First Ham: Need help

[Pappymn]

Actually first anything cured???

So I have this.....



And this.....





And I want to make two hams.

I've read Tent's excellent guide twice. But math is hard for ole Pappy. I lived under power lines and a steady diet of paint chips.

So I have about 16 pounds of meat before any trimming. And I plan on doing a 10% pump rate as I need the extra days as I will be out of town.

This maple ham cure jug is good for 25 pounds of meat and it says to mix it with 2.5 gallons of water.

This is where I get lost. Too many numbers.

Any help is greatly appreciated

[HighOnSmoke]

I would love to help you Pappy, but I am just about ready to do my first real ham following Tent's guide.
I am sure that Tent will be along shortly to get you going in the right direction. I know he has helped me
tremendously on bacon and Canadian bacon.

[smokendevo]

You will need to use 1.607lbs. of your cure mix or 729.52gms. for 16 lbs of meat.  Adding a few days in the brine will not effect it that much. If your not sure just soak it longer to get rid of any salt taste. Fry some up to see if it needs extra soaking. If this is a bone in ham make sure you pump lots around the bone if you don't plan on taking it out before hand. This is where trouble starts around the bone.

Rereading some of the recipes I have used in the past a 10% pump is standard but I have used a 15% in the past with no problems.

[Pappymn]

You will need to use 1.607lbs. of your cure mix or 729.52gms. for 16 lbs of meat. The normal pump rate is 15% so why are you going with 10%? Adding a few days in the brine will not effect it that much. If your not sure just soak it longer to get rid of any salt taste. Fry some up to see if it needs extra soaking. If this is a bone in ham make sure you pump lots around the bone if you don't plan on taking it out before hand. This is where trouble starts around the bone.

Thanks Devo. Tent's write-up talked about 10% and 30%. I didn't know about 20%???

[smokendevo]

Here is a copy of Chris (tenpoint5's post from doing his 22 lb Hamzilla.

Pump injecting formula is generally this...
15% x Xoz = oz per pump

My ham is around 22 lb or 352 oz; being 16oz per pound.
This now gives me an easy plug in formula

.15 x 352oz =52.8oz (6 1/2 cups) needed for pumping

The injector I use holds 4oz at a time. Rounding off I get this...
52/4=13 or 52.8/4=13.2

So that means 13 full injections, or 13.2 if you wish to get technical, but the .2 isn't a problem

Fill your injector with brine, and begin injecting. Start with the needle injected deep into the meat, and inject as you slowly pull the needle out of the meat, but do not pull the needle all the way out. Stop before the holes in the needles reach the surface. Slant the injector at a 45°angle to the right and push the needle deep into the meat. Inject using the same procedure as earlier mentioned. Again do not remove the needle; slant the injector 45° angle to the left and follow the same injection procedure. Stop injecting before the needle reaches the surface, remove the needle and inject about two inches over. Continue injecting in a 2 inch pattern, until you have evenly injected the meat, and all the brine has been injected. If you have to refill your injector, reinsert the needle at the same insertion point.

If you did not debone the ham, start by injecting around the shank and around all the bones in the ham. When the ham can not hold any more brine around the shank and bone, then start injecting further away from the bone, until all the measured brine is injected.

After injecting submerge the ham in the container of brine, if needed place a heavy plate on top to keep the ham fully submerged. Put the lid on the container to reduce the risk of spillage. Placed the container in the refrigerate for 5-7 days.

[GusRobin]

I've done Chris' version the last 2 Easter's and to my chagrin it was so good all the family wanted dibs on the leftovers.  I haven't done Tent's but i think you will enjoy either one.

[CDN Smoker]

Watching and learning, good luck Pappy

[TentHunteR]

You will need to use 1.607lbs. of your cure mix or 729.52gms. for 16 lbs of meat. 

Sorry, but no, that's not correct!

DO NOT change the concentration of cure mix by reducing how much goes into the 2.5 gallons of water!!!  Doing so would affect the pump rate, and without knowing the exact amount of nitrite in that cure mix, YOU CANNOT ACCURATELY CALCULATE A CHANGE IN PUMP RATE!

Also, there is NO standard percentage for injection/pump rate.  How much brine gets injected (per lb of meat) is based SOLELY upon the concentration of nitrite in the brine, so this MUST remain constant!


Patrick, in this case the calculations are already done for you. You are close enough to the 25 lbs, that what you need to do is simply mix the entire jug with the 2.5 gallons of water and BE SURE TO FOLLOW the directions for injecting and brining. Extra brine does NOT matter because the salinity, etc is working on equalization.


When figuring out how much brine to inject, just remember that 1 liquid oz of brine weighs approx. 1 oz in weight (it's not exact, but gets you close enough that it works fine).

If it calls for a 10% injection, then you would inject 1.6 oz brine per lb of meat.  20% = 3.2 oz per lb of meat, and so on.

After mixing the brine, I like to measure out the amount I'm going to inject into a separate container so I don't have to count how many full injections I've made into the ham. It's way too easy for a distraction to cause you to miscount.


How much Brine to use?

