Curing ham

[bmader]

I've cured bacon a number of times, and now I want to do a ham. The butcher cut a 8.8 lb ham for me which was about 8 lb after removing skin and fat - the upper section. I want to use the AR recipe "How to make a cured smoked ham from scratch", but am a bit confused. The header on the actual recipe says to cure 7 days (for a 20 lb ham) but the curing calculator says 19 days for my 5" thick ham (tube/cone). This piece is rather rectangular with the other dimension about 6.5 inches. The recipe header also says a cook time of 12 hours, but the "cook" paragraph in the recipe says "up to 5 hours. Rule of thumb is 30 minutes per inch" - which would give me around 2.5 hours.
Could someone help me clarify these points?

Thank you.

[Spinaker]

Always use the calculator to determine curing times. That is the gold standard. You want to put in the thickest part of the ham as the measurement. Use tube/cone for the setting.

Additionally, always cook by temp and never time. The times listed are just guidelines. Cook the ham until it is at 140 F internal at the thickest point. If you are gonna wait a week or more to eat it all, take it up too 165 F.

[bmader]

Thank you for your answer. I appreciate it.
Brian

[texastweeter]

Never used the recipe here to make my hams, but I will agree with Spinaker about cooking to temp, not time.