# To soak or not to soak.



## trizzuth (Jan 30, 2013)

So I just spent 7 days curing some pork bellies to make some bacon that I wanted to cold smoke along with my Virginia Country Ham this Sunday.  Bacon test fry was extremely salty, so I soaked it for an hour, still too salty, so I gave it one more hour in cold water and then it was just about right. Now, granted that the Bacon is MUCH thinner than the ham, not even comparable, but I was using the same Morton's Sugar Cure salt mixture on the bacon that I used on the Ham.  

Bacon cured for 7 days seemed way too long, Ham cured for 6 weeks!

I am worried now that the ham will be over the top salty, but there's no real easy way to test fry it on the inside like you can with bacon.  I am sure that the outer part of the ham's meat is very salty, but am unsure of penetration and whether or not I should soak the ham before cold smoking on Sunday.

Thoughts?  Opinions?  Any suggestions?

Oh, and here's some bacon money shots Q-View for ya!













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^^^ Fresh ground black pepper on the left, brown sugar in the middle, then fresh ground pepper, garlic powder,dried onion flake and dried red jalepeno on the right!  Can't wait for the cold smoke!


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## diggingdogfarm (Jan 30, 2013)

The best course of action is to work to avoid oversalting from the start.
I haven't soaked anything in at least 15 years.
It's not a good idea to soak a country ham, you're working to make a dried product.
If country ham is too salty, slices are often soaked before cooking.
MTQ used at the rate on the bag will make bacon too salty for most folks, ~3%, that's it's a good idea to use the calculator and cure#1 so you can adjust the salt level more to your liking.


~Martin


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## trizzuth (Jan 30, 2013)

DiggingDogFarm said:


> The best course of action is to work to avoid oversalting from the start.
> I haven't soaked anything in at least 15 years.
> It's not a good idea to soak a country ham, you're working to make a dried product.
> If country ham is too salty, slices are often soaked before cooking.
> ...


Thanks Martin! Next time I do the bacon curing, it's going to be 5 days rather than 7 for sure.  As for the ham, I will keep rolling with the punches and will just have to see how salty it is when it's done i guess.  It's all a learning process for me as this is my first time dry curing a ham and bacon.  Did some smoked rainbow trout awhile back and made some dip that was out of this world, and recently did a few batches of cold smoked cheese, they are resting in the fridge right now.  YUM.

Good point about the ham needing to be dry in the first place.  Given that, I will def wait and see.


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## themule69 (Jan 30, 2013)

looks great. and Martin has you covered on the salt.

happy smoken.

david


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## mr t 59874 (Feb 1, 2013)

trizzuth,

Wanted to let you know that when I soaked my ham for one hour that it did not soak up water as you would think.  It was almost water repellent.  The soaking process is meant to dissolve the surface cure and make the meat more receptive to smoke.  It was completly dry in a few minutes after patting dry.

I can't say that you should do it as you used a totally different process than me.  Mine is strickly a dry cured country ham, yours was injected.  I don't know if that would make a difference or not when soaking.

How long do you intend to smoke and what wood or woods do you intend to use? 

Tom


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## trizzuth (Feb 1, 2013)

Mr T 59874 said:


> trizzuth,
> 
> Wanted to let you know that when I soaked my ham for one hour that it did not soak up water as you would think.  It was almost water repellent.  The soaking process is meant to dissolve the surface cure and make the meat more receptive to smoke.  It was completly dry in a few minutes after patting dry.
> 
> ...


Hi Tom, mine was actually a combination cure.  I mainly did the dry cure, and after watching that series on Youtube about the bone sour, I got a little concerned and then did the injection at around 3 weeks into the curing phase.  I didn't do a lot of it, but did try to get some in there.  All of that had come out during the curing phase as when I hung it for equalization (it's been there just about 20 days now), not even one drop of liquid came out of the ham.  Upon closer inspection yesterday of the surface meat, I can see some salt crystallizing up on top of the meat.  My main concern now is to ensure I get a good thorough smoke penetration.  Do you think I should brush off any extra crystals I can see before the smoke?  I'd bet from the looks of it that it wouldn't really absorb much water if I did try to soak it.  At this point, maybe it is better to just finish the product and let it hang for 4 months and cut into it.  If it turns out too salty then, I can soak it, but I HATE to soak meat that is all done and prepped, ruins the artistry that went into it in my opinion.

For my smoke, I am going to get this going on Sunday morning early, using an AMNS primarily with the pitmaster's blend of dust.  I am a bit concerned about the amount of smoke output being too little as this will be going into my 275 gallon oil tank smoker, but I can mess with the air flow and have multiple chimneys on it so I can restrict what comes out too...  If need be, I can start a very small charcoal fire in the wood stove on the side fire box and then add some apple chips to produce more smoke.  I don't want to oversmoke it, just have it get to the point where it's good to go.  I am also doing 3 slabs of bacon at the same time since I have so much space in there.  So this will be a true cold smoke (actually might snow a little bit on Sunday here in Mass) so I am not concerned about temps at all.

P.S. I also wanted to note that when I scrubbed the salt and cure off of the ham after the curing phase was done, I did it in a sink and was rinsing it the entire time, so water did hit the meat to wash some of it away, but it did not soak.  Nothing was absorbed during this phase as nothing dripped out after.


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## diggingdogfarm (Feb 1, 2013)

Brush off the crystals and rinse.


~Martin


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