From Hog Leg to Easter Ham!

D31TY said:

so, to get this right, you push your brining needle through the hole near the Aitch Bone 4 times, and each time you are injecting the brine directly into the meat, and not around any bone , and each time you inject through the same hole you drive your needle into a different part of the ham, one in each quarter, and simply inject the full 4 ounces into each spot without moving the needle around further, just about midway between the bone and the surface of the ham, injecting your needle 4 times in all?   No, you are also driving the needle into the muscle and slowly pulling it out so you are injecting the length of the muscle, not just one portion of it.  You are injecting the muscle near the femur bone to that the brine shoots into the ham so it is curing from the inside out as well as from the outside in; imagine the muscle being about 4 inches in depth.  To soak the ham with no injection it would take too long for the brine to go into the ham to the bone with that thickness and the meat would spoil internally.  By injecting midway in the muscle you add brine to the inside, so now it it curing from 2" inside to the outside, then from 2" inches outside to inside, or a distance of 1", curing the ham easily and thoroughly.  The curing needle I am using is punctured on all 4 sides in multiple rows so it sprays in a 360° pattern, not just forward, please see http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=2_45_231&products_id=25, it is the spray needle.

Then you inject 4 ounces of brine through the butt end (literal rear end of the leg) of the ham and to the pelvic knucke, or AITCH bone, and brine "around" the pelvic knuckle, by wiggling the needle around the top and bottom of the bone through the single injection point, all with a single injection, the 5th total injection of the process You are not "wiggling" the needle, you are spray-injectiing into the meat muscles. 

Then in the top sawed-off section where the hock was, you inject your needle one time (the 6th total for the process), and you brine "around" the upper femur knuckle, by simply wiggling the needle on both sides of the bone, up and down an inch or two??

Then lastly you make another single 4 ounce injection (The 7th total injection of the process) into the sirloin tip portion and along the femur bone, and wiggle that around the femur bone on two sides,

Giving us 7 4-ounce injections, for a total of 28 oz. of brine injected into the pork leg

One injection goes through the Hock area into the Upper Femur Area, and another injection goes through the Sirloin Tip Portion and along the Femur Bone, is this one around the Tibia/Fibula/? No, the tibia/fibula is in the hock end leading to the lower leg, not near the sirloin tip, and in the hock area it is at the lower end of the femur bone, not upper

and one more question, if you are using a cut that has no bone, do you still need to inject the middle of the meat with cure?  Depends on the thickness of the meat - over 3" or so it's a wise idea; it certainly doesn't harm it.

thanks for any clarification from anyone to make sure i have the entire injection process correct

Your entire intent is to inject brine into the ham so it cures from the inside-out as well as from the outside-in so there is no spoilage.

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D31TY said:

two more questions:

• if you have a 20 Pound trimmed Ham Portion of the leg, and you use 2 gallons of water, or if you have to add more than 1 gallon of water just to cover, say, an extra half gallon maybe, do you also have to add more Nitrate? or will the original 1 TBSP of Nitrate suffice?   

Is there a formula for nitrate for ham? such as 1 TBSP per every 10 pounds of Ham, so a 5 Pound ham would only need 1.5 Teaspoons of Nitrate, and a 20 pound ham would need 2 TBSP, with 3 TBSP of Nitrate needed for a 30 Lb Ham??

• Is the amount of time a ham spends in the brine also determined by weight? such as a 30 day cure for a 20 pound ham, a 15 day cure for a 10 pound ham, a 1-week cure for a 5 pound ham,  37 day cure for a 25 pound ham, and a 40 day cure for a 30 pound ham?

Thanks for clarification

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D31TY said:

sweet, that was great.. thats surprisingly inexpensive.. just have to see about shipping, there's no international rates listed, and i cant tell if they ship outside of america or not.. might be cheaper if i can find it around asia somewhere, or someone doing more international shipping

so, just out of curiosity, would it be possible to make a ham with half of that amount of sodium nitrite, and add 10 or 15 days to the curing time??

thanks for all the great info

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• 
  In terms of vegetables, green leafy ones and root vegetables contain high levels of nitrate that are converted to nitrites on ingestion. Vegetables such as beetroot, radish, lettuce and spinach have high levels of nitrate which can convert into nitrites. Lettuce and spinach have especially high levels of nitrate. You will also find nitrates and consequently nitrites in carrots as well. The levels of nitrates depend upon the age of the vegetable and how much of a nitrate based fertilizer was used on it.
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