Tender Quick + Fresh Ham

Diesel Dave

Diesel Dave

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Ok here's what I'm thinkin, scarey I know.

Got an 8 lb fresh ham and really have no time to cure it as I'm going outta town for a couple few days.

So fast forward to Dave's thinking..........

Rub the ham in tender quick overnight and then onto the smoker for a low and slow 8+ hour cook at 200-225. was thinking about injecting a brine solution, but think that may make it too salty.

So what ya all think?
 
You're probably not going to get much if any penetration in that kind of time frame. Brining/curing a ham takes a while because of the density/size of the meat. 8lbs would be about a 4 day cure, and if there's a bone, you'd want to inject around that. I'd suggest you just freeze it until you have time to do it up right, if a ham is what you're really after.

An overnight rub in tenderquick probably won't cure it much... 8 hours low and slow would give you something more akin to pulled pork (if you cook it to 200ish...) or just sliced roasted pork if you don't. You won't see that pink ham color because the nitrites can't do their thing in that short of a time. Then again, I don't use tenderquick for cures, I usually use Prague Powder #1, so I could be wrong. Just speaking from what dangerously little I know about the curing process... I'm sure someone with more knowledge will come along ..
 
Thanks, yeah I can freeze it, but then again, I could do a salt cure for a couple weeks as the temps cold enough here.....

Was just tossin that idea out there, thinkin out loud.

I haven't cured meat in over 10 years
 
Personally I'd wait until there was time to do it. Maybe you can get it curing while you're gone?
 
Yeah that's what I'm gonna do.

to the store tomorrow to get wood to build a salt box and some sugar/salt cure
 
Post up what ever you do with it.
I want to try curing hams.
 
this thread has inspired me to start researching ham curing

i've been making bacon every month for the last year or so, time to expand! (skills and physically)
 
Diesel Dave said:
Yeah that's what I'm gonna do.

to the store tomorrow to get wood to build a salt box and some sugar/salt cure
Click to expand...

Now you're thinking. Stop at the feed store and pick up a 50# bag of salt. A light coat of tq or Prague and bury it in salt. Save that salt box it gets better every time it's used.
 
2.5 to 3% salt
1% sugar
2.5g cure #1 per kilo of meat weight

Cannot go wrong, cannot over-salt. You can leave it in that cure for as long as you like and not have to worry. It's basically foolproof. So for 8lbs (exactly 8lbs) it's -

109g salt
36g sugar
9.07g cure #1

I use this as a standard bacon cure formula and it never fails
 
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