Smoking.........curing and smoking bacon&hams

I bought a 35lb. pig, and raised it to over 350lb. this past summer.

After butchering we ground the shoulders&trimmings to make about 40 lb.s of brats, and sausage.

I got 8 beautiful racks of baby back ribs

Rendering the fat we ended up with about 10lbs. of the worlds best pork rinds&6 2lb. coffee cans of lard

I brewed up 18 gallons of brine, then injected it into the hams

Placed hams&bacon into buckets and soaked in chilled brine. hams get 10 day soak, bacon 3 days in fridge kept at 38 degrees.

After soaking in brine we smoke the bacon and brats
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwgMxiA_g_E

Where's the picture of some of those brats cooking? Looks good and I know it a lot of work too.

Fineshed product

Sliced the bacon on my slicer

Ended up with about 38 lbs, of bacon

Oh great, now I'm hungry again!

Now to really make you hungry! I also had two deer hams that I brined, and smoked!
This was a 35lb Bambi that committed suicide when it ran into a chainlink fence.
One ham I boned out the other I left whole

This is the whole ham with a nice finishing glaze

This is the boned out one that I sliced into lunch meat!It is wiith out doubt the best deer ham in the world!

That looks great.What kind of wood did use for the smoke?

Alright, I'm headed to the fridge now!

This is the hog hams&hocks. One ham was left whole bone in, for the holidays. The other I boned out before smoking, and sliced into 1/4"ham steaks, and lunch meat.

Hickory, sugar maple, and apple.

Nice Job, no waste either . Im buying a pig now lol

No waste, I even smoked the bones for my lil girl

That would cut into my deer hunting time!

How about some pictures of your smoker. I have been wanting to build one and not sure where to start.

CAn you discuss the brine in more detail? Did you inject the same brind as you soaked it in? or two different recipes? What was your brine made out of if you dont mind giving out the trade secrets.

Holy cow, WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN TIMBER??????

Long time no hear from ya!!!!!!

Here she is Click on my youtube vid for a good detail on it.

Awesome job,I bought a 250 pd hog last week but I took it to get it processed.
Your hog looked like great finished product.

I use the same brine on the hams&bacon, it is very easy to make, and taste awesome For twenty pounds of meat use 3 cups of brown sugar 3 tablespoons Pickling Spice, 8 tablespoons Prague Powder #1, 4 cloves Garlic, 3 tablespoons of Chicago steak rub (You can substitute for any steak rub), 3 cups of sea salt, 2 gallons of water. Bring to a boil for ten minutes then chill to 38 degrees. Besure to inject a lot along the bone, and about every 2 square inches of meat on both sides. Then fully submerge in non metal containers and chil for 10 days. Then you place hams in a container and soak in ice water for 2 hours, replace the ice water and soak for two more hors, this removes the access salt from the cure. Then they are ready for the smoker.

edit to add (3 cups of sea salt)

Seaharvester W/TIME IS THE COOKOUT? I dont wanna be late Great Job! makin my nouth water!! TERRY

I worked 63 out of 66 days strait this summer, but as the season winds down I'll be around!

So Seaharvester, out of a 350lb pig, how many pounds do you expect to put away as hams, sausage, ribs, etc? Just curious what the yield is. Looks great and you're making me hungry even though I just ate!

Clark

I generally scold the hogs and scrape the hair off, this was the first time I skinned one so the yeild on lard and pork rinds were much less then usual. With smoking, the hams went from about 30lbs. a piece to about twenty pounds. I had about 50 lbs. of bacon, it rendered 38 lbs. when it was done. 40 lbs. of brats and sausage after smoking about 30 lbs. I have 8 very nice loin roast at about 50lbs. fresh meat. 20 lbs of ribs Id say roughly 225 lbs of product in total. It is a ton of work, and takes a lot of time, but the taste is superb, and it is a lot of fun. I'd say it is about the same as buying at the grocery store when it comes to cost, but I know what my hog ate.

