Thanks guys for the information. Jonathon - I had not even considered the Tube Smoker causing an over temperature problem. But I will certainly do a test run with nothing in the smoker except a temperature probe to see what it does and post up on the results… the thing is though that a salt cured ham, if done correctly is shelf stable. Below is a quote from a Paper from the University of Kentucky - and here is a link to that paper on Curing Country Hams. I think you and Cablelas90 and others may enjoy reading it. The initial cure takes about 60 days - which I will do at a controlled temperature. Even though I’ve worked a lot of hog butchering, sausage making and ham curing sessions - I was young and not very observant of the process of curing hams - that was my Captain’s task and he left us a long time ago - so I personally have not cured a Country Ham and I want to hurry and add that what I will end up with at the end of my process will not be a true Country Ham as you will see from this article. To be labeled a true Country Ham it has to go through an aging process that I’m not set up to do.

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ASC/ASC213/ASC213.pdf

"Smoking hams is a personal preference, but care should be
exercised during the process. Country hams should be cold
smoked; a hotter smoke (greater than110°F) will destroy the
enzymes responsible for flavor and aroma. The duration of
smoking is a personal preference; the majority of hams are
smoked for 12 hours or more. "

I’ve been around dry curing pork hams many years ago but my Dad was the lead man so to speak. I’ve been doing a lot of home work and even picked up a Frig for curing. So the University of KY published a really good paper on this topic. At this point my cure mix will consist of salt with the appropriate amount of Instacure #2, brown sugar, black pepper - spend about 60 days in the frig and the I will Cold Smoke it. But then I ran across an article that talked about Sodium Erythorbate and so I bought a pound from Waltonsinc along with some other stuff. The directions for use says to use 0.0546875 lb per 100 pounds of meat! I’m curing a 20-25 pound country ham! So I’m thinking I have really misunderstood the use of Sodium Erythorbate. Can someone educate me? I believe I may have bought something that I have no use for… but maybe not.

lamurscrappy Using Ice water if needed to reduce the temperature in a smoke is a really good tip. thanks