pork hock injecting query

[deansbeans]

hello

I have a pork hock at home that i intend to cure tonight. I have cured wet and dry cured ham joints before, using the calculators on the localfoodheroes website, but have never cured anything that had a bone in.

I was going to wet/pump cure the hock using this website's recommendation of
1000gm Water
155gm Salt
120gm Sugar
33gm Cure #1

However how do I adjust this recipe for the amount of bone in the hock, which I guess is about 40% of the overall weight? Are there also issues with injecting brine near to the bone?

Dean

[Oddwookiee]

Do not change the brine. Once you have a bring recipe you like, stick with it. The amount of water a given piece of meat will hold is self-regulating, so pump the hock as normal and then let it rest, it will expel excess moisture on it's own.

On a side note, I dont' bother pumping hocks when I do a batch of curing. I'll throw them in the bottom of the barrel, then pump hams and fill the barrel over the hocks. Normal squeeze from the hams filters down and brines the hocks quite nicely without the hassle of trying to inject into a tiny, sinewy muscle.

[deansbeans]

thanks very much. in the end that's what i decided to do, have just submerged the hock in the brine without injecting. will give it about 4 days, as its only about 1kg in weight.

cheers
dean

[Oddwookiee]

I don't know if you even need that long, but it won't hurt it. I've cured hocks off of 300lb pork carcasses and they cure overnight, 36 hours if it's rind-on. More time in brine won't hurt anything, though.