Wet brine question


 
Geir Widar

Geir Widar

TVWBB Wizard
I've bought a quite large pork leg (ham), bone out, and decided to make some lunch meat out of it.

The ham is not enhanced in any way, pure pork.

Now, I have brined meat many times, but I've always used a dry brine.
This time I went for a wet brine, because the distance from the outer side to the center is much longer than let's say belly.

I made a standard brine, added some apple juice, and now the meat has been in the solution for four days.

I have wet brined chickens and other fowls before, and I have not seen this before.

The brine is full of small particles, as well as some larger ones. Is this normal?

There is no bad smell, the brine has a salty and pleasant taste.

I've planned to smoke the ham next weekend. I injected the ham with brine.

Can I take it out tomorrow and smoke it, or is it better to leave it?

I could pour the brine through a cheesecloth, cook it up, and chill before I use it on the ham, or make a new brine. Is this a waste of time?
 
Yes. I chickened out and smoked it.
I will slice it today, take a picture and make a couple of comments after I have tasted it. Right now the ham is resting in the basement.
 
As I said, here are a couple of pictures.
The brining period was adequate, I think that is because of the injection. 100 g to 1 l water was spot on. No pink salt, as you can see.
I'm going to make another one, letting it cure for another 7 days to see if the "ham" taste is more prominent than this one.

On the smoker, and look, it's even lots of light outside. Spring is only a couple of months away!
Ideal smoking conditions, just 9 degrees F. Lovely
icon_smile.gif




And sliced. The taste? Better than