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Country Ham

There are a number of good resources out there to help in making a country ham, these are a few I liked.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwu6K4crHc

https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/458/458-223/458-223.html

https://www.amazon.com/Country-Ham-Sout ... ountry+ham

It is possible, because it is a whole muscle, to cure a country ham with salt only. I preferred to use cure # 2. The legal requirements for a country ham are that the ham has over 4 % salt and that it loses 18 % weight. With such a large amount of salt, sugar is usually added at 1/4 the amount of salt. The hams are usually smoked though the process can vary widely. The bulk of the hams are sent to market sliced after 6 months. Increasingly more country hams are being held for longer aging to allow for additional flavor development. The number of ham producers has been declining; some have retired and simply not been replaced.

https://www.stevecoomes.com/2018/08/23/ ... bluegrass/

Here is what I did to make a country ham:

Pork leg with trotter removed and aitch bone attached 28 #
Salt 168 g
Sugar 49 g
Cure #2 31 g

Rub the cure in the face and hock end (not all of the salt will stick). Wrap the ham in unwaxed paper and put the package in a ham stocking hock down. Hold the ham at 50 F for 2 weeks. No attempt to control the humidity was made. At this point, add

Salt 196 g
Sugar 49 g

Wrap in fresh paper and hold at 50 F for two weeks. At this point, add

Salt 196 g
Sugar 49 g

Wrap in fresh paper and hold at 50 F for two weeks. The third cure treatment had some portion of salt not adsorbed, the excess was brushed off. After two more additional weeks, I cold smoked the ham overnight for 12 hours using corn cob pellets. After 2 more months, I cold smoked the ham overnight for 12 hours using corn cob pellets. After 1 more month, I gave it its last cold smoking. The weight loss was 19 %. The ham had a beautiful copper color and an intense smoke smell. The ham was aged in a fridge at 50-55 F for a total of 18 months with a weight loss of 28.2 %.











After trimming out the aitch bone:



Wedge cut out and trimmed:



Sliced:

Now that is patience

Would this be what is considered a Xmas Ham ?

It is for me.

Do you need to cook it or eat as is?

I've had it both ways for dinner tonight. It is different from the hams of Europe but quality meat and time has made it special.

That looks delicious.

It is possible, because it is a whole muscle, to cure a prosciutto style ham with salt only. I preferred to use cure # 2. Jason's excellent instructions are here: http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/2014/08/ ... .html#more Here is what I did to make this type of ham:

Pork leg with trotter removed and aitch bone attached 24.3 #
Salt 126 g
Cure #2 26.5 g

Rub the cure in the face and hock end (not all of the salt will stick). Lay the ham on a glass shelf and flatten it with a clean plastic cutting board and something to weight it down (I used a large can of tomatoes). Hold the ham at 50 F for 2 weeks. No attempt to control the humidity was made. At this point, add

Salt 126 g

Hold at 50 F for two weeks. At this point, add

Salt 126 g

Hold at 50 F for two weeks. The third cure treatment had some portion of salt not adsorbed. At two months time the ham weighed 21.2 # (13.8 %) and at three months 20.1 # (17.3 %). An equal mixture of lard and rice flour was applied to the face and to the hock end to seal it. The ham was aged in a fridge at 50-55 F for a total of 24 months with a weight loss of 20 %.

I like the looks of that. Summer is going to be consumed by bacon fever that has hit me, and well BBQ will be doing overtime with some nice sausages so I will wait till fall and then maybe try an adventure into curing ham like this. I'll have to plan it carefully though as I will be absent for a while, trying to get to Cuba this winter as I missed out last year due to heart attack.