Ever wondered how to cure a ham at home? It’s easier than you might think! Watch this video and follow the guide below to learn this simple yet essential process…
How To Cure A Ham (Wet Cure Tutorial)
Wet Cured Ham Ingredients:
- 2 C brown sugar
- ½ C pickling spice
- 8 tsp “pink salt” (curing salt)
- 1½ C kosher salt
First things first: get a nice pork leg. It is suggested that you remove the skin to allow the brine (and later, the smoke) to penetrate the meat. But you can leave the skin on if you want, as long as you make some cuts all the way down to the fat but not into the meat.
To prepare the brine, add all of the dry ingredients to 1 gallon of water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then pull it off the heat and allow it to cool down.
Place the pork leg in a large food grade container (or in a brining bag). Pour the brine over the meat. Additionally, add enough ice water to completely cover the meat and then some. Make sure you can still seal your container/bag afterwards!
Let the meat brine for 7 days (~1 day for every 2 pounds of meat) in a refrigerator.
When the week is over, throw the water away and pat the pork dry with a paper towel.
Your ham is now ready to cook! Check the suggested recipes down below if you are looking for ideas.
Enjoy!
Related Recipes
Smoked Ham Recipe With Peach And Brandy Glaze
Apricot Glazed Smoked Ham Recipe (Holiday Ham)
I tried this for Christmas but had just four days for curing so I removed skin and most of the fat and injected 15% of ham’s green weight with brine and then submerged in brine until third day.After that I soaked in ice water for four hours, patted dry, coated with rub and sous vide cooked the ham at 135°F for 24 hours. Patted dry, coated with rub and put in oven at 300°F for 1 1/2 hours. Absolutely the best ham we’ve ever had with the exception of dry cured Virginia country hams hung for a year or longer. A couple changes for our New Years ham. One hour ice water soak after brining and sous vide at 135°F for 18 hours. One other thing- if you don’t have room in your fridge for this, put your brining bag inside a brining bucket with ice then in a cooler with lots of ice and monitor the temp with a fridge thermometer.