Curing and smoking ham at home is very easy. Pictured here are the hams from a 50 pound porker I took on a recent hunt. You can do this yourself!
Here how:
Order a packet of maple sugar cure from Frisco Spices www.friscospices.com. You will actually receive two packages of cure which is plenty for even a couple of ten pound hams.
Mix a packet of cure with two quarts of water to create the brine. Place hams into the brine and place in refrigerator.
Allow 24 hours curing time for each pound of meat. Turn the meat every day. Actually, I place the hams in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid and simply “swish” the mixture around once every day.
The smaller hams in this picture weighed 4 pounds each and I allowed them to cure the required 4 days. When curing large hams, it’s a good idea to use a meat injector to insure the cure penetrates to the bone but stick with the same 24 hours per pound curing time.
After the hams cured, I rubbed them with dark brown sugar and placed in my Smokin Tex Electric smoker set at 160 degrees and smoked them 8 hours with wild plum wood but pecan, hickory, or any dry fruit wood works well.
The hams turn out well cured, tender with that “country smoked” flavor. Try it yourself.
If you don’t have any wild pork, this method works equally well with domestic pork loin or even smaller cuts of pork shoulder.