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How to make Ham

Make your own mouth-watering ham at home.
Curing a cut of pork to make your own home made ham is a lot easier than many people think. The most popular meat to use is pork shoulder (picnic ham) or hind leg (leg of ham), but you can make a ham out of just about any piece of meat from almost any animal. Ham can be made with the bone in or out.
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Times vary and will depend on size of selected meat 8 days

Equipment

  • Essential Equipment
  • Brine Injector
  • Container/Bucket Large enough to hold your cut of meat.
  • Temperature Probe
  • Optional Equipment
  • Smoker
  • Wood Chips
  • Liquid Smoke
  • Ham Bag

Ingredients
  

Ham is traditionally made from the hind leg or the shoulder of pork. For beginners, we recommend you try making a ‘picnic’ ham from the shoulder first. Most picnic ham’s will be around 2 to 3kg and this is the perfect place to start

  • 2-3 kg Cut of meat of your choice
  • Misty Gully Ham Cure
  • Pickling Spices

Instructions
 

  • Choose your cut.
    Accurately weigh your meat before you start.
  • Prepare your brine.
    How much brine you make depends on how big your piece of meat is. A general rule is you need to make enough brine to fully submerge your ham in it’s container + about 25% extra for pumping.
    If using the Misty Gully Ham Cure – approximately 130g of the pre-mix cure with each litre of room temperature water.
    If you want to add additional pickling spices, add those as well and stir until most of the sugar appears to have dissolved.
    If you are making your own brine from scratch, please refer to our basic brine recipe here.
  • Inject your meat.
    When making ham, it’s very important you inject your meat with your brine as this ensures your meat will cure thoroughly.
    This is especially important when using a cut with bones in. Inject as deep as possible ensuring cure is throughout the meat. If your meat doesn’t cure properly it will not end up as ‘ham’ throughout. Parts of the meat that aren’t cured will be grey, and essentially just roast pork!
    Your ‘pump rate’ is 25%. That is, if your meat weighs 2kg, then you need to inject it with approx. 500ml if brine.
  • Cure your meat.
    Once you’ve injected your meat thoroughly, place it in the remaining brine in your container of choice and place in the fridge.
    Ensure the meat is fully submerged.
    Curing generally takes 5-7 days. As a general rule of thumb, allow one day per 500g of meat.
    So for a small 2kg picnic ham, you’ll need about 4-5 days to cure.
    For large cuts / full legs of ham, cure for a maximum of 8 days.
    What happens if you cure for longer? Well, not much. What will happen is the salt, cure and pickling spices will further penetrate the meat, but usually the end product will be an overly salty one, so that’s why we recommend sticking to the timeframes above.
  • Rinse and Soak.
    After the curing process, remove your meat and thoroughly rinse it under a cold running tap, ensuring to remove any and all excess salt and spices.
    After this, soak your meat in room temperature water for 2 hours to further remove excess saltiness and cure.
  • Equalize and prepare for the Pellicle.
    Place the meat on a plate uncovered inside your refrigerator for 24 hours.
    During this time two things happen.
    1) the remaining cure and salt should ‘equalize’ throughout the meat, resulting in a less salty and more ‘even’ tasting final product.
    2) your meat will form a ‘pellicle’. This is a tacky sheen that will appear on the surface of your meat. The pellicle will help your meat more readily absorb a smokey flavour when it comes time to smoking.
    Note: Step Six is optional. If you don’t have time, or simply can’t wait to eat some ham – skip to seven!
  • Bring your meat to temp and turn it into Ham!
    Set your oven or smoker to 110c.
    Cook your ham until it reaches an internal temperature of 65c.
    If using smoke, recommended chips include: apple, maple, cherry, pear, plum, pecan, hickory and peach.
    Alternatively, if you’re just using your oven and don’t have a smoker, but would still like to add a smoke flavour profile, then as always why not add some Misty Gully Liquid Smoke.
    Just spray all over before cooking.
    For small picnic ham, it should take around 2 hours.
    For larger cuts like a full leg it will take longer.
  • Enjoy!
    Your ham ham is now ready to enjoy.
    You can eat it hot straight from the smoker, or alternatively, allow it to cool before storing it in the fridge in a Ham Bag for up to 2 weeks.
    For extra flare though, at this stage you can also score and dress your ham, cooking a little longer with an extra glaze.
    For tips and an example, check out our Christmas Ham recipe here.

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