# Picnic shoulder into a ham..... 9/13 update MONEY !!!!



## daveomak (Sep 5, 2015)

Well I thought I bought a shoulder butt....   STUPID me...    was a picnic.....    Sooooo that did away with the country boneless ribs...  

Bride says, "Smoke it"...   I says, "It ain't cured".... Bride says, "Cure it and make ham"...   I says, "That means I gots to inject it and all that stuff"...    Well, she reminds me I do have 2 injecting needles....   I actually have 3 so........   Here's what I did....

Skinned the picnic...   weighed it at 4,000 grams...   * I'll do a 5% injection because it was already "enhanced"....*

200 grams water....
salt... 60 grams...because I didn't know how much salt was in the pump....
sugar....  20 grams.....   same reason....
Ames Phos....   8 grams..   0.2%
Cure #1...   10 grams...  156 Ppm nitrite....


I used the syringe that comes with Cajun Injector injectable sauces like you would use on wings....    marked out ~10 ml on the syringe barrel for a guesstimate of what I was doing... 
First...  injected along the bone and joints as best I could...  I'm trying to prevent bone sour..     then injected the remaining meat....    I did all this on a 1/4 sheet pan to collect the excess liquid that leaked out....  pumped all 200 mls into the picnic....   placed the picnic in a gallon zip bag and dumped the excess liquid in it also.....
The injections were between 5 and 10 mls each....  approximately 30 injections....      now all the cure, salt and sugar is in the meat....   I don't have to wonder if it has made it to the bone...    I'm turning the bag over in the AM and PM to make sure this works uniformly...  should take 4 days but I'm gonna give it six....  (Actually ended up being 7, which I'm not changing because the ham was AWESOME)













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__ daveomak
__ Sep 5, 2015


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## pc farmer (Sep 5, 2015)

I have been wanting to do this.

Will be watching.


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## b-one (Sep 5, 2015)

Looks like fun can't wait for results!:drool


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## disco (Sep 12, 2015)

This sounds great. I'm in.

Disco


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## daveomak (Sep 12, 2015)

Not much juice leaked out... I'm surprised because it was pumped...    My attempt at tying it up to hang..  I should get netting if this works....













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Hanging the picnic in the smoker......   SMOKE... Pittmasters Choice pellets from Todd....   Good smoke flavor.....
Start smoking at ~130 ish to dry the surface to form a pellicle...  later will kick it up to 180 ish gradually.... 
(after the smoke application was done, CLOSE the exhaust to about 5% open...  turn the smoker into an oven..  that eliminates the stall... nothing evaporating to cool the meat.. and final smoker temp about 205-210 to get the meat to 165)













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Lighting...  let the flame burn for awhile then blow it out so it smolders...   AMNPS in the Mail Box mod....













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BB later....   gonna smoke this to 154 to 160 Deg. F.....  Don't know why...  just because....   (Bride said, "Cook to 165")


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## daveomak (Sep 12, 2015)

6 hours of smoke.... a few more to go.......  The AMNPS does a fantastic job of applying even, creosote free smoke...  The Pitmasters choice pellets give a smooth, even, not ever bitter flavor...   The MB mod provides for consistent smoking...  no up or downs...  














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__ daveomak
__ Sep 12, 2015


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## b-one (Sep 12, 2015)

:drool Looking Awesome!


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## pc farmer (Sep 12, 2015)

Nice.  Its gonna be great


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## daveomak (Sep 13, 2015)

23 hours and it's done....     final cooking temp 200 deg. F to get the ham to 165... Brides request on the final temp....   
Now it's resting under foil....   Later today we will cut into it for a taste test and supper.....   













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__ Sep 13, 2015


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## timstalltaletav (Sep 13, 2015)

Looking great, can't wait to see the pics of the cuts!


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## DanMcG (Sep 13, 2015)

That looks Perfect Dave! I still need to do your mailbox mod to my smoker.


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## dirtsailor2003 (Sep 13, 2015)

Great looking ham. Bet it's going to be tasty!


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## daveomak (Sep 13, 2015)

It looks as if I injected it pretty good.....   Meat is pink everywhere... down in the joint...   along the bone... out to the edges of the meat...

It took minimal cure, salt and sugar...  minimal room in the reefer and I'm gonna say minimum amount of time to cure because the cure had not much farther than an inch or so to travel.... 

Bride says, "It the moistest ham she's ever had. Better than store bought."   That's what I think also....   

Soooooooo, this is my new go to ham...  takes about 8 days from start to finish....    I'm not gonna cut down on the 7 days I had it in the refer under cure etc.....   It's too good to mess with this recipe.....    

Honestly.... it's perfect as near as I can tell....   for us anyway.....  It probably could use some additional spices in the injection just to kick it up a bit, but for traditional ham....   it's really good.....

The meat just fell off of the bone...    The meat segments fell apart...    I'm very happy with the results.......














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## dirtsailor2003 (Sep 13, 2015)

Nice smoke Dave! POINTS for you!


