Content

• Part 2 of 2: Smoking
• Tips
• Warnings

1 Prepare the marinade. Although it is possible to rub the ham with salt, in most cases it is soaked in a marinade. Instead of rubbing the meat with salt and sodium nitrite, it is immersed in saline for about a week. Thus, the liquid penetrates into the meat and maintains its juiciness. Sodium nitrite salt is used to prevent harmful bacteria from developing and to give meat a slight pink hue. To prepare the marinade you will need:

• 2 cups brown sugar
• 1 and 1/2 cups kosher salt
• 1/2 cup spices
• 8 teaspoons of pink salt (not to be confused with sodium nitrite). Pink salt is a mixture of salt and sodium nitrite. It is dyed pink so as not to be confused with ordinary table salt. If you pour 8 teaspoons of sodium nitrite into the solution instead of pink salt, the result may be unhealthy. Stir the ingredients in 4.5 liters of water, bring the solution to a boil and cool.

2 Place the meat in a pickling bag. Using a pickling bag will greatly simplify the process. Your ham will fit easily into the bag, the closed marinade will be clean, and the cleaning time after salting will be minimal. If you don't have a bag, you can use a clean (cleanliness is especially important!) Container to cool the water, or just a container that fits the whole piece of meat.

• If you are using a container for cooling water or a container for marinating, be sure to pasteurize it with boiling water beforehand. Even slight contamination can spoil the taste of the finished product.
• Using a cooling water container instead of a pickling bag, press down on the meat with a heavy, clean object. Then the whole piece will be immersed in the marinade.

3 Pour the cooled marinade into the bag. Make sure you add all the spices you need. Add 1/2 to 1 liter of cold water to the bag to dilute the concentrated brine and cover the ham completely with liquid. Stir the marinade thoroughly with a long wooden spoon.

4 Place the marinated ham in a cool place for 1 day for every 2 kg of meat. A refrigerator is best for this, and a cool cellar or basement will also do. For example, a 6.8 kg piece of ham will need to be marinated for about seven and a half days.

• Remove the ham from the refrigerator periodically and sprinkle it with marinade. To do this, use a pickling syringe. This procedure should be carried out no more than one or two times. Punctures are made in several places to a depth sufficient for the marinade to penetrate into all areas of the meat.
• When you stuff the meat, take some time to do a thorough inspection. The meat should not smell unpleasant, and the marinade should not be frothy.

5 At the end of the required marinating time, rinse the ham with cold water. This will get rid of any salt that may crystallize on the surface.

6 Place the ham on a strainer and drain for 24 hours. Then dry the meat with a paper towel. Until cooked, the ham can be refrigerated for up to a month.

• When storing ham in the refrigerator, consider the meat's ability to absorb odors. I guess you wouldn't want your Christmas ham to smell like leftover risotto.

Part 2 of 2: Smoking

Smoked ham is delicious. Pick up small fragrant twigs and wood chips for the smokehouse, preferably an apple tree. Prepare the icing of your choice. The usual mustard and honey (or mustard and brown sugar) frosting in the final smoking phase will make a wonderful transformation to the ham.

1. 1 Prepare the icing. Covering the ham with sugar glaze will add extra flavor and neutralize the smoke smell. The correct preparation of the glaze is essential. The good thing about using sweet glaze for smoked meat is that it compensates for the salty taste after pickling. One of the glaze recipes you might want to use:
   • In a saucepan over medium heat, mix together
     • 1 cup honey
     • 1/4 cup whole mustard seeds
     • 1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
     • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (1/2 pack)
   • Stir for about 3 to 4 minutes until the butter has melted and the ingredients are completely dissolved. The glaze is now ready to use!
2. 2 Preheat the smoker to a stable temperature of 121 ° C. While the smoker is heating up, use a sharp kitchen knife to shape the meat into a diamond shape. If the shape of the finished ham is not important to you, you can skip this procedure.
3. 3 Smoke the ham at 121 ° C for the first two hours. Start slowly. Place the ham in the smoker with the fat side facing up. Cover and smoke for 2 hours over low heat.
4. 4 After two hours, increase the temperature to 163 ° C. Continue smoking, carefully monitoring the temperature with a thermometer.
5. 5 During the last hour of smoking, season the ham with a generous amount of frosting every 15 minutes. You will need to glaze the meat four times in the last hour. You can start pouring the glaze on the meat earlier, but in this case, some of the glaze may simply burn out. If it doesn't matter to you that some parts of your ham will be dark, then go ahead!
6. 6 Remove the ham from the smokehouse when the internal temperature in the deepest part of the piece is 74 ° C. The total smoking time is 5 to 6 hours, depending on the size of the ham.
7. 7 Serve immediately to your chair or store. Smoked ham can be stored for 6 months and longer if vacuum sealed correctly. Enjoy!

Tips

• Try mixing wood chips from different types of wood for a variety of flavors.

Warnings

• Mold can often be found on ham. Most forms are harmless, but some can release toxins. Mold is formed during prolonged marinating and drying, since neither the large amount of salt nor the low temperature prevent it from appearing. Don't throw this ham away; rinse it with hot water and scrub the mold with a stiff vegetable brush.