Two Dry Cured Ham Projects

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wittdog

Master Chef
Joined
Apr 8, 2006
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Location
West Seneca NY
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...


 
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 :shock:
 
I was thinking of cooking a fresh ham in my little smokehouse this year.
But I want to eat it before July. :shock:
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. ;)
 
wittdog said:
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 :shock:

Well. it's a good thing you're still a young man.
 
Griff said:
wittdog said:
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 :shock:

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! :LOL:
 
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 :LOL:
 
Nick Prochilo said:
Griff said:
wittdog said:
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 :shock:

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! :LOL:

I stopped buying green bananas. :LOL:
 
wittdog said:
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 :LOL:
:shock:

Thanks for the info. 8)
The tying up of the beer fridge has me concerned though. :shock:
 
Refrigerator gets one shelf for beer, freezer gets one shelf for beer. All others are available for whatever.
 
Wow Witt..good job!! I just love that old dry country cured ham. Messed up several store bought versions trying to get out the salt and keep it edible. Finally bumped into an old country boy from Mississipii who taught me the trick wink wink. Now my Mama just boiled the snot out of em. That works too:)

bigwheel
 
The hams have been curing for about a week and it was time to redistribute the cure…the first is the salt cured Parma or procutti ham…Its starting to pink up nicely and smelled great…



The second is the Virginia style molasses dry cured ham…..I should have taken a pic of the color on the skin side WOW it had a nice cheastnut brown color….


Both are coming along nicely I can tell my how firm they feel….Stay tuned
 
I had to flip the Virginia dry cured ham…look at the color…I can only imagine what it will look like after its cold smoked…


 
Lookin good. Ya know I bumped into a raw picnic down at the local Albertsons which come in at 15 lbs plust..once upon a time. Whut do you reckon happened on that deal? Biggest I ever seen afore or since hardly ever break into the high eights. Color me cornfused. I figger it was somebody's pet sow who got into the Begonias one too many times :shock: It cooked up real good so will venture the critter had been well fed.

bigwheel
 
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