curing and meat selection questions

SonofCarl31 said:

 
Hiya,

I have been reading on here quite a bit since I joined a couple days ago.  One thing that I have noticed is Pop's wet brine is used for ham, bbb, and canadian bacon.  If the same brine is used what makes them different? The difference is in the cut of meat. BBB (buck board bacon) is bacon made from the shoulder. Canadian bacon is from the loin, and ham is typically from the back leg.

  Also, I am looking  to do a ham for christmas and am leary of using bone in pork because I dont want to mess it up.  The injector I have is only 2-3 inches long and worried that I wont be able to get to the bone far within the meat to avoid bone sour.  Invest the $20 in a good stainless steel injector. It will make all the difference and last forever. 

Also, I am curious of what kind of cuts of meat I should use for bbb,cb, and ham.  See my answer above (ham can also be done from a picnic shoulder roast as it is similar texture to the back leg)

I have cure #1 and kosher salt.  Also, if I put extra ingredients in the brine will it dilute the cure in the brine?  What extra ingredients are you thinking of?

Also would I use the one gallon of water to 1 tbs of cure for a small roast of say 2 pounds or could I cut that in half? You might be able to but I always make a gallon just to be safe (and a gallon fits well into my containers) 

Lastly, making a ham, what other ingredients should I put in it to get a taste of ham that you would buy in the store? Nothing. The "ham" flavor comes from cure #1. You can add a glaze while cooking but you don't really need anything else in the brine. 

I know that most here will say that store and homemade dont compare but I want to think that you have to add more than just brine and smoke.  Nope. Brine and smoke does amazing thing to pork. You will get the best ham you have ever had with those simple steps. If you want to up the flavor you can do a maple/brown sugar glaze towards the end of the cook. 

Thanks to any and all that answer this for me.

Joseph

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