Home Cured Ham Recipes

HOMEMADE HAM RECIPE

Steps:

• Dry the ham with a rag to absorb any extra moisture. Weigh the roast and write down this number.
• For every pound of meat, weigh out 15 grams of sea salt and 2.25 grams of sugar. My roast was 7 pounds, so I used a total of 105 grams of salt and 15.75 grams of sugar. And yes, you want this to be precise (hence the kitchen scale). To this salt and sugar, you can add whatever spices you'd like - rosemary, all spice, cloves, thyme, etc. I chose to keep mine simple and added only a small bit of freshly ground black pepper.
• Combine the spices in a bowl and use your fingers to mix them together.
• Rub the meat with the salt/sugar mixture. Get into every crevasse that you can find. Really work it in there. If you have a bone-in roast, pay special attention to that area. Make sure that the roast is coated.
• Place the roast in a large bowl and set it in the refrigerator. You'll leave it to cure here for a few days. Measure the diameter of the roast and add '3' to that to figure out how many days it will cure. My roast was 7 inches across. 7+3= 10 days total for curing.
• After the proper curing time, remove the ham. At this point, the ham can be baked and glazed with whatever you'd like (honey? herbs? molasses?) or smoked. We chose to smoke ours. Three hours over some apple wood in a simple homemade smoker worked just fine. We used a small grill and covered a make-shift teepee around it with canvas. There are a million setup options for smoking: I'll let you get creative.
• If you'd prefer, roughly halfway through the smoking process, the skin of the ham can be removed (if your roast came with skin, that is). Some prefer to leave it on. Some take it off. That's totally up to you.
• The ham should be smoked and cooked to an internal temperature of roughly 170-180 degrees (use a meat thermometer... you'll want to make sure that it's cooked thoroughly.)
• If you'd rather not smoke your ham, the ham can be baked in a 350 degree oven until the same internal temperature is achieved.

SALT CURED HAM: OLD-FASHIONED PRESERVING

Steps:

• Mix salt, red pepper, black pepper and brown sugar in a bowl and set aside, this is your curing mix.
• With a ham that's between 36 and 40 degrees Fahrenheit, rinse in cold water and pat dry.
• Put a layer of curing mix ¼" - ½" deep on a tray to act as a bed for the ham.
• Place the ham on top of the layer of curing mix.
• At the H-bone (hip) and the hock joints, cut slits down to the bone then pack with as much of the salt mixture as possible.
• Rub and cover the rest of the ham with the curing mix.
• Leave the tray in a cool place (such as a refrigerator or a cooler packed with ice) for 18 days at 36-40 degrees.
• Cure for 18 days (or more - see recipe notes).
• Once the ham is cured, rinse well with cool water then smoke it, cook it or freeze it for later (see recipe notes for cooking tips).

HOME-CURED PORK TENDERLOIN 'HAM'

Steps:

• Put salt and sugar in a large nonreactive bowl (stainless steel or glass). Add boiling water and stir well to dissolve salt and sugar. Add peppercorns, mustard seeds, allspice berries, cloves, thyme and bay leaves. Leave to cool completely.
• Add curing salt and 1 cup white wine to cooled brine. Submerge pork tenderloins in brine. Place plate directly on top of pork to keep it submerged if necessary. Cover container and refrigerate for 5 days.
• Remove pork from brine and pat dry. Discard brine. Spread onions and thyme sprigs on bottom of a large shallow baking dish. Add brined tenderloins in one layer, then add 1/2 cup wine. Heat oven to 350 degrees; as it heats, bring meat to room temperature. Cover dish and bake for 45 minutes or until pork registers 135 degrees with an instant-read thermometer. Remove from oven (meat will continue to cook and reach 140 degrees as it rests). Let cool before cutting into thin slices. Serve with buttermilk biscuits. May be refrigerated, well wrapped, for up to 1 week.

HOME-CURED HOLIDAY HAM

Steps:

