# Curing Country Ham



## egoodman (Jul 14, 2014)

First off the nature of this thread was inspired by Mr. T's "from go to show country ham" thread.

After many months of research I have decided to cure a ham in hopes of creating a "country ham."

I am using Morton's Smoke Flavored Sugar Cure as my cure. This is my first time doing this and I am following the recommendation from Mr. T to use a pre-made commercial mix. To start I got in contact with my local butcher and they were able to get me a 'green' ham. I requested a larger ham if possible -- mine weighed in at exactly 21lbs. 

Curing:













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__ egoodman
__ Jul 14, 2014






I am following Mr. T's steps as closely as I can, 0.4oz of cure for every pound of ham.  I used 8.4 ounces of cure for this application. This is one of three application spaced a week apart.













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Starting at the hock I paid close attention to be sure I got enough cure into the hock and pushed it in as far as I could. The remaining cure was rubbed into all exposed lean parts of the ham.













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__ egoodman
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After all the cure for this application had been applied I used cheesecloth to wrap the ham to hold the cure in place. Admittedly not the best cheesecloth wrap job.













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After being wrapped in cheesecloth I use a cotton ham bag to hang the ham hock side down to promote better shape and draining.













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I have this ham in a fridge right now at 38-40 degrees. A remarkable amount of water is coming off the ham, I have this collecting in a pyrex dish underneath the ham. Next week I will do the exact same thing and this will repeat next week and the week after then I will continue the curing process till the 56-60 day mark. My plan is to constantly update this thread and keep you all up to date with whats going on.

Wish me luck!


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## dandl93 (Jul 14, 2014)

I will be waiting for your up dates thanks for sharing

Dan


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## pc farmer (Jul 14, 2014)

Good luck.  You are doing something I have wanted to do but didnt have the guts to do it.


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## egoodman (Jul 19, 2014)

Almost no moisture has collected since the first couple days. Not sure if this is normal or what is going on. Hoping after the next application I will get more water out of the ham.I have noticed the hock has closed up a bit and the bone is sticking out a bit more than it was when I was applying the cure, I hope this is from proper drying and the cure drying the ham.


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## dirtsailor2003 (Jul 20, 2014)

I'm sure if you're following Toms method all is good. 

I'll be following along to see how this turns out.


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## egoodman (Jul 21, 2014)

Today was the second application of cure. Ham looked good, the meat has really darkened and there was no visible salt left on it which mean it all most have been absorbed. Like the first time I focused my energy on getting cure into the hock and then covering all the lean exposed meat.












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I will continue to keep you all updated. By the way just out of curiosity I weighed the ham and it is 20.1 pounds so almost 5% weight loss.


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## egoodman (Jul 28, 2014)

Today was the third and final application. One thing I noticed is unlike last time I went to reapply the cure, this time not all of the cure had been absorbed into the ham. There was still some left on the surface. Also the ham is beginning to firm up quite a bit.
There is a soft spot on the ham that concerns me. 













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I hope this is nothing to worry with. I again paid special attention to the hock and rubbed the entire ham down again. 












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You can see how the cure had not fully absorbed. The meat is getting pretty dark also. Can anyone tell me if these pose any problems? I expected the meat to darken like it has, the ham is getting very very firm though. Anyways, I weighed the ham again and it has a 8.5% weight loss, that seems promising. It goes back into the fridge for the next month or so before we enter the equalization phase.


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## waywardswede (Jul 28, 2014)

I can't help with any advise, as I have never done this but have wanted to since I saw Mr T's post about it.  I'm in for following this, and want you to know that I really appreciate you creating this post to document this.  It's really putting yourself out there, as you have no idea how it's going to turn out, but there's plenty of knowledge and experience here to help.  Keep us posted, I'm really interested to see how this turns out.


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## daveomak (Jul 28, 2014)

I'd help out here but......  I'm an idiot when it comes to long term curing.......    :biggrin:


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## dirtsailor2003 (Jul 28, 2014)

DaveOmak said:


> I'd help out here but...... I'm an idiot when it comes to long term curing.......









