22.6#

Yep.  22.6#

I wish I could say that is how much weight I have lost. Ha!

Nope, this is the amount of meat that is currently curing and brining in my basement in a cooler, because it won't fit in my refrigerator.  This is the amount of pork that I am praying will turn into lovely, delicious, melt-in-your-mouth ham.  This is the amount of pork that I am praying I don't mess up and that it turns out edible, so I don't have to throw it away.

Yes.  You read that right.

I am making my own ham.  And it needs to be ready for Christmas, otherwise, we're going to be eating brats  from the freezer.

Now, this isn't my first curing attempt.  I actually am very good at Canadian bacon and sausage and discovered that the last scary endeavor of bacon, wasn't that scary.  After all, a week and a half ago, I smoked up 11# of Canadian bacon and 14# of bacon, and they all turned out.  I was scared the whole time that the first attempt at bacon wasn't going to work, but it did.

The ham is scaring me, though.  That is a HUGE chunk of meat that I am messing with.

Well, taking a deep breath and carrying on.  After all, the only thing left to do is wait, turn it over in the brine, and hope, before I smoke it this next weekend.

Trying Something New

I'm so excited, ok I'm also such a geek with a meat science background!

I have 3 batches of pork loins curing in the refrigerator turning into Canadian Bacon.  This is my first attempt at curring.  

Batch one is a dry rub with the Morton's TenderQuick and sugar.
Batch two is a brine with the Morton's TenderQuick and sugar.
Batch three is a brine with the Morton's TenderQuick, sugar, garlic, and southwest seasoning.

So,  every day this week, I need to massage the meat through the plastic bags and turn them.  They need to be in the cure for 6 or 7 days, which is perfect timing (for once).

Next weekend, probably Saturday, I'm firing (plugging in) up the electric smoker from Dad and smoking the loins - probably over hickory, because I have hickory small chips.  I have large apple wood and mesquite blocks, but no other small chips.

Yum....

I can't wait to try them. 

We have the weights of each written down and after smoking, I will reweigh each piece and figure out our loss to figure out what our final yield is.

Sorry, no pictures, because of course, I forgot to take any while we were doing it.