Two New Hog Legs in My Collection

[Bob McBride]

So the season is over and two more Country Hams just finished sweating for the summer. Great SHTF food, and with all the drama in the world I’m awfully happy to have two more. For those that don't know, properly finished hams take a year to make but can hang like this for 10-15 years or longer and be better tasting every year. Grandpas favorite in his salt shed was nine years old when he cut off the last slice and cracked the bone. Long term storage baby, and the shop smells so good.

 

[rdlowe]

Looks Iberian (and delicious).

 

[Bob McBride]

Looks Iberian (and delicious).

Salt pork did probably originate down that way somewhere as they do love their hogs. And yea, so good. Ill sometimes hop up from the bench and cut a slice with my pocketknife.....

 

[Notchy Bob]

It's this kind of stuff that keeps me coming back to this forum...

Notchy Bob

 

[Brokennock]

So the season is over and two more Country Hams just finished sweating for the summer. Great SHTF food, and with all the drama in the world I’m awfully happy to have two more. For those that don't know, properly finished hams take a year to make but can hang like this for 10-15 years or longer and be better tasting every year. Grandpas favorite in his salt shed was nine years old when he cut off the last slice and cracked the bone. Long term storage baby, and the shop smells so good.

View attachment 42343

Looks great.

I wouldn't ask for your secret family recipe for the cure or anything, but, could you please walk us through the process?

 

[Bob McBride]

Looks great.

I wouldn't ask for your secret family recipe for the cure or anything, but, could you please walk us through the process?

Sure. Its pretty simple. I fully cover them in a mixture of salt, sugar, and maple syrup or brown sugar. Sometimes pepper. 4-5x more salt than the other ingredients. Make sure its stuffed into all the nooks and crannies. They set for one week per inch, usually about 6 weeks, are smoked in a cold smoker for a week, and then hang all summer in the barn or in the cold smokehouse to "Sweat" or drip out all the moisture. The finished ham should weight 80% its original weight. They finish at about 30lbs.

Below is basically how i do it, KY style. There's a VA way of doing it and many others. I use a version of the bag cure method.

UK/CoOp Country Ham PDF

 

[GANGGREEN]

Being of Italian heritage, I've always been very fond of prosciutto and have considered doing one myself just to see how it would turn out. Maybe I'll get inspired.

 

[Mulebrain]

Nice looking hams! Kentucky Afield did a series on salt curing hams, I will dig it up and post it. Them old timers know their stuff

 

[Bob McBride]

Nice looking hams! Kentucky Afield did a series on salt curing hams, I will dig it up and post it. Them old timers know their stuff

I saw that series! That's the old feller that cut a hunk off his 10 year old ham hanging in his salt shed/smokehouse and gave the host a taste, if I remember right..... I enjoyed the heck out of that guy....my kindof people.

 

[RB POWELL]

I would love to try this if I had the space. Sounds great!

 

[appalichian hunter]

Bob do you run a old butchering steel along the hock portion of the leg bone up to the hip joint with the raw ham and pack that with cure, the reason I ask is my pap always done this prior to benching the ham rind side down on the bench and covering the rest with cure, with about a inch of cure laid down on the curing bench, also it was my job to daily quarter turn the ham while on the bench and massage if you will with more cure kept a wooden bucket full of cure on the bench, This was one of my jobs prior to leaving for school, All the old man had to do was say ham you best say already done. as you said about 6-7 weeks of this then he would wash the ham with a bristle brush and clear water hang them and let air dry and smoke them using sassafras and hang them in the smoke house, the longer they hung the better they got. Thanksgiving was when we butchered a lot colder then than now. I do not know the amounts of ingredients but there was salt, black pepper, brown sugar and salt peter I can still remember the smell of the cure .

 

[Bob McBride]

I do. If you dont get way up there she’ll spoil right against the bone.

 

[appalichian hunter]

Thought so, A lot of folks really do not know what goes into the process of curing meat I guess it is heading the way of a lost art. Along with common sense and a few other things, It is good to retain the old ways of doing things it will come in handy in the long run.

 

[Brokennock]

Sure. Its pretty simple. I fully cover them in a mixture of salt, sugar, and maple syrup or brown sugar. Sometimes pepper. 4-5x more salt than the other ingredients. Make sure its stuffed into all the nooks and crannies. They set for one week per inch, usually about 6 weeks, are smoked in a cold smoker for a week, and then hang all summer in the barn or in the cold smokehouse to "Sweat" or drip out all the moisture. The finished ham should weight 80% its original weight. They finish at about 30lbs.

Below is basically how i do it, KY style. There's a VA way of doing it and many others. I use a version of the bag cure method.

UK/CoOp Country Ham PDF

Thank you.

 

[Ames]

I know they are the worst thing on 4 legs east of the Mississippi. I know the destruction is horrible on the land. But god I wish I had a hog season up here. I would build a smokehouse just for this reason.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

LD

 

[rafterob]

That is my retirement dream, to start making quality salted hams.

 

[Smokey Plainsman]

LOVE it, Bob! Reminds me of Italian prosciutto, one my favorites.

 

[Notchy Bob]

LOVE it, Bob! Reminds me of Italian prosciutto, one my favorites.

Me too!

I think Italian polenta is actually yellow grits... Coarsely ground corn boiled in water until it congeals.

My Alabama ancestors had a lot of prosciutto and polenta for breakfast.

Notchy Bob