Mustard glaze: Mix 1/4 cup brown sugar, 2 teaspoons prepared mustard, 2 tablespoons vinegar, and 1 tablespoon water. This practice ensures that the meat product comes from a healthy hog. Flavor with finely chopped celery, onion, and/or pickle; moisten with mayonnaise or salad dressing. It may be compared to the aging of cheeses. I prefer to hang the hams, in clean cotton feed sacks, with the bone end down while curing, but the practice is not essential. After three weeks in salt, hams are removed and the salt brushed off. Under six months a ham is still pork, the meat pale and pink, but after that a ham starts to become a ham with full flavor and red meat. Add milk, ½ cup at a time, stirring constantly. Vol. Bake as directed above. Air circulation is needed — particularly during the first seven to 10 days of aging — to dry the ham surface. Set aside the ham and mix up your cure. Thus covered with oil, the hams are not molested by insects or mold and, importantly, there is little or no dehydration. Reviewed by Phil Blevins, Extension agent, Virginia Cooperative Extension Washington County Office. Next, put the lid on the pot and refrigerate the pork for 5 days. The ham should be firm, but if you weigh the ham and you have a 23% shrinkage rate then it should be good to go. After soaking, scrub the ham with a stiff-bristle brush and allow it to dry. Allow about 10 minutes total cooking time for thin slices. Cook until mixture thickens. Wood from hardwood species of trees (trees that shed their leaves in the fall) should be used to produce the smoke. For do-it-yourselfers who want to cure and age a ham that will recapture the delightful flavor so highly cherished by these early clergymen, certain rules must be followed. This method of keeping them out works well for me. After the cure is applied, hams can be placed on wooden shelves or in wooden bins. After that time it should be hung in a cool, well-ventilated place and should be in good condition a year later. It can be prepared in a variety of ways and served with endless combinations of foods that complement ham. Remove the pot from the heat. If you do not have a meat thermometer, test for doneness by moving the flat aitchbone (pelvis). The pieces should be laid flesh side up on a table and allowed to remain a few days before hanging. It should be slightly dry on the edges. Mites, which are not insects, also may infest cured meats. Salt alone is acceptable. Recommended prevention includes starting the curing and aging during cold weather when these insects are inactive. I got it. Then, pour 2 inches of water into the roaster and place it in a 325° F oven. Grind cooked ham to make a ham salad filling. Proper cleaning of the aging and storage areas is essential, because the cheese skipper feeds and breeds on grease and tiny scraps of meat lodged in cracks. 2 liters of water. This dehydrates the meat, making it even more “dry” if you will. Place the ham in a vacuum seal bag and dump in all that excess rub. The reason for this is that I remember too well how salty and hard our hams used to be after we had left them in salt for six weeks. Cut into the fat beneath the skin but not into … For each 100 pounds of fresh meat, use: Mix these ingredients thoroughly and divide into two equal parts. There are 2 methods of curing ham, one is to dry cure it where you rub a salt mixture into the pork and hang it up to dry, and the other is a wet cure where you place the pork in either a brine or a pickle and then hang it up to dry. Saltpeter is included to hasten the chemical action of the salt on the meat and to improve the color of the meat. They do not shrink and get hard but stay as soft and tender as when they were put in the oil. Reserve any excess. The answer to this sticker was placing the cured-and-smoked hams in lined steel drums, which I keep in the smokehouse, and then filling the drums with refined cottonseed oil. Disclaimer: Commercial products are named in this publication for informational purposes only. During the curing period, keep hams at a temperature of 36 to 40° F. When the curing period has passed, place the hams in a tub of clean, cold water for one hour. In fact, I like to see mold on a ham. Mix the dry rub, and rub the ham, making sure it's well covered. Step 2: Things You'll Need. cut they are vulnerable and must be kept below 40°F. Lift the ham from the kettle and remove skin. Freezing Cured Hams: Plan not to. Mites: Mites are whitish and about 1/32-inch long at maturity. Cover the kettle and heat to a boil but reduce heat as soon as the water boils. Rub the cleaned ham with the coarsely ground black pepper. When making ham, it’s very important you inject your meat with your brine as this ensures your meat will cure thoroughly. It should move easily when the ham is done. Ham, bacon, salt pork, pancetta, and, gravlax are examples of foods that are dry cured. 