Curing/smoking Hams

[Radfisher]

I have 2 16lb fresh raw uncooked hams that I wish to smoke. I've come across a couple of posts in the forum that have answered some of my questions, but I need some additional info. I wish to smoke one of the hams with a maple cure brine and the other a honey sweet flavored ham. I only have a MAK grill smoker so cold smoking is not an option for me. For the brine recipes I have kosher salt, curing salt, maple syrup, white sugar, and brown sugar. My questions are in order so the ham is not to sweet can I use a maple sugar and maple syrup together with the water and salt? Does kosher salt work ok with the curing salt or should I use perhaps pickling salt? What is the proper time I should leave the ham in the brine? I do plan to inject the ham for I've read it makes the ham more juicy and tender.
For the cooking part I plan to use a maple bourbon glaze. How often do I put the glaze on the ham while it's cooking. In order to not over smoke the ham do I start the grill on smoke 180 degrees then increase the temp after a few hours or can I keep the temp constant so as to not over smoke or over cook the ham? I've read the final cooking internal temp rangeing from 150-195 which makes it confusing to me to decide what I should cook my ham to.
Lastly in regards to cooking pork butts I've only seen recipes using an apple juice/cider brine or injection, have any of you used a maple or honey injection/brine?
Thanks for all your help!!!!

 

[TentHunter]

I am actually working on a "Ham Brining 101" post to share what I've learned. I can give you a couple brine recipes, but first a couple questions:

Question 1 - Do you have Brown Sugar or Maple Sugar? You mention both and they are NOT the same. Brown Sugar is regular sugar with molasses in it (dark brown sugar has a higher percentage of molasses), Maple Sugar is simply crystallized Maple Syrup.


Question 2 - What type of curing salt do you have because that makes a huge difference in brine recipe? Is it Cure #1, Morton Tender Quick, etc.?


Re. Pickling or Kosher salt - Pickling salt is a type of kosher salt and is my preference salt. I like it because it's uniform, consistent, economical and dissolves fairly easily in water WITHOUT having to boil it. It's made for brining. I use it for sausage making too.


As far as final temp - it depends on what you plan to do and the size of the ham. Minimum temp is ALWAYS 150° F if eating later.

For large Dinner-style Hams that I'll be eating right away, I prefer taking the final temp to 160°-162° then let it rest for a minimum 30 minutes and coast up to 165°+.

I have never taken a cured Ham to 195°.



I'll check back later for your response to the questions.

 

[RickB]

Cant wait for that ham brineing 101 post!

 

[Radfisher]

Tenthunter, The curing salt I have is DQ curing salt that I have in a 1lb package I got from Butcher and Packer, I also have Tender Quick. As for the maple sugar I haven't found any in my local stores. I'm thinking of using a maple sugar with maple syrup to give the ham a more mapleish flavor. Will just using regular white sugar with pure maple syrup work? Pickling/Kosher salts I have both. Using the pickling salt like you mentioned makes sense to use. I plan to cook the ham then serve for dinner then slice up the rest and keep for leftovers to eat at later times. The hams I have are 16lbs. Thanks

 

[TentHunter]

Sorry it took so long to respond, I wanted to be sure this was accurate and concise as possible.

Deb is well versed in ham making too (probably even more so than me) so she should chime in with suggestions as well!


OK regular DQ cure is the same as Cure #1 (or Prague Powder #1) which is salt with 6.25% Sodium Nitrite and is tinted pink.

Forget the Maple sugar it's just crystallized Maple syrup and is even more expensive! To keep costs down either do a Maple/Brown mix or for a more distinctive Maple flavor, mix with regular white sugar (I prefer regular white sugar because I think the Molasses in Brown sugar competes too much with the Maple).

The Maple Bourbon Glaze you mention should work very nicely with this!


Each batch of this brine will cure up to around a 9+ pound ham. The 15 lb Honey Ham I recently did used 1 1/2 batches, so I suspect for your two hams, you will need 3 batches. If you need more simply mix a fourth batch.