Homemade bisquits, cornbread, and frying anything! Lard Rules! Since it's not processed, its better healthwise, just like butter. Probably why the old folks lived so long and ate it every day. Grow it yourself and You know what it has in it.

Dad gum Chef Tell of Trapperman.com, lol.

Me and you would get along great, lol.

Saw the health stuff on foodnetwork. Think I keep this schoolboy figure not eating healthy?lol Oh Yeah, forgot fried pies, chicken, quail. fish, eggs, and the cracklin cornbread.lol

Corn bread made from cracklins is as close to heaven with out dying a man can get!

Got fresh turnip greens ready. Cracklin bread, onion, pepper sauce, and cold milk. Don't get no better. You're hog looked very well prepared. How did you do the joint in the ham, with the injector? Jtrapper was raised like me, a hog under every house!lmao

Thanks, The hams were so large I had to cut the shank off, to fit in the 6 gallon buckets, this made it easy to inject between the tendons in the joint.

Growing up we used salt boxes instead of soaking. Haven't tried that. Probably end results the same. At least you know what youre feeding the family. Good Job!

What...no scrapple ? Looks great Seaharvester !

Salt boxes are a southern thang, due to lack of ice in the old days, it is not as good as brine, but it does do a great job.

I usually make scrapple, but gave the head to the kid that works for me, he made the hog head cheese.

Did you use this same brine for the deer hams? Those pictures of the deer hams made my mouth water! What did you use for the finishing glaze? In your recipe is the only salt you used in the steak rub? How long and at what temp did you smoke them. I have been wanting to smoke venison hams for a couple of years now and this has really spurred me on.

I'm sorry I left out 3 cups of sea salt. I will go back an edit it in.
The glaze is off the hook good. I take honey, yellow mustard, orange juice and just a little brown sugar to change the color as it doesn't look good, heat until everything blends. Yes the same brine. I try to keep the smoker near 225, deer hams take aboubt 4 to 5 hours depending on size. I start to apply the glaze when the internal temp reaches 140, after about 3 coats every 1/2 hour the internal temp should be 155, they are done. take out and let cool. Smoking deer hams is really a lost art, These hams are just a pink, and ham tasting as pork, but no fat and when you have a good friend over they will be amazed.

Very impressive, when we butcher we usually do about 6 hogs and 2 beef when the whole crew is around .
we skin our hogs also ,alot quicker and easier. unfortunately we hire someone to do the smoking and sausage making for us and it turns out fine . Alot more pride in those fine looking hams and bacons of yours tho. i agree on the lard , makes some awesome pastry crusts too.
anyone care to share that cracklin/cornbread recipe ? sounds awesome.

And now I am hungry. Dinner not for 3 of 4 more hours.

i didn't think hogs ate scallops.

looks real nice.
i sent this link to a guy at work who is doing a few deer loins and a few ham roasts for me this weekend.
same thing, a 40lbs doe commited suicide, but it tried to eat soy beans in front of a muzzy. 4-blade.

LOL, I did feed the hog about a bushel of bunker, and many tuna heads, he loved it.

I have a 300# yorkshire getting ready to hang..Im just waiting on a few cooler days..Got a new meat grinder and Im slobbering for some fresh sausage,LOL

Cornbread

1 Cup sifted all-purpose flour; 1/4 Cup sugar; 4 tsp baking powder; 1 Cup yellow cornmeal; 2 eggs; 1 Cup milk; ¾ cup of lard ¼ cup of crunched cracklins. Combine ingredients. Do not over mix. Bake at 425 F for 20-25 min. in greased cast iron skillet.

ttt- still studying this one. Neat way to put up hogs.

MAN O MAN!!!! Those pictures made me drool!!!!

This is a really great post. What else did you feed your hog besides tuna heads?

LOL, Mostly corn, tons of tomatoes, and some bunker fish too!