Suka
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Thought I'd post this as I'm making some hams this morning. With just the wife and I at home now it wasn't worth butchering a whole pig, so we just picked up a couple pork loins from wallyworld, cutting them in 1/2. You can use this same recipe for wild game, but you must inject at least 3 times as much as the wild game is so lean the brine won't move through the meat.
In the pic is everything but the smoker. The garbage pail I bought last yr as a dedicated meat soaker.
Brine:
For every 2l water;
3/4 cup kosher salt(coarse salt)
4 tsp pink salt(I use tender quick)
1 packed cup brown sugar
WHOLE cloves and garlic to taste (if you use crushed cloves you'll have little black flecks concentrated where you inject that looks like mold but it's not, it's the crushed cloves.)
Mix the above in a large pot over med. heat to dissolve ingredients. I find it should "almost" smell like soup, with the smell of clove being predominant, but followed only slightly by garlic. This am I crushed up 8 cloves and added 2 1/2 tbsps garlic powder to each 2l batch.(fresh garlic is better, we just didn't have any)
You need enough brine to cover the hams.
Inject the hams, if you don't inject enough you'll have areas of pork roast instead of ham. Inject until it's running out of other injection holes. More is better. Bone in hams be certain to get lot's from the bone out. Place in a clean container,and store around 38 degrees. A fridge is too cold, I find an unheated garage this time of year is about right. Inject daily for a week, use a plate or bowl to keep the hams under the surface of the brine.
After a week, rinse the hams, and soak them in cold water for an hour. I then smoke them for around 6 hrs at 160 or so with maple.
If you don't have a smoker I don't see why you couldn't add some maple flavoring or liquid smoke to the brine recipe.
Cook like any other ham. I forgot how good ham actually is until I started making them. The store bought stuff is horrible in comparison.
If you're not sure about anything, just do a search for "making ham".
Best of luck.
In the pic is everything but the smoker. The garbage pail I bought last yr as a dedicated meat soaker.
Brine:
For every 2l water;
3/4 cup kosher salt(coarse salt)
4 tsp pink salt(I use tender quick)
1 packed cup brown sugar
WHOLE cloves and garlic to taste (if you use crushed cloves you'll have little black flecks concentrated where you inject that looks like mold but it's not, it's the crushed cloves.)
Mix the above in a large pot over med. heat to dissolve ingredients. I find it should "almost" smell like soup, with the smell of clove being predominant, but followed only slightly by garlic. This am I crushed up 8 cloves and added 2 1/2 tbsps garlic powder to each 2l batch.(fresh garlic is better, we just didn't have any)
You need enough brine to cover the hams.
Inject the hams, if you don't inject enough you'll have areas of pork roast instead of ham. Inject until it's running out of other injection holes. More is better. Bone in hams be certain to get lot's from the bone out. Place in a clean container,and store around 38 degrees. A fridge is too cold, I find an unheated garage this time of year is about right. Inject daily for a week, use a plate or bowl to keep the hams under the surface of the brine.
After a week, rinse the hams, and soak them in cold water for an hour. I then smoke them for around 6 hrs at 160 or so with maple.
If you don't have a smoker I don't see why you couldn't add some maple flavoring or liquid smoke to the brine recipe.
Cook like any other ham. I forgot how good ham actually is until I started making them. The store bought stuff is horrible in comparison.
If you're not sure about anything, just do a search for "making ham".
Best of luck.
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