So many recipes…so little time.

@folsomwest you should be fine with 5 - 7 days

@austin Thanks so much. Two things you said really helped me out (well everything, but two in particular) 1) it has Sodium Erythorbate and 2) the PPM in Dry Rub----your math is the same as mine to achieve 120 ppm. I broke up what I have left and try some things. One is dry rub inject, two is to do a more simple traditional cure injection (will miss your great flavor profiles but will still use bacon taste booster, and three–the wife reminded me of a recipe for chunked belly that is bbq’d on the grill which is also great and it will be ready to eat before I’m done smoking. — On the last one my only concern is how many batches I can eat before I have I would have to schedule bypass surgery—it’s so good but man something that good can’t be good for for the ol’ ticker. Note sarcasm–hopefully far from that point but I’m apparently trying. Finally, everyone saved the day—should have checked my stock before starting. Now off to the Waltons site to order more supplies! Thanks again!

May have narrowed this done to one word…creosote. The challenges of smoking meat in frigid weather. Did some bacon on my next smoke and while not as bad I could identify that same taste when I test fried an end off the slab. One thing I have learned over the years about creosote—it is amplified when it appears on cured meat. I started looking at my setup and I think two things led to this–1, using cabelas pellets for my smoke source and two, the cold ambient temperature in almost dead calm weather caused my stack to not draw as well–so a pellet known for high ash and incomplete burn caused some creosote rather than nice smoke. I am still looking for advice and other ideas so feel free to jump in—would really like to master the ham making. EDITED TO ADD…I use a homebuilt electric smoker with a PID controller. Only use pellets for smoke source, not heat.

@folsomwest I brine my hams for close to two weeks without accelerator. Then I use Waltons smoke and cook schedule and cook them to 135 degrees. After that we cool them and sometimes cut and a half or cut some slices out . When you want to eat them finish cooking them to 165 degrees. Have not been disappointed yet

@folsomwest So first, the 140° thing is based on appendix A (https://www.fsis.usda.gov/wps/wcm/connect/fsis-content/fsis-questionable-content/oppde/rdad/frpubs/95-033f/95-033f_appendix-a/default/ct_95-033f_appendix+a) from the USDA and it is for beef or pork, I do not think it covers wild game in any way. You could apply the same principles but our official recommendation with wild game is 160°. As for the particle definition we once tried to layer ground venison then pork fat and then venison to get a more traditional bacon appearance and it failed miserable. All the fat rendered and escaped out the sides of the pan. I don’t think there is a way to do that. However, you could do what we did with some venison ring bologna a long time ago (I would have put my hand on a bible and sworn we had done a video on this) where we ground fat and lean separate and the fat just once then stuffed it into casings and smoked it. The fat rendered for sure but where the meat was encapsualting the fat it stayed in that pocket (mostly) so we had these really nice pockets of fat within the meat. Now, when you went to pan fry that it would render and escape again so I don’t know what the work around for that would be.

Thanks for the info. Agreed, you can’t cook the spoil out. In the tons of meat I’ve smoked, cured or grilled—I’ve never had any spoil ‘on the rack’–granted I’ve wrecked some, but never had it spoil. What brought this to mind was ground meat. I do a lot of pork butts and whole muscle meat that spends a fair amount of time the danger zone despite my efforts to get it through there within 4 hours but the smoke and heat on the outside is probably high enough to avoid it growing–IT, where little bacteris is to begin with, spends quite a bit of time there. Ground meat though, well let’s just say I am particularly cautious with. Again, thanks for the reassurance.

@folsomwest This would have been a fine time to use the urgent category by the way! Any time you are getting ready to process and have a time sensitive question, especially over the weekend, you can use the urgent category and it will alert Austin and I to check in on it right away. Bacon taste booster gives you more of an old-world flavor when using modern curing methods, so using 1/3 of what you would normally use isn’t going to cause you any real issues, it might just not taste as strong and bold as you are used to. I am not aware of anything you could use that would replace this additive. If you were looking for a way to increase the taste you might consider rubbing the outside of the belly with something, like your favorite rub, or dehydrated jalapenos before smoking it!