Smoked leg ham

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michi
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Smoked leg ham

Post by michi » Tue Apr 19, 2022 00:28

I made this over the weekend. It's nice and easy, and I don't have to wait for weeks before I get to eat it :)

Bought a leg roast at the butcher and removed the skin. This piece was 2.2 kg, and I used 1 l of brine.

Brine ingredients, per litre of brine:
  • 1 l water
  • 105 g Nitritpökelsalz or 10.5 g cure #1 plus 95 g salt
  • 3 g cracked black peper
  • 1 bay leaf
  • 6 smashed juniper berries
  • 0.3 g marjoram
  • 1 g granulated garlic
  • 1 g granulated onion
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Bring all the brine ingredients to the boil, simmer for 10 minutes, and let cool down,.
Inject the meat with the brine for about 20% of its weight.
Bundle up into a vacuum bag with the remainder of the brine or put into a sealed container floating in the brine.
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Brine for 48 hours.
Remove meat from the brine, pat dry, and smoke for two hours at 72 ºC.
Seal in a vacuum back or put into a ham press and cook at 70 ºC until the core temperature reaches 65 ºC. (I just left my piece in the sous vide for three hours. A large piece might take 4-5 hours.)
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Let cool in the fridge overnight, still sealed.
Unbag, remove the gelatine, and enjoy!
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On home-made sourdough bread:
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redzed
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Re: Smoked leg ham

Post by redzed » Wed Apr 20, 2022 04:31

Wow that's a rapid cure! Looks like it worked out for you, but I would have left it in the brine for another couple of days. For Easter I brined and smoked a 5.5 kg ham. Pumped approx 10% with an 8% brine (.06% nitrite) and cured for 12 days. It was then rinsed and soaked in cold water for 4 hours, drained off on a grate in the fridge for day, tied and cased it a stockinette and smoked for 4 hours at 145f. On Easter Sunday I roasted it with a honey glaze.
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michi
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Re: Smoked leg ham

Post by michi » Wed Apr 20, 2022 06:26

I have to admit that I have little experience with wet cures. I just followed a recipe I picked up elsewhere. I assume that leaving the ham in the brine longer will also make it saltier?

As far as I can tell, there are no issues with cure penetration on the one I made. Uniform pink throughout, so the cure seems to have reached all parts of the meat.
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