How To Make Homemade Smoked Ham - Recipe
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cu_hunting I agree it can be confusing, maybe I need to split the post into 2 different ways to do it, one that would be using the full gallon of water and 1 that would be for a small single ham?
Basically, Add 2 lb of cure to 1 gallon of water and inject your ham until it weighs 20% more than it did before you began pumping it. Then weigh the remaining solution that wasn’t injected and add that weight in fresh water. This will give you the 50% strength covering solution that the ham will sit in to allow the cure to equalize within in the meat.
Jonathon is the recipe wrong then? 2lb cure per 2 gallons water? for the country brown sugar cure… or is it 2lb cure for 1 gallon of water? to inject it… then half strength for cover brine for 24 hours…
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cu_hunting follow this process https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/801/cured-whole-muscle-meat-105-ham-basics while I fix this one. I’m thinking that something changed because not only the post but also the video says 2 gallons for a 20% pump but now the instructions on the bag/box of country brown says 2 lb to 1 gallon for a 10% pump.
There will be an update on this later today
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cu_hunting follow this process https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/801/cured-whole-muscle-meat-105-ham-basics while I fix this one. I’m thinking that something changed because not only the post but also the video says 2 gallons for a 20% pump but now the instructions on the bag/box of country brown says 2 lb to 1 gallon for a 10% pump.
There will be an update on this later today
Jonathon Hi Jon, It’s crunch time… I have been doing everything I can to find out the best information on how to make hams, bacon etc… for months I have been preparing and to find out now that the information I have now is wrong is really freaking me out. I now have two 25 pound hams on ice in my cooler waiting to be processed because I don’t know which recipe to follow. I want them to turn out perfect. I have all the ingredients listed out on the country brown sugar cure. I don’t have a cooler or a refrigerator that can hold these hams. My only option is to keep them on ice until I can cure them, or last option is to freeze them. So the recipe called for 2 oz California Ham Spice 0.24 oz Sodium Erythorbate, 2 oz Cold Phosphate for a 24 pound ham and 2 gallons of water with the 2lb of brown sugar cure which was wrong. So it’s 2 lb per 1 gallon of water… The final temp changed too from 160 to 145 degrees??? Why the change? I need all the help I can get within the next couple days to get the right recipe down to be able to get the best hams I can get. Thank you!!!
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Okay, ignore everything else. This is going to be a recipe tailored for you based 24 lb ham weight:
First, we are going to make your injection, ingredients for that will be:
Get 1 gallon of water and mix in 2 oz of your cold phosphate (mix really really well and this ingredient HAS to be first)
Use 2 lb of country brown sugar cure to the 1 gallon of water
Mix in 0.85 OUNCE of the California Ham Spice to the 1 gallon of waterNext you are going to inject to 10%:
Your ham(s) weighs 24 lb now, when you are finished injecting they should weigh 26.4 lb as they now have 2.4 lb of the solution mixed in.Then we will make your cover brine:
Weigh your remaining solution 1 gallon of water is about 8 lb, 2 lb of cure (other additives negligible) so you have 10 lb but you injected 2.4 lb into your hams so you should have 7.6 lb of solution left. Now, take 7.6 (or whatever your left over actually weighs) and add that amount again of fresh water. This gives you your 50% strength cover brine. How you are going to cover this for 3-4 days I don’t know, don’t freeze it though. My suggestion would be to get something like a Stark Butcket Liner and use that to encapsulate the hams and the cover brine but you have to do something here. Just injecting and moving on isn’t going to allow the cure to equalize in the meat and to allow the cure time to work. If you had added something like sodium erythorbate you could just hold for 24 hours but even then 3 days is really going to give you a better flavor profileFor thermal processing:
1 Hour at 120° with no smoke
2 Hours 140° and begin smoking
4 Hours at 190° until internal temperature reaches 145° Ham doesn’t need to be cooked to 160° as it is a whole muscle meat. If you are making a ground and formed ham then it needs to go to 160°. I have no idea why we did 160° in our initial video, I am adding a note to that but leaving the 160° n there as well, it isn’t going to hurt anything.If you have any other question before you start please start a new topic as Urgent, that’ll get my attention quicker than a normal post will.
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Thank you very much!!! You are awesome! I do have sodium erythorbate, as I bought all ingredients from the first recipe on hoa to make a ham. I have food grade buckets and the liners too, I am all set! Thanks again!
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Also you want to cook pork to 160 degrees to prevent Trichinosis… curing smoking doesn’t kill the parasite.
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cu_hunting My understanding is that the USDA lowered the requirement of pork to 145 after the # of trichinosis cases from pork fell to an absurdly low level. Now, that isn’t going to be of comfort to anyone who does happen to get it but I believe the studies they did found bear to be the biggest offender.
Get more help with your processing questions and learn more about processing meat by subscribing to our waltonsinc.com youtube page at https://wltns.link/waltonstv I am a Gorilla, love yourself
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cu_hunting My understanding is that the USDA lowered the requirement of pork to 145 after the # of trichinosis cases from pork fell to an absurdly low level. Now, that isn’t going to be of comfort to anyone who does happen to get it but I believe the studies they did found bear to be the biggest offender.
Jonathon commercial pork is much safer than home grown pork like my hog that I butchered last Saturday.
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cu_hunting My understanding is that the USDA lowered the requirement of pork to 145 after the # of trichinosis cases from pork fell to an absurdly low level. Now, that isn’t going to be of comfort to anyone who does happen to get it but I believe the studies they did found bear to be the biggest offender.
Jonathon HERE is that study you referred to. It was a survey done by the CDC in 2015. They found that USA commercial pork was the source of 2 whole cases in the USA from 2011-2015. Bear was tied to 25.
cu_hunting As it turns out, that survey also tied only 2 cases to farm-raised swine.
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TexLaw Thanks for finding that!
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Jon thank you for all your help!!! Quick question if I use sodium erythorbate with all the ingredients mentioned, do I let it soak for just 24 hours or can it soak longer? Will it become too salty? Does it need rinsing and soaking in water after the soak? Thank you so much!!! Too bad you don’t have a tip jar that I could donate to… You have been an amazing help to me and I greatly appreciate it!!!
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Okay I’m mad at myself… I forgot to include the sodium erythorbate in the injection, but I did include it into the cover brine. Not sure if that will help me at all or not? So mad at myself you wouldn’t believe it… All this time and prep… Trying to do everything right and I forget something…
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cu_hunting Let it soak for 4-5 days if you didn’t include the sodium erythorbate, sorry but the cure needs that amount of time to work since it wasn’t accelerated.
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cu_hunting Let it soak for 4-5 days if you didn’t include the sodium erythorbate, sorry but the cure needs that amount of time to work since it wasn’t accelerated.
Jonathon do I need rinse or soak the hams in water after it’s done with the brine soak? Thank you so much! Do you have a way to tip you guys? I want to show my appreciation for all your help!
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cu_hunting lol no, thank you though! Buy stuff from Walton’s that’s it, entire reason Austin set meatgistics up was to help our customers get the most out of their purchases. It has sprawled past what I thought it would be but at its core its still based on helping customers make good products!
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cu_hunting Oh shoot sorry, I didnt respond to the ham rinse question. People do both, some rinse and some don’t. If you don’t like a lot of salt I’d say rinse it but if you are looking for that salty flavor go ahead and go right to smokehouse.
A good way to rinse is put it in a bucket in a sink and fill the bucket, then turn the water on low and let it fill and drain for 20 minutes. Obviously make sure the bucket isn’t blocking the drain so it can all drain out of the sink though.
I don’t rinse ham buit I do bacon, if that helps
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I have 12 fresh boneless hams that I am getting ready to inject, cure, and smoke. My question is do I take the combined weight and divide by 25lbs to calculate my Cold Phosphate and Sure Cure amounts or do I need to take an average weight of a single boneless ham?
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Jonathon I have 12 fresh boneless hams that I am getting ready to inject, cure, and smoke. My question is do I take the combined weight and divide by 25lbs to calculate my Cold Phosphate and Sure Cure amounts or do I need to take an average weight of a single boneless ham? I am planning on smoking this weekend. Thanks for the help!!!
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grenier32 Weigh all of them then add that weight up and calculate the amount. Then inject each one individually so it is pumped to the correct %. But we need to know a few things here. First, why add sure cure? Ham/Bacon Cures already have the cure mixed in to correctly impart a specific amount of ongoing nitrate in PPM. What cure are you using? 2nd, you are doing 12? Are you doing this commercially or do you just have a bunch of friends family who all want hams?
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grenier32 Weigh all of them then add that weight up and calculate the amount. Then inject each one individually so it is pumped to the correct %. But we need to know a few things here. First, why add sure cure? Ham/Bacon Cures already have the cure mixed in to correctly impart a specific amount of ongoing nitrate in PPM. What cure are you using? 2nd, you are doing 12? Are you doing this commercially or do you just have a bunch of friends family who all want hams?
Jonathon I made a mistake I meant Sure Gel not Sure Cure. I am using the Country Brown Suger Cure. I am not doing it commercially I raise a few pigs every year for myself and my family. This year we raised 6 and everyone wants ham so I decided to bone them out to cure and Smoke. Each Ham is around 9.5 lbs +/-. I am going to mix the following please let me know if you see any problems with my calculations
Total Weight= 114lbs
4 Gallons of water
9oz Cold Phosphate
27oz Sure Gel
4lbs Country Brown Suger Cure
1oz California Ham SPice
.48oz Sodium ErythorbateInject 20% or around 3 gallons total
Then hold in a 50% solution for 24-48hrsThanks for the advice and help!! This is the only place I will come to for all my meat processing equipment and seasoning mix!!!
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