just didnt tast as good on there own because i over cooked them.

Thanks for the replys and help.

Well I got it done and the ham tastes vary bland. I followed the directions to the letter and it just tastes bland. It has no salt taste at all and doesnt really have a ham taste. I did a test fry before hand and it was a tiny bit to salty which i thought was a good sign. I did not soak it I just put it in the pot like I was suppose to. I did taste it right after it got to IT of 150.

I smoked it for a few hours yesterday in maple and hickory but I have not tasted it yet. I hope makes it less bland.

I hope you like it better after smoking.

I went back to you first post and the link to the recipe for not boiled boiled ham. The first portion of Chuckwagons post concentrated on the use of and the need for sodium nitrite. It is not until you get to his recipe that he adds the salt. Could it be that you went too light on the salt? By my calculations you needed about ten quarts of water and about two pounds of salt and a cup and a third of cure #1. Your hams weighed about four times as much as the ham in the recipe.

Hi Nakom,

Yes and in addition to Dick and Ross's posts, may I suggest that it might not be good to taste a ham immediately after smoking / boiling.

It's very tempting to try the ham right away, but a day or two's rest in the refrigerator makes the world of difference to the "rested" flavor.

ssorllih,

I used exactly that two pounds of salt and a cup and a third of cure #1.

Bubba,

I know I should wait but ya know how hard that is! lol

Nick

Given enough time it should have come out good. ? I donno?

I used exactly that two pounds of salt and a cup and a third of cure #1.

In how much water?

I used 7.5 quarts of water. It was just enough to cover them and inject them. They were in the cure 14 days also. On the test fry it was too salty, but i just put it in the water like the directions said and brought it up to 150 IT.

I will try some tonight when i get home from work today!

Thanks
Nick

A picture or discription of the vessel that you used for the brining might be helpful. I find it hard to picture a container with two 26 pound hams covered with a couple of gallons of brine.

Its a 30 quart plastic container, I stuffed them in side by side. After one week i seperated them and put them in smaller containers and refreshed the cure. I left them in a second week.

Update after it was smoked and has rested since Sunday, the taste was mild but much better than before. No salt taste at all, which i think isnt a bad thing. The ham taste is good and is extremly tender. I just need to fix it by the uping the taste alittle.

Nick

p.s. I will post pictures this week sometime.

I believe that brining meat is much like dyeing fabric the liquids must have unrestricted access to the entire piece If a piece of white cloth is bunched up and tied at intervals with tight strings those constricted areas will not be dyed. If pieces of meat are pressed together or pressed against the sides and bottom it will likely have the effect of preventing the brine from being absorbed in those contact places. I have thought that the pieces should "swim" in the brine.

Baffling!
A brine of that strength should have no problem curing the hams when well pumped and soaked for a couple weeks, even when packed fairly tight, as long as they were well covered.
I've never had a problem like that.

A couple things that I do differently, I like to smoke before the 'boiling' process. That reduces overall prep time significantly.
I don't 'boil', I 'steam' at 165-170 degrees which is something I learned several years ago from Warren Anderson-----less flavor loss from leaching.