smoked pork hocks

[crustyo44]

Hi Members,
Is there an old favourite recipe for curing pork hocks to be smoked, either hot or cold.
Personally I think that brine injection would be quicker that dry curing but with brine injection you can reach close to the bone where most trouble starts.
Any suggestions on smoking temperatures and dry or wet brining and curing times.
Thank you,
Jan. Brisbane.

[wheels]

FWIW, pork hocks tend to get chucked in with whatever's curing.

I know - not exactly my normal method, but they cure in double quick time, so they get a dunk for a couple of days with whatever's brewing!

Phil

[Oddwookiee]

Exactly how I do it too. I'll pump a batch of hams (usually around 300#) and toss the hams into a couple Rubbermaid barrels to cure over night, and just make sure the hocks are in the bottom. Squeeze from the hams soaks in and cures hocks just fine. If I'm tumbling hams, the hocks just get pitched into the tumbler with the hams & liquid as well, they have yet to be unbrined.

[crustyo44]

Thank you Gentleman for the advise. The mentioning of tumbling hams
have got me real interested as I am an equipment freak.
Does the tumbling speed up the curing process?
Regards,
Jan.

[BriCan]

Thank you Gentleman for the advise. The mentioning of tumbling hams
have got me real interested as I am an equipment freak.
Does the tumbling speed up the curing process?
Regards,
Jan.

Yes if it is done under vacuum

[Oddwookiee]

Sorry about the delay in response, life happens. Anyhoo, on tumbling hams:

It speeds the curing process by forcing the meat cells to expand under vacuum and suck in the tumbling liquid. I generally use a half-strength solution of my usual ham brine with brown sugar added for color & flavor. You still have to manually pump hams as it won't get full penetration, but it does help.

With the meat absorbing more water then it normally would, it also gains a good bit of weight. This is where a lot of big commercial producers will screw you- a few ounces of an emulsifying agent and you can charge the end buyer ham price for water weight. I like it because when I smoke the hams, the first weight that cooks out is the added water, leaving a much better tasting ham as the end product.

With small or thin pieces, a tumbler is a massive timesaver. I won't even dry rub bacons, loins, shoulders or jowls- just straight into the tumbler, dry salt added and straight water, with brown sugar, and away we go. The salt and cure gets full penetration in a couple hours. For either bone-in or boneless products, I'll tumble for 2 hours at a very slow rotation to keep the pieces from shredding, then leave under vacuum overnight to continue curing.

Granted, it's not the same as doing a one piece at a time artisan process, but It's a hell of a step above the 'five thousand pressed hams at a whack' garbage the really big plants do.

We slo have a smaller table top unit just a smidge smaller then a beer keg that'll do up to 30-40lb at a time. We marinate & give a short tumble to steaks, chicken breasts and whole-body chickens and the customer s love them. It's faster and easier then a 'meat sitting in liquid' marinading, and makes a much better end product to boot..