You may want to PM Tom. I know he hasn't posted in a while but he may answer his PM's


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## egoodman (Aug 2, 2014)

I've gotten a little bit more moisture collect off the ham. The cure again doesn't seem to be absorbing this time very much. It has in some spots but in others it's just sitting there. My thought is that the ham may be reaching it's saturation point with the cure. A lot of cure has already been absorbed by the ham. The(now) firm flesh is much more difficult to penetrate. All in all I've been satisfied with the weight loss of the ham and the firmness of the over ham(it's gotten surprisingly hard). Now the hard part will be waiting till the equalization period where I can finally check the fully cured ham out. Still debating if I want to smoke it or not. I think I will decide that based on the color of the ham after it cures. You can see just from the photos the ham has darkened and is taking on that cured ham look to it. Thinking about it I probably will smoke it lol, I just love the rich brown color it gives the ham. Any how, so far so good, no foul odors are coming from the ham at all so I will keep moving forward!


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## fished (Aug 3, 2014)

That sure is one good looking ham.  I would love to do one of those.  But I don't have the right equipment.  Maybe one day.  I'm looking forward to the outcome.


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## egoodman (Aug 3, 2014)

Fished said:


> That sure is one good looking ham.  I would love to do one of those.  But I don't have the right equipment.  Maybe one day.  I'm looking forward to the outcome.


Thank you for the kind words. I hope you find this thread informative. I will say that if you have a fridge you can cure a ham using a dry cure like I am doing.i will advise, however, that having your own fridge just for the ham is ideal. You want to reduce temperature flux and if it is in with your every day fridge it will be opened and closed a lot. Once the ham is cured you can hang the ham pretty much anywhere to let it age and develop it's flavors. If smoking is something you don't have equipment for always keep in mind that you don't need to smoke the ham at all. In fact Finchville Farms (located between Lexington and Louisville Kentucky) makes very very fine hams that are not smoked.


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## egoodman (Aug 7, 2014)

Curiosity got the best of me so I wanted to see how the ham was doing. Still not much cure has absorbed, some has though. But what I noticed is that little soft spot, that can be seen in the most recent photos, seems to be smaller and it's firming up and turning the Same color as the ham. This is encouraging , I made a small cut into the ham sock and packed some cure onto that spot. I don't know if this will help or not but I figured it certainly couldn't hurt. I smelled the ham to see if I could detect any foul odors, particularly from the shank. There was no foul odors at all! In fact it actually smells like country ham, I couldn't believe it! It's still got exactly one month of curing left to go. 
Also I weighed it again (lol curiosity again) and it's weighs 18.66lbs. It has lost 11% which has to be a great sign. I really hope that soft spot continues to dry up and I hope some more cure absorbs...that still concerns me. Anyways, thanks for reading and if anyone can tell me if the cure not absorbing or that soft spot presents any issues, please comment!


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## egoodman (Sep 8, 2014)

The initial cure is over!  Today I "shucked" the ham if you will. I removed the ham from it's sock and soaked it in cold water for one hour. 













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After the soak the ham goes back into my fridge but I have set it to it's warmest setting. It will stay around 45-48 degrees. I will have the ham sit in there for the next twenty days -- this is referred to as the equalization period. It stops new salt from getting into the ham and allows the salt in the ham to distribute itself evenly. This was explained to me as simply an extension of the curing period. I also weighed the ham today, it came in at 17.38 pounds. This is a 17.4% loss. This is actually ahead of where I was expecting it. I will spend the next week deciding if I want to smoke the ham or not. I think I will just simply for fun and give me something todo. After the smoke I will hang the ham for long term storage. This ham will be technically a country ham in mid January. I plan to have to at Easter! I will update this thread when I start smoking.


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## dirtsailor2003 (Sep 8, 2014)

Easter???? I don't think I could wait that long!!!


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## egoodman (Sep 8, 2014)

Haha I know it's a ways away. That'll give it a good amount of time to age and develop it's characteristic country ham flavors.


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## disco (Sep 8, 2014)

I am really enjoying this thread! Great project and qview!

Disco


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## stovebolt (Sep 9, 2014)

I'm watching too.

Chuck


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## biggqwesty (Sep 9, 2014)

Awesome job with this cure. 
You have more balls than me doing this


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## egoodman (Sep 10, 2014)

Thank you all for the encouraging comments. I just ordered my a-maze-n pellet smoker. I'm going to use an old weber charcoal grill. It's quiet large and will easily fit the ham in and the smoker will rest right where the charcoal would. I will smoke the ham until I get a desired color. I'm going to be using hickory. Once the color I want is achieved I will hang for long term storage and aging. I'm really excited to smoke it.


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## biggqwesty (Sep 12, 2014)

That sounds amazing


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## egoodman (Sep 23, 2014)

Due to unseasonably cool weather I have decided to end my equalization period a week early and begin smoking. I am using the a maze n pellet smoker with hickory. I did struggle keeping the smoker lit which really frustrated me, I will deal with that at another time. All in all I think I got about 13-15 hours of good smoke on the ham. 