• Place kosher salt, brown sugar, pickling spice, and pink salt in a container large enough to hold the brine and the ham.
• Bring 2 quarts of water to a boil and pour over the brine ingredients; whisk to dissolve. Pour in 1 gallon fresh cold water to cool down the mixture.
• Score the skin side of the pork roast with a sharp knife. Cut into the fat beneath the skin but not into the meat. Score about 1 inch apart, then score in the opposite direction to get the classic diamond-shaped pattern.
• Lower scored roast into the cooled brine, skin side up. Use a plate to weigh down the roast so that it cures fully submerged in the liquid. Refrigerate for 1 day for every 2 pounds of pork (for a 7 pound roast, cure for at least 2 1/2 days). Turn the roast over halfway through the brining process.
• Remove roast from brining liquid. Discard the brining liquid and transfer the roast back to the brining container. Cover the roast with fresh cold water to rinse off some of the salt. Depending on how salty you want your ham, you can soak it for just a few minutes or overnight. Remove roast from the water and blot dry with paper towels.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Add a cup of water to a roasting pan with 2 whole star anise. Place roast on a rack in the roasting pan.
• Roast until ham reaches an internal temperature of 130 to 135 degrees F, about 2 hours. Ham will not be fully cooked at this point. If water has nearly evaporated, add a splash more. Increase oven temperature to 425 degrees F. Continue to roast until skin is browned and crispy and ham reaches an internal temperature of 145 to 150 degrees F.
• To make the optional glaze, mix the mustard, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and salt together in a bowl. Brush glaze on the ham at this point, not before. Return roast to oven for about 5 minutes to crisp it even further.

HOW TO CURE A HAM

Steps:

• Place your ham in the plastic container that you'll be using to cure it. On a stove, heat up the water with the salt, sugar, molasses, and ground clove, just until the salt and sugars have dissolved. Stir in the pink salt then pour over the ham, adding more water as needed to cover the ham by 1 inch. If any parts of the ham bob above the surface of the brine, place a ceramic plate on top to weigh it down.
• Place the container in the fridge, and keep it there for 3 days, or roughly 1 day for every 2 pounds. Halfway through the brining process, turn the ham over so all parts of it will be submerged.
• After the brining is done, rinse the ham and let it soak refrigerated in clean water for 24 hours.
• To cook the ham, bake it in a foil-lined roasting pan at 325° F for 30 minutes per pound or until the internal temperature is 150° F. (I recommend not doing it on a rack as I did because it leaves strange impressions on the meat.)
• When done, slice and serve.

HOMEMADE CURED & SMOKED HAM WITH PINEAPPLE GLAZE

Steps:

• CURE:
• In a large bowl or pot, whisk together PS Complete Ham Cure and water to create a brine.
• Remove 13 ounces of brine and inject it into the ham, being sure to inject around the bone. It is important to inject the amount of brine equal to 10 to 15% of the ham's weight, into the flesh of the ham.
• Place ham in a large pot with lid and pour the remaining brine around the ham. The ham should be completely submerged in the brine. Cover with plastic wrap, and press down on the ham, then cover with a lid. Refrigerate the ham in the brine for 2-4 days (we recommend one day for every 2 lbs. ).
• After 4 days, remove the ham from the brine, and soak in cold water for 2 hours, changing out cold water after 1 hour. (Note: Another way to lower the sodium content of the ham is to refresh the water more frequently. For a less salty ham, change the water ever 30 minutes for 2 hours). Remove the ham from the water, place it in a glass baking dish, cover it with plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight.
• SMOKING:
• Remove the ham from the refrigerator, uncover, and blot dry with paper towels.Preheat the smoker to 130° F.
• Place the ham in a stockinette and hang it from 2 hooks latched onto 2 stacked top grates. Add ⅔ pan of moistened sawdust and smoke for 3 hours, with dampers ⅓ open.
• After 3 hours, remove the pan of charred sawdust, then add another pan of moistened sawdust on the burner. Increase the temperature to 160° F and smoke for another 3 hours.
• After 3 hours, remove the sawdust pan and close dampers. Increase the temperature to 185° F, and cook until the internal temperature of the ham reaches 150° F.
• Remove ham from the smoker, then refrigerate overnight, or freeze for future use. Note: A fresh, bone-in ham will take approximately 1 hour 20 minutes per pound to smoke at temperatures listed above.
• BAKING & GLAZING:
• Preheat the oven to 325°F. To heat the ham, place it on a rack in a shallow roasting pan, and bake uncovered. For a whole ham, allow 15 to 18 minutes to the pound; for a half, 18 to 24 minutes per pound. The ham will be ready when the internal temperature reaches 140°F.
• Remove ham from the refrigerator 1 hour prior to roasting. Remove stockinette, then score the ham's fat cap, creating a cross-hatch/diamond-cut look.
• If you're one of those types who like their hams plain, then you can slice and eat as is after letting your ham rest in the refrigerator overnight. Or dice it up and toss it in your favorite soups, egg dishes, and more.
• If you want to take it to the next level, we recommend baking and glazing with a sweet glaze, like this Citrus, Pineapple & Tequila Glaze version with pineapple juice, brown sugar, orange marmalade, a hint of tequila, and fresh lime juice.