For future reference, feel free to adjust how much brine you use, provided you keep the brine strength the same!

For example, if you were only doing a single ham then you could use half of the jug of mix AND half of the water amount to keep the brine's salinity AND nitrite levels the same.  As long as you have enough brine to inject AND totally submerge the ham, you will be fine.



A couple more notes:

- Devo is right on about injecting around the bones FIRST and foremost. After that, just try to inject the rest of the brine evenly. 

- During the cure time, the hams will need to be overhauled.  This simply means you need to rotate/flip them every couple days to ensure that all surfaces have a chance to come into contact with the brine.

- If you're not home when the hams are suppose to come out of the brine, just have someone at home take it out, dump the brine and put the hams back in the container, and back in the fridge. At that point they are cured and will be perfectly fine until you get home from your trip!

- Also, next time remember you can use the basic recipe I give in the Ham Brining thread and replace the brown sugar with Maple syrup, or use white sugar and some maple flavoring.

If you don't want to do a 30% injection (like my recipe calls for), then adjust ONLY the amount of nitrite cure per gallon according to the charts I give.


Hope this makes sense!

Cliff


P.S. I am working on updated charts for the Ham Brining thread to reflect a 20% injection as well.

[smokendevo]

Cliff I agree and disagree with you. Yes using the whole contents will not hurt it at all and makes figuring a no brainer. And yes you are right there is NO standard percentage for injection/pump rate. I did mention that I was wrong on that one someplace in one of my posts.
Sorry but the only reason they give you the 25 lbs. formula is so you can use up all of the product, it's really not necessary. I buy the same stuff in bulk for my hams and bacon. I buy 25 lbs. boxes of the stuff. I have made plenty of hams and plenty of bacon and it has all been excellent.
Heres the lable on the side of the bulk box.

[TentHunteR]

...the only reason they give you the 25 lbs. formula is so you can use up all of the product, it's really not necessary. I buy the same stuff in bulk for my hams and bacon.[/color] I buy 25 lbs. boxes of the stuff. I have made plenty of hams and plenty of bacon and it has all been excellent.

Don, you are right, that's why I mentioned in my post above:

For future reference, feel free to adjust how much brine you use, provided you keep the brine strength the same!

For example, if you were only doing a single ham then you could use half of the jug of mix AND half of the water amount to keep the brine's salinity AND nitrite levels the same.  As long as you have enough brine to inject AND totally submerge the ham, you will be fine.

Perhaps I should clarify better what I meant by the amount you gave not being correct.  The amount you said to use would be fine, provided he ALSO reduce the amount of water by the same percentage.  But if he uses that amount in the same 2.5 gallons of water, then it throws the calculations off.

The important thing is you MUST keep the brine strength the same to ensure the proper amount of "ingoing" nitrite.

Hopefully that makes better sense.



Don, I am not seeing an injection rate in the instructions you posted. Do they give one?  Or better yet do they give the exact percentage of nitrite in that mix?  This would be good info to post, because THAT is where there would be a HUGE difference. You do not want to inject at 20%, or even 15% if the formulation is intended for say 10%. 


This amount of nitrite per gallon was a question that came up down at the Fall Gathering. It's the hardest part for people to wrap their heads around.

[Las Vegan Cajun]

Watching and learning, good luck Pappy

X2!

[smokendevo]

No Cliff they don't give an injection rate, at least not one that I remember. I have always used the 15% but maybe should be paying closer attention to the percentage. So far so good though.
And yes I should have said the amount of liquid should be cut back by the same percentage.
I use this product mostly for bacon and mix it with maple syrup as my liquid. It is maple in flavor but using maple syrup just puts it over the edge. After adding brown sugar to the mix it becomes a cross between dry/wet brine. I slather it on the bellies and than zip lock them in large baggies for 7 days.

 People line up for it on bacon day. Just lined up a butcher in town that will bring in pork bellies for me when he places his meat orders close to last years prices so I should be making bacon again soon.

Here is a link to a spread sheet that I looked at but never used but maybe someone will find it helpful. . <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B01hFADWXuP3NnZWOHdDeDNFT2c/view?usp=sharing">beginners_injection_brine_calculator</a> Open with google sheets, from there you have the option to work with it there or you can save it to your hard drive. Like I said it looked interesting but never got into using it.

Just a heads up
Cure mixtures (dry or brine) do not penetrate into frozen meat. Meat must be thawed for the chemicals to penetrate. Curing, whether dry or wet, should be carried out at 35-40F (2-5C). The lower temp ensures that the cure chemicals can penetrate the meat, and the higher temp limit is set to limit bacterial growth.

[smokendevo]

This here is my next project. I have been wanting to try this for a very long time. Hopefully Monday I will be in town and see how much a green ham will cost me.

[muebe]

All the numbers are making my head spin!

Pappy pass me the bowl of paint chips

[TentHunteR]

Don, I found the info (Thanks to Pappy). That brine mix calls for a 10% injection rate.


That country ham video you posted is a TRUE dry cure. Making a country ham is something I'd like to do as well. It takes months to do one, but man they taste so good!