Cured and Smoked Wild Hog Ham

[Kevin]

Did something new the last couple of weeks. My Dad shot a sow off my place this month and I asked for a ham. I went ahead and wet cured it for 12 days (also injected day one and day 6). Then ghetto smoked it and finished in the oven. I say ghetto smoked because my electric smoker isn’t working so used a metal wood chip box in my grill and indirect heat. Glaze was made up using older honey from my bee hive, orange juice, Jack Daniels and butter.

Overall turned out really nice. The ham was a little small but anything bigger wouldn’t fit in my brine bucket.

I will for sure try this again and here are my notes:

Skip the butter in the glaze - too rich w/the JD too
Add a bit more salt to cure - used a lower salt method
Get my smoker working - could have used more smoke
Lots more connective tissues per muscle in small hams - more loss


Back bucket is the ham. Front bucket was venison that I turned into pastrami. Unfortunately, I let it do too long and it was... dry. Really dry.


Rolling ghetto smoke


Pulled at 140 and transferred to oven and tented with foil


Done


Really good! Cure was complete and I saved the bone for bean soup once it cools off again.

[S-3 Ranch]

We do the same , soak in brine , injections, end process is dip in honey, then roll in brown sugar and hang in Smokey area with low heat till crusty

[Mike D]

Nice. I’ve been wondering how a wild pig ham might turn out.


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[Take Dead Aim]

What finish temp did you go too? What is recipe for brine/cure? I really want to try this.

[GA Bowhunter]

Wow! That looks awesome. I'm going to try that myself.

[Austin]

Care to share your brine and injection recipe. I have two hams I am itching to do this with

[AntlerCollector]

That looks great.

[Kevin]

Sorry all been crazy here this week. I’ll post up the cure/brine info this weekend.

[Yak blue]

Tagged for recipe

[woodsbound]

Looks great! I have done this as well but has been a few years, you got me wanting to do it again now, here is the old thread & recipe

https://discussions.texasbowhunter.com/forums/showthread.php?t=511819

[Capt Glenn]

I have cured whole hind quarters off wild hogs like that. Be sure if you do this that you inject cure as well as brine it. If you just brine it you'll end up with some soured spots by the bone sometimes plus it takes way longer to cure w/o injecting.

Try it with the loins too. It is real good and doesn't take long to cure them as wild hog loins are usually pretty thin. I cure and smoke them and they are perfect to slice up and eat with crackers and cheese.

[drewwland]

in

[SaltwaterSlick]

Oh man, I gotta do this! That last pic of the finished ham made me want to lick my screen!! When I was a kid, we had a smokehouse and it was my responsibility every morning to go out and turn all the bacon on the rack, and then rub the hanging hams and bacon sides with Morton's sugar cure, then I'd go to school smellin' like a smokehouse... course back then there was more than one of us at school that smelt that way... kind of a bygone thing that is too bad it's a dying art... Well that and Al Gore's global warming don't let it get cold enough to "kill a hog"...

[Capt Glenn]

Oh man, I gotta do this! That last pic of the finished ham made me want to lick my screen!! When I was a kid, we had a smokehouse and it was my responsibility every morning to go out and turn all the bacon on the rack, and then rub the hanging hams and bacon sides with Morton's sugar cure, then I'd go to school smellin' like a smokehouse... course back then there was more than one of us at school that smelt that way... kind of a bygone thing that is too bad it's a dying art... Well that and Al Gore's global warming don't let it get cold enough to "kill a hog"...

I have been cold smoking some salmon that I finished up overnight last night and pulled and put up this morning before work. So I am sitting at school smelling like a smokehouse right now. Well, at least a little bit smokey. I can smell it. It's not all bad.

[Jmh05]

Looks great!