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I am very pleased with the color that the ham took on with the smoke. I am also glad that the ham is not tacky or sticky as I am not experienced in smoking and I feel like that would indicate poor smoke or too much smoke, I'm not certain if that's correct or not lol. I do have one question/concern: right now the ham smells super smoky (go figure) and not at all like ham. From the research I have gathered it is the enzymes inside the ham that will break down the muscle and fat to produce the characteristic country ham flavors and aromas. I am hoping since the ham is fresh off the smoke that it is naturally going to smell quite smoky for some time and this will mellow out and the aroma of the ham will start to come through. 

Now I am ready to age this bad boy, my place is to do a 6-7 month age to get it around Easter time and prepare it then. We will see if I can hold off that long. I am already itching to start another. Thank you to everyone who has read this and or commented. If anyone can give me any knowledge about the ham being super smoky and if that will mellow out over time, I would be very thankful.


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## pc farmer (Sep 23, 2014)

Its looks great.

I have not done country hams YET, but I have done a lot of cured meats.

I say it will mellow as it sets as does all cured meats.


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## egoodman (Sep 23, 2014)

Thank you!

I am very pleased to hear that.


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## atomicsmoke (Sep 23, 2014)

Looks amazing. Don't worry about the "super smoky" smell (there can't be too much smoke if you ask me). After that long of a rest (months) it will be just a hint.


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## mneeley490 (Sep 23, 2014)

So is a 9 month waiting time typical with country hams?


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## egoodman (Sep 23, 2014)

Atomicsmoke, thank you! I appreciate your input, that makes me feel assured.

Mneeley490,
That's pretty standard. However many ham producers will only age the legal minimum which is 4 months, this is probably due to demand. More sought after hams have been aged minimum a year, some as long as two to three years! Finchville farms ages their hams for a year and I have had their ham and I've has clifty farms ham (I prepared both myself) and I preferred the finchville. Though they were both excellent.


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## nchapelheel (Sep 23, 2014)

Hello all,

I have 2 hams equalizing now. I started the cure on December 27, 2013. I cure for 2.5 days per pound using the

Morton's "sugar cure mix". After the cure, I wash the ham in water, dry it, and then smoke it for a day.

Seems to work well...(this is the 4th ham done this way). Here in North Carolina the winter weather is almost always

perfect for the curing stage. This may sound strange, but I apply the cure and then wrap the ham in a paper grocery

bag bound tightly to the ham. I also cut a small hole at the bottom of the bag to allow for drainage. I keep the hams

in a "dorm fridge" for the curing period. Then off to the MES smoker. After that, they hang in the backyard shed in an

enclosure that I rigged to be insect tight and with a vent fan on a timer and humidistat. The fan runs twice per day for

5 minutes if the relative humidity is less than 55%. In the summer months, the fan doesn't fun much!!

Within the enclosure, the hams are in a pillow case wound around the ham and secured with a piece of wire.

I also put lots of black pepper around the ham just in case something gets through the screen and fan. The aroma in the shed

is incredible after a few weeks. It is all I can do to NOT remove the ham and cook and eat.

When the ham has lost 25% of its initial weight, it is a country ham.

The first week of November, the hams will get cleaned up...remove the mold and outer black parts.. then deboned and

sliced for storage in the freezer. The bone gets in the bean soup pot...no salt needed!!

Here is a link to a University of Missouri web site to help those so inclined to make your own ham. It is easy and rewarding

to do. Plus you get to eat the result...assuming all things go well.

http://extension.missouri.edu/publications/DisplayPub.aspx?P=G2526

Hope this is helpful.

nChapelHeel


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## egoodman (Sep 23, 2014)

Thank you for the informative post!


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## Murray (Jan 9, 2021)

Link for post #29



			https://extension.missouri.edu/media/wysiwyg/Extensiondata/Pro/4h/Docs/Projects/PlantsAnimals/Meats/HowToCureaCountryHam.pdf


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## nchapelheel (Jan 9, 2021)

I have an update for the process.  Mortons no longer sells the smoked brown sugar cure.  I found that Waltons does sell a sugar cure.
I have been using it for the past 4 years and the result is OK, but not quite as good as the Mortons.  To add flavor, I now use the
Alton Brown method of cooking the ham in a bath of Dr Pepper. That makes it really good and all the ham disappears in a few months.
All 4 children ask for ham....a lot!!
nChapelHeel


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