Two Dry Cured Ham Projects

[wittdog]

We picked up a couple of hams today to try a dry cured ham project…One ham will be made into prociuttio its basically covered in salt and cure then left in the fridge for a few weeks…once cured its hung to dry….The other ham is a molasses and rum dry cure…this ham will then be cold smoked in the smokehouse…and then hung to dry as well…I’m already wishing I would have done two of the molasses and rum hams…the mix smells great.
This is the procuittio


This one is more of a traditional Virginia dry cured smoked ham the recipe calls for salt,brown sugar, blackstrap molases, cure, rum, ginger, juniper berries and a few other things...

[Griff]

How long do you figure they need to hang?

[wittdog]

We are talking months...the smoked one calls for at least 7 weeks of hanging the other calls for 4-6 months or up to a year

[Rag]

Should of started a year ago.

[Puff]

I was thinking of cooking a fresh ham in my little smokehouse this year.
But I want to eat it before July.
Witt don't you smoke a fresh ham every year that takes about 30 hrs. or something?
Looking forward to the results on your project.

[Griff]

Originally Posted by wittdog

We are talking months...the smoked one calls for at least 7 weeks of hanging the other calls for 4-6 months or up to a year

Well. it's a good thing you're still a young man.

[Nick Prochilo]

Originally Posted by Griff

Well. it's a good thing you're still a young man.

Yeah Griff, I hear ya.......I might be dead before it's finished and then look who would get to enjoy it!

[wittdog]

Yes Puff a fresh ham that is brined (takes about a week to cure in a wet brine) takes about 30 hrs to do in a smokehouse. It results in a cooked ham like you would get in the deli section. This project I’m doing is a dry cured project where the ham is not cooked but safe to eat afterwards.
Other then tying up my meat/beer fridge for 3 weeks with the cure there is very little work involved in this project…its just a matter of time….oh yeah and the 16-18hrs of cold smoking the one ham. I’m hoping these come out a lot of things could go wrong during the process…but nothing ventured nothing gained.. BTW the one kind of ham I’m making goes for $22 lb at the store…not a bad return on a .99lb ham

[Rag]

Originally Posted by Nick Prochilo

Yeah Griff, I hear ya.......I might be dead before it's finished and then look who would get to enjoy it!

I stopped buying green bananas.

[Puff]

Originally Posted by wittdog

Yes Puff a fresh ham that is brined (takes about a week to cure in a wet brine) takes about 30 hrs to do in a smokehouse. It results in a cooked ham like you would get in the deli section. This project I’m doing is a dry cured project where the ham is not cooked but safe to eat afterwards.
Other then tying up my meat/beer fridge for 3 weeks with the cure there is very little work involved in this project…its just a matter of time….oh yeah and the 16-18hrs of cold smoking the one ham. I’m hoping these come out a lot of things could go wrong during the process…but nothing ventured nothing gained.. BTW the one kind of ham I’m making goes for $22 lb at the store…not a bad return on a .99lb ham

Thanks for the info.
The tying up of the beer fridge has me concerned though.