Note: Keep in mind this is about a 4% brine solution aimed towards a lower-salt ham.

Per Batch:

1 1/2 Gallons filtered or distilled Water
1 1/4 cups Salt (Pickling or other non-iodized)
4 level tsp. Cure #1

1 1/4 Cups Sugar
1 Cup Maple Syrup

Maple syrup is pricey so adjust this ratio as you see fit. What you need is enough Maple Syrup to influence the flavor. You could also go with 2 cups sugar and use Maple Flavoring.


Be sure to inject the ham THOUROUGHLY, especially around the bones. I inject about every inch throughout the whole ham. This will cut down on actuall brining time by up to 1/3.

If you have injected really well, then for a lower salt ham allow it to soak in the brine 1 day for every three pounds, (5 - 6 days) days for a 16 lb ham) or for a slightly saltier ham 1 day for every two pounds (about 8 days). Rotate/flip the ham every day to ensure even brining.


Smoke this on smoke setting for a good 4+ hours, then bump the temp to 225°-250° and let it cook to an internal temp of 160°-165°. Start Glazing when it hits around 145° - 150°. Be sure to let it rest minimum 30 minutes before carving to let the juices redistribute.

Feel free to PM me with questions!

 

[Radfisher]

THANKS!!! Tenthunter, This looks easy enough to do and should turn out great as you mentioned. It'll be a couple of weeks before I do these hams for I have to plan it around my work schedule, but I'll let you know how it turns out. I enjoy reading you other posts and helpful tips as I'm sure other members do also.

 

[Deb]

Re. Pickling or Kosher salt - Pickling salt is a type of kosher salt and is my preference salt. I like it because it's uniform, consistent, economical and dissolves fairly easily in water WITHOUT having to boil it. It's made for brining. I use it for sausage making too.


.

late to the party but I have a little to add about salt......

if a recipe has volume measurements be very careful with salt - the difference in the weight of a cup of salt varies greatly between the types - even within the types of kosher. I used to have a link to a good table with the weights for different types but can't find it, I'll keep looking.

I use kosher for everything because I can't easily find the pickling salt around here.

 

[Deb]

Here is Cliff's weight on the pickling salt (I lifted it from his apple cider brined bacon recipe)


1¼ cups Pickling Salt (360 grams by weight)

 

[squirtthecat]

Deb, I found this...

Salt Equivalent Measures

Table salt and kosher salt do not have the same saltiness in a flavor brine when measured by volume—but they do when measured by weight.

Table salt weighs about 10 ounces per cup, while kosher salt weighs 5-8 ounces per cup, depending on the brand. If using kosher salt in a brine, you must use more than a cup to achieve the same salt flavor you would get from a cup of table salt.


The chart below shows equivalent amounts of table salt and the two most popular brands of kosher salt.

Table Salt 1 cup
Morton Kosher Salt 1-1/2 cups
Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt 2 cups

Morton Kosher Salt weighs about 7.7 ounces per cup, making it three-fourths as strong as table salt. Diamond Crystal Kosher Salt weighs about 5 ounces per cup, making it half as strong as table salt.

What if you're using something other than Morton Kosher or Diamond Crystal Kosher salt? Regardless of the type of salt—sea salt, canning and pickling salt, or any other brand of kosher salt—just measure 10 ounces of it on a kitchen scale, and you will have the equivalent of 1 cup of table salt.

 

[TentHunter]

Good call Deb, Thanks!!! Yep, salt varies GREATLY. The further I get into charcuterie (curing & smoking meats, sausage) the more I understand why so many weigh their salt, spices, etc. instead of measuring them.


My wife picks up the Morton pickling salt up from the Super Wal-mart where she works. Some grocers stock it in the canning section and some only carry it during the canning season.

 

[Deb]

Deb, I found this...

Perfect, thanks Squirt

 

[Radfisher]

I've gone to amazingribs.com site and he talks about the zen of salts. I'm sure that could be helpful to all of us.