This will be my first try at curing my own ham. I found a local farmer who raises Berkshire hogs and this one was just butchered this week. It doesn't get much fresher than this. Planning to start the cure tomorrow so it will be ready in time for Easter.
Hopefully 7 days will still be enough time, this one weighs in at a whopping 29 lbs but still has all the skin and fat. Planning to cut all that off and follow Meatheads wet cure recipe.
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About meReal name: Aaron
Location: Farwell, Michigan- near Clare. (dead center of lower peninsula)
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Have fun. This kind of experiment can be really satisfying! And once you do a quick cure like this, you can get another leg and try to do one of the older, long-cure kinds.
Le Grill, This is Something I have Wanted to Do for Years! Are You Going to Use a Salt or Sugar Cureâ“. Wet or Dry Cureâ“ The Best of Good Luck!
Please Keep Us Informed and Pic's Of Course! 👍👍🍀👍👍
Eat Well and Prosper! From a Backyard Cremator in Fargo ND, Dan
I am also wet curing two berkshire hams (this is my first time doing this) . they are about 15 lbs each , they were freshly slaughtered from a local farmer . The meat from the berkshire that i have bought from him has always been really red (and amazing). I have had the meat in the cure for about 7 days the water is a little darker than what the pictures on your site say it should be. --when i ran the calculator it told me 13 days based on these big ol chunks of pig... so after all of that my question is should i be worried about the water has started becoming a darker pink than recommended? I need to decide soon because we are making Hams for easter next weekend. I cut the skin and fat off mine (yeah cracklings)
After trimming all the skin and fat i ended up with a 20.5lb ham. I used 3 gallons of water with 3 tbsp of PP #1. I cut back the salt to 18oz (from 20oz in MH's recipe) after reading some reviews that followed this recipe and said it was too salty.
I decided to use the 22.5" w/ Smokenator. I also own SnS but for the maximum convection space this is one (and really the only) area where the Smokenator is better.
Here it is about 2.5 hours in. Having trouble keeping it at 325. It's a little damp and windy today and I can't replenish the coals fast enough, but I think it's going to be just fine.
Here is 1 final pic before cutting. This ham was amazing. I would definitely recommend. It had this amazing crusty bark, it was super moist, and had great flavor.
A few final thoughts...
1. Allow for lots of carryover cooking. I underestimated this. I pulled at 146, into a cooler wrapped in foil. 1 hour later it had risen to 156. Thankfully it was still plenty juicy.
2. Don't sweat the cook temp. It was cold and windy and I had trouble hitting 325. Average temp was probably around 280-300 but it still cooked up great and I experienced zero stall. For 20 lbs it took right around 5 hours.
3. I thought I injected enough but near the bone there was plain white pork spots. Next time inject more than I think.
4. I read some review that said 20oz salt was too salty in the end. I reduced it to 18oz and it was barely salty. Next time I would follow the recipe exactly and go with 20oz, especially it the ham is a full 20lbs.
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