To Boldly Go Where I've Never Taken a Ham Before...Help, Questions!

Oldschoolbbq said:

Red hot,where did you get the 1701 craft? I have all but that one.Will you sell?
Give me a jingle P.M.Let's talk,the Wife may be good this year.LOL
I'm a Star Trek Freak...

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Actually that's Guerry's ship...he has 3 or 4 different ones and him, being a Star Trek freak as well would never agree to sell...sorry!

We don't have anything big enough to brine or cure it in but Guerry is going to get something on the way home. Since we don't have time to turn it into a ham we've decided to make a mixture of water, kosher salt, brown sugar, mustard powder and maybe some rub (not sure which yet) and also inject the solution. We will keep it in that until Christmas day and smoke it...oh, we're also going to remove the fat and fry up some pork rinds. We will post pics as we go along. :thumb:

bigabyte said:

Make sure and post some pics, sounds like it's gonna be good!

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We will start taking pix tonight and post as we go.
Guerry told me that he got a plastic drawer thingy at the Family Dollar during his lunch break. Cool, so now we got a drawer for storage (of BBQ stuff of course) that will double as a brining/curing container.:thumb:

OK, still trying to figure out photobucket. Got pix but am having trouble trying to copy/paste into message. First pic worked fine but second just posted a link...crap! Will keep trying.

Guerry starts to skin this huge thing under the influence of Beefeater as our brine stuff cools...oh, and we added 3 of Ashmont's "magic" peppers and black pepper corns to the mix I mentioned in an earlier post. BTW, Ashmont's "magic" peppers have an awesome flavor which I'm sure will add depth to this brine!


But he is worrying me with that knife 'cause he's a bit blitz from that Beefeater and I wanna have some fun too! So...he let's me take over on the cutting off of the skin and fat.

Neither of us have tackled such a huge peice of meat before so this was a challenge but as you can see my small knife worked WAY better than Guerry's huge knife; that skin N fat was heavy big time...and what is it with the male preoccupation with size anyway (got that from Titanic, the movie)!

This is what he got with his BIG knife, and way too much meat with it in my opinion; oh, and I even cut several big chunks of meat off of that!

And this is what I got with my small knife; all of the rest of the skin N fat which all came off in one piece, fun! Can't wait to fry this stuff up!


Then Guerry injected this hunk of meat with our brine stuff

It took both of us to move this thing to the fridge, heavy! It isn't totally submerged so we will flip it periodically (in the fridge so we won't have to slosh crap all over the kitchen floor again as we did whilst putting it in).

We had to add more water, first time to try this you know!

I can't wait to see how this comes out! Will post the prep/cook/cut/plate after we finish it. We wanted to have a huge piece of meat (along with tons of extra on the sides) because my son requested my "famous" as he called it, English pea casserole. He said that was all he wanted...he doesn't stay with us any more so we decided to make a ton of food so he could take some of our home cooking (which he always raved over and now misses terribly) with him. Also want to have some to take to my mom! More pix to come during and after the cook. Thanks for all the info and suggestions! :thumb:

Redhot said:

But he is worrying me with that knife 'cause he's a bit blitz from that Beefeater and I wanna have some fun too! So...he let's me take over on the cutting off of the skin and fat.

Neither of us have tackled such a huge peice of meat before so this was a challenge but as you can see my small knife worked WAY better than Guerry's huge knife; that skin N fat was heavy big time...and what is it with the male preoccupation with size anyway (got that from Titanic, the movie)!

This is what he got with his BIG knife, and way too much meat with it in my opinion; oh, and I even cut several big chunks of meat off of that!

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Um, so I wanted a little meat on my cracklins. :becky:
And I wasn't blitzed. I was comfortably numb.

Dang! This is deguerre forgetting Redhot was logged in on this laptop.

So here's the cook, not a ham but one kick-@$$ huge smoked pig leg.



Slathered with my absolute favorite rub...more please!



Guerry thought this was cool...



Smoked to an internal temp of 160*



Now that's just plain pretty!



By the time we were ready to slice and plate we were no longer able to operate the camera...so, here is some of what's left today. My son took 4 nice chunks home with him, this was in one bag and we still have two other bags.



It wasn't a ham but it wasn't quite a roast either since we brined and injected 2 days prior to the cook; so all we come up with to call this is a...Phroast (in homage to Phubar) = pork ham roast



Really has a nice color, texture, juicy and a very nice smoke ring. Remember no curing salts were used. This is the first time either of us have tried to brine or inject - we're fans now!



As for those lovely, huge bones; they're simmering in our 12 quart stock pot with fresh thyme, rosemary, sage, garlic cloves, bay leaves, onion, black pepper corns, celery and 3 of Ashmont's magical Kaskasian peppers. Will be making some kind of soup and some beans and Phroast very soon!



Thanks for looking!

4dueces said:

WOW, nice job and for bein brave and trying something new. How did the rinds turn out?

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We haven't done the rinds yet but will be either tonight or tomorrow night.

Phrasty said:

Wow, That definitely looks awesome guys! Great job on that leg! Looks like it was a big hit... Next year you guys going bigger?? :thumb:

Cheers

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It's gonna be a big hit for a while! Tonight we're attempting to salt and fry up those skins w/fat and meat then tomorrow we're slow cooking 15 bean soup using the stock we made from the bones and some of the meat cut up. Then we will still have some left to slice thin for sandwiches on rye!
Thanks for the brine and injection suggestions, they worked out great! :thumb: