Hey everyone, I hope all my US counterparts had a great Thanksgiving. :becky: Been seeing a lot of turkey pron and it all looks great :heh:, but I've been working on Christmas, cured hams specifically. I have been messing with my own brining recipe for freshly cured smoked hams and it's now getting to where I want it to be. This last one actually surprised me! A little background info: In the past, out here the majority of hams came from one very big local company (mild cured, smoked hams) they have always been high quality and tasted great but there is a downside... almost everyone's ham had the same basic flavor profile. So anyways, I was surprised at how great MY ham tasted & how different it was! But not only with the taste but the texture... the texture was so much better than the local store bought hams.
For this Ham I used a 8# boneless boston butt. I brined it for 4 days with salt, sugar, cure#1 & some secret spices :thumb: When it came out of the brine I dried in the fridge for a day. I injected it with juice, water, honey and spices for a couple hours before onto the smoker with almond & lychee wood at 225 for about 6 hours. I started glazing at 140 with my pineapple-guava rum glaze & pulled it at 155 to coast it up to 160 while resting. I sliced up some for sammy's for the poker game & it was definitely a hit! Everyone commented on how great it tasted. I think the Christmas is looking a litter brighter :becky::eusa_clap
On to the pics:
The boneless butt after about 1 hour of brine (forgot to take one b4:doh
The dry cure mixture b4 adding to a gallon of water
Tied and hung in the smoker
Slicing for sammys
Oh yeah also had wings & the wife did up a lemon meringue pie. :thumb:
Still planning on doing a couple more to perfect the recipe and I think I'll be ready for the Christmas. :thumb:
Cheers