1775. The most delightful flavor of Virginia ham can be enjoyed from thin slices. Find out what it takes to preserve the meat that stars in croque monsieur, chicken cordon bleu, and Easter dinner. As a processed meat, the term "ham" includes both whole cuts of meat and ones that have been mechanically formed.. Ham is made around the world, including a number of regional specialties, such as Westphalian ham and some varieties of Spanish jamón. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Virginia Cooperative Extension programs and employment are open to all, regardless of age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law. The Saturday Evening Post is a nonprofit organization funded primarily by our members. The Smithfield ham is smoked for a long time at a low temperature (lower than 90° F). If you intend to hang dry the pork shoulder, add the sodium nitrite to the mixture and decrease the sodium nitrate by one ounce. Hams for curing should have a long, thick cushion, a deep and wide butt face, minimal seam and external fat, as seen on the collar (figure 1) and alongside the butt face (figure 3a), and should weigh fewer than 24 pounds. A little bit goes a LONG way. Hams are hung some four to five feet away from the fire. Add scraps of cooked ham to scrambled eggs for added flavor. Plastic can be used, but it should be constructed so the water lost by the ham can be drained away from the meat. Age hams for 45 to 180 days at 75 to 95° F with a relative humidity of 55 to 65 percent. The temperature will need to be between 36 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit. A good, sweet grade of crude cottonseed oil would do. Spread on a table a piece of heavy glazed wrapping paper of sufficient size to wrap each piece of meat. The meat is preserved by burying it in salt or rubbing it with salt and other spices (black pepper, sugar, etc.) You'll love these recipes from farmers who produced some of the best country ham of the 1950s. Slice very thin, or have the ham sliced by machine. Allow the spray to dry before any meat is returned to the storeroom. After 5 days, remove the pork and pat it dry … On a stove, heat up the water with the salt, sugar, molasses, and ground clove, just until the salt and sugars have dissolved. Cook approximately 20 to 25 minutes per pound. Mold on the surface of a ham does no harm to the flavor. … You … Add ham, stir, and heat. …. The dry curing of ham is also called country style curing and is a slow method and your meat will keep longer this way than when cured using the wet cure method. Pack into a baking pan and sprinkle with remaining bread crumbs. Proper procedures prior to the purchase of a fresh ham — such as chilling the carcass to below 40° F before it is cut and maintaining this temperature until the time of purchase — assure a sound product. Ten years to learn how to cure a good country ham sounds like a long time. With a ham that's between 36 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit, rinse in cold water and pat dry. Letter From John Clayton Rector of Crofton at Wakefield in Yorkshire to the Royal Society, May 12, 1688. Care must be taken to have the meat thoroughly cooled but not frozen when the mixture is applied nor allowed to freeze if possible after the mixture is applied until curing is complete. The ham is placed on a large sheet of brown wrapping paper, some of its mix rubbed in thoroughly and the balance packed on, mostly on the meat or cut side. Brown sugar and cloves, fruit juice, or mustard-seasoned milk may be placed on the ham during baking. Hams should be placed in the cure immediately — and watch that temperature! If I aged them in a non-refrigerated room or building they were beset with flies, worms, and bugs as well as an undesirable wet mold, wrap or coat them as I might. Then, add bay, pepper, clove, allspice, garlic, and thyme to the pot. Wrap the paper tightly and smoothly around the ham to hold the cure in place, and place it in a stockinette. Follow mixing and application directions on the pesticide label. So you’ll need to be aware that your ham may have some mold on it. Dry hams are saltier than other products and before serving are often soaked in water for 6-12 hours in refrigerator. Adults are about 1/4-inch long and a brilliant greenish-blue color with red legs and red at the bases of their antennae. This will dissolve most of the surface curing mix and make the meat receptive to smoke. Subscribe now, Your email address will not be published. Keep accurate records when placing hams in cure. Then my only problem is to refrain from eating the hams until they’ve acquired a year’s aging. Follow bones with point of knife as you cut. Hams should be smoked until they become chestnut brown in color, which may take one to three days. Your support helps us preserve a great American legacy. Screens should be installed to prevent insects from entering, especially flies, ants, and other insects that carry mites. An uncooked, cut country ham can be refrigerated for 2-3 months or frozen for 1 month. Write this figure down, because it will determine the cure time. Then the ham is hung up to dry for a long period of time– months in fact. Protect the hams by placing a barrier between the meat and the insects. Simply weigh yourself before and after holding the ham. Rub half the mixture thoroughly on the pieces and pack. They lay their eggs on meat and cheese and multiply rapidly. Remove ham from pan and add a small amount of water to raise the drippings for red eye gravy. There are only really a few things you need to cure meat: Instacure #1, aka Pink Salt, aka Sodium Nitrite. Place the ham back in the box with the weighted lid on top. Baste frequently. Travels Through the Middle Settlements in North-America, in the Years 1759 and 1760: With Observations Upon the State of the Colonies. A light dusting of black pepper over the surface of the ham completes the curing routine. After the curing the ham may be removed, washed and smoked if desired, or else left in the wrapping for its aging. From then on only the cool temperature will permit the salt to penetrate the fat and the lean and the skin and the bone before spoilage bacteria get the upper hand. Score the skin side of the pork roast with a sharp knife. Hams cannot be sealed up airtight, because a certain amount of gas, which must be allowed to escape, is released during the curing process. Dry cures of salt, sugar, curing salts, and spices enhance the flavor, texture, and appearance of foods as a prep step when aging, fermenting, smoking, barbecuing, or roasting. Virginia Cooperative Extension does not endorse these products and does not intend discrimination against other products that may also be suitable. This publication provides basic steps that can be applied to home curing or commercial operations. Discover the benefits that come with your membership. This brine can be multiplied as needed, and if you are doing a whole ham, you will probably need to double it. Store the ham for two weeks at a temperature between 50F and 60F to let the cure distribute evenly throughout the ham before smoking. The insects attracted to cured meat are the cheese skipper, larder beetle, and red-legged ham beetle. Each ham is weighed and cured separately, 1.3 ounces of the mix for each pound of the ham being applied. Refrigerate the hams for a week or more before smoking them. Sanitation. If applied as a spray, remove all meat products from the storeroom before spraying all surfaces on which houseflies and other pests are likely to crawl. Double-entry doors are recommended to reduce infestation of insects. Salt does the curing; some sugar is added to the curing mix to counteract the salt taste which would otherwise be left in the meat. Place a small amount of fat in a moderately hot skillet. Cook to an internal temperature of 155° F, as indicated by a meat thermometer placed in the thickest position of the ham cushion. Chill in the refrigerator overnight. As I close the opening of the bag, I tie in some borax to keep out skippers, which are a problem in keeping hams. 7 of the curing period. Tie cloth strips together, pulling ham together as you tie. Since dry curing draws out moisture, it reduces ham weight by at least 18% - usually 20 to 25%; this results in a more concentrated ham flavor. And while there is some work to the method, it is so simple that a moron could do it, as I have demonstrated. A medium-sized glass bowl, large enough to hold your cut of meat, plus a little extra space. Remove the ham from the ice, and rinse with cool clean water, and pat dry. To be sure your ham didn’t spoil during the curing, you can use an ice pick and shove it right into the center of the ham. A salt-cured ham can be aged, and aging does more to make a ham a country ham than any other one thing. Add other ingredients, reserving ½ cup of breadcrumbs. Do not stack the meat. Virginia-style hams should be cured for seven days per inch of cushion depth (see figure 3a), or one and a half days per pound of ham. Issued in furtherance of Cooperative Extension work, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Virginia State University, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. Place the ham in a large container, cover with a clean tea towel and leave in a cool place, like the fridge. It is important. At the end of five days, rub on the remainder of the cure. Red-legged ham beetle: The larvae are purplish and about 1/3-inch long. Another method of cooking is to soak and scrub the ham and place it in a covered roaster, fat-side up. Smoke it … All joints should be regarded as critical points where spoilage may occur when the salt fails to get in its work there. Serve with two fresh eggs alongside, and … you’ll be a man, my son! Hams may also be wrapped in plain butcher paper (be sure not to use waxed butcher or freezer paper). 2 ounces of saltpeter Rub half the mixture thoroughly on the pieces and pack. Place 4 inches from broiler and broil for specified time, turning only once. If you don’t have a kitchen scale, then you can use a bathroom scale. Please realize that making a ham from the pigs you have raised is not going to be an immediate thing — it’s definitely a process. Paul P. Graham, Extension Specialist, Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech; N. G. Marriott, Extension Specialist, Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech; R. F. Kelly, Retired Professor, Food Science and Technology, Virginia Tech. The ham is easier to slice when the bones are removed while the ham is warm.Place skinned ham fat-side down on three or four strips of firm, white cloth that is 3 inches wide and long enough to reach around the ham and tie. Use an exhaust fan controlled by a humidistat to limit mold growth and prevent excessive drying. Place the meat skin-side down on the paper and cover each piece with the hot mixture, being careful to press it into the joints and crevices of the meat surface. Minimum time for a ham to remain in cure is 2 days for each pound of the ham but never under 25 days, regardless of how small the ham. I use a very simple, mild cure. Brining takes several days, and it’s essential to the process of making a good ham. Garnish with orange slices. To decrease the salty taste, fry ham with a small amount of water in the skillet. At the end of five days, rub on the remainder of the cure. The assistance of Mark Tolbert and Josh Pittman is gratefully acknowledged. The fire should be a “cool,” smoldering type that produces dense smoke. You can leave the ham on a table or shelf until the cure is wet, which helps keep the cure in … https://amazingribs.com/.../pork-recipes/wet-cured-smoked-ham-recipe Figure 3a illustrates a high-quality ham has a firm, bright-colored lean with at least a small amount of marbling (specks of fat in the lean) in the butt face. Such fresh hams come from young, healthy, fast-growing hogs with a desirable lean-to-fat ratio. Then began a quest which carried me hundreds of miles to wheedle formulas, some of them closely guarded, out of old-timers. Inject as deep as possible ensuring cure is throughout the meat. Your email address will not be published. 1 and the second portion on day No. This method eliminates smoking, and if meat is smoked it is almost necessary under farm conditions to wrap it in paper and place in muslin bags to avoid losses from insects. The product will shrink approximately 8 to 10 percent during cure application and equalization. Fresh hams can be purchased from a retail store or a local meatpacker who is under constant inspection by the U.S. Department of Agriculture or the Virginia State Meat Inspection Service. Virginia ham remains one of the favorite foods of Virginians and their guests. Lift the ham from the water and place it in a deep kettle with the skin-side up and cover with fresh, cold water. Large hams may be improved some by additional aging. This style of cutting leaves less lean meat exposed in the shank and butt areas, which reduces the possibility of spoilage. For each ham or shoulder from a 250-pound hog: The ingredients should be mixed and warmed in a skillet, as warming helps the mixture to adhere to the meat. They bore through meat and cause it to dry rot. Hickory is the most popular, but apple, plum, peach, oak, maple, beech, ash, or cherry may be used. Another early clergyman, the Reverend Mr. John Clayton, wrote the Royal Society in England that Virginia ham was as good as any in Westphalia (Force 1844). How to Cure and Smoke Your Own Ham. I have one like this, which is super easy to use and clean. Cracks should be sealed with putty or plastic wood after cleaning. Do not tie until bone is removed. Curing is any of various food preservation and flavoring processes of foods such as meat, fish and vegetables, by the addition of salt, with the aim of drawing moisture out of the food by the process of osmosis.Because curing increases the solute concentration in the food and hence decreases its water potential, the food becomes inhospitable for the microbe growth that causes food spoilage. They feed on the meat’s surface. After cleaning and sealing cracks, a surface spray should be applied to the floor so that the thin layer of insecticide will kill crawling insects. Also, record the date to remove hams from cure on the calendar, as shown. I smoke for about four half-day intervals, during damp, muggy weather, if possible.

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