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## JckDanls 07 (Sep 13, 2015)

Load that man up with points...  MM MMM MMMMMMM    great job Dave..  may have to try this one...


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## woodcutter (Sep 13, 2015)

Nice looking ham!!


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## WaterinHoleBrew (Sep 13, 2015)

Very nice Dave, tasty lookin smoke for sure !    Thumbs Up

:beercheer:


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## pc farmer (Sep 13, 2015)

Great job.   Looks great.

Now it's my turn.


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## foamheart (Sep 13, 2015)

Amphos  
	

	
	
		
		



		
			






You da'man!!

I bet you have Velcro shoelaces......ROFLMAO!

Bet there is beans in your house this week too!


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## timstalltaletav (Sep 13, 2015)

A question from a future picnic ham maker...  when injecting by the bone do you push the needle right to the bone or just into an approximate area?


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## daveomak (Sep 13, 2015)

TimsTallTaleTav said:


> A question from a future picnic ham maker...  when injecting by the bone do you push the needle right to the bone or just into an approximate area?



You want the bone and joints in contact with the cure....  then all the meat....    about 1.5 - 2" apart on the injections....   The idea is to cure from the inside in place of having the cure soak into the meat from the outside...    can be done with any cut of meat .... usually meat that is over 2" thick....


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## daveomak (Sep 13, 2015)

Foamheart said:


> Amphos
> 
> 
> 
> ...





My shoes don't get untied... I use a shoe horn....  an old time tool most folks don't know about.... 

We already discussed lima beans and ham....  probably northern corn bread too....  I hope...


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## daveomak (Sep 13, 2015)

My injection liquid didn't look right soooooooo, I looked up making it AFTER I injected.....   

The proper procedure is.... 

Mix
1. phosphates and dissolve...
2. sugars, proteins and dissolve
3. salt and dissolve  
4. cure and dissolve
5. accelerators (sodium erythorbate) and dissolve
6. starches and carrageenan and mix thoroughly...

Chlorinated water impedes the action of nitrite...  ascorbic acid should not be added to brines containing nitrite, the 2 will react producing fumes..


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## msuiceman (Sep 13, 2015)

looks awesome! I love a good ham.


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## daveomak (Sep 14, 2015)

There was a question about my injection not being 150 ish Ppm nitrite due the dilution of the nitrite with water, salt, sugar etc.....

Let me explain my thinking.....  

I weighed the cure #1 to give 150 ish Ppm nitrite for the weight of the meat....  I'm assuming all the ingredients I injected will stay in the meat even if the liquid evaporates.....    The injected ingredients will be "tied up" in the meat cells....   When water evaporates, all contaminates that were in the water will be left behind....   that is the same thing that happens when you make distilled water.....  everything stays behind and pure water evaporates that can later be condensed to distilled water...  I could be wrong...   but look at the other methods we use to cure meat....   Other than dry brine curing, where you weigh the ingredients and rub them into the meat, this is the closest thing I could come up with that resembles an accurate way to add ingredients into a single hunk of meat...

If discussion needs to be done about this method, please start a new thread so this thread is not screwed up....    If I need to amend this thread, for food safety reasons, I will do it later.....

Dave


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## disco (Sep 14, 2015)

Great project! Points.

Disco


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## hoity toit (Sep 14, 2015)

Nice job and the hand tied string. I still hand tie certain cuts but also use the stocking. I got a deal a year ago from sausage maker on some stocking and I think I have enough to last me the rest of my life. I bought like 100' but what they don't tell you is the stuff stretches to double its size, so if you order some please know this.The meat you did has excellent color rendition.

Dexter


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## oregon smoker (Sep 14, 2015)

Dave,

Outstanding Looking Ham !!!! 
	

	
	
		
		



		
		
	


	





Tom


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## daveomak (Sep 14, 2015)

Hoity Toit said:


> Nice job and the hand tied string. I still hand tie certain cuts but also use the stocking. I got a deal a year ago from sausage maker on some stocking and I think I have enough to last me the rest of my life. I bought like 100' but what they don't tell you is the stuff stretches to double its size, so if you order some please know this.The meat you did has excellent color rendition.
> 
> 
> Dexter




Not sure but I think the color comes from a good pellicle and good clean smoke from the AMNPS and MB mod....

I did order a 10 pk of small bags....  At times I need room in my small smoker...  I did notice they appear to block smoke...   One thing they will do is provide a uniform heat to what ever is hung up...  something the racks can't do...   This smoking bug is keeping us on our toes to keep looking for new ideas and making improvements...   when will it end....   I think I may have room to hang up 4 butts at one time, maybe...   that will remove the strain on pulled pork...   we sure eat a lot of it...  it's one of our favs....  and Lisa gets to sell more vacuum bags....


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## pc farmer (Sep 14, 2015)

Great info Dave


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## daveomak (Sep 16, 2015)

Stockinettes...  arrived today...  the 28" from amazon look perfect for front leg picnics and butts.... maybe even a small turkey.....


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