Slaughtering and Butchering By Dynah Geissal Issue #23 • September/October, 1993

[davhi8]

The article does not cover when to cold smoke a cured ham. I have 16 wild hog hams in brine as of last night. I need to know at what point do I put them in the smoke house for this phase of the process.

[Austin]

davhi8
I wish we could help out more on this one, but this is using someone else’s recipe and process in a way I don’t feel comfortable with (since they recommend not using a cure or nitrite/nitrate). There really isn’t an answer I’d feel safe giving you since this is not something we’ve done and tested like this before.

My suggestion on hams is always to follow our standard recipe here:
https://meatgistics.waltonsinc.com/topic/203/how-to-make-homemade-smoked-ham-recipe

My best alternative suggestion is to look for more information from a state University Meat Extension Department. They have usually done the proper research and development to provide better guidance. The University of Missouri has an article here that might be of help: https://extension2.missouri.edu/g2526

For the future, I’ll see if we can develop a recipe and process here to provide better guidance towards processing hams in this manner.

[davhi8]

Thanks. I did add cure to the recipe because I didn’t trust it without the sodium nitrate. (1/4 tsp per pound).

[papaG]

davhi8. After you take the hams out of the brine, rinse them of and put back in the fridge for at least 1 or 2 days to dry. Then they are ready to smoke.

[davhi8]

papaG Thank you!! That is what I had intended to do but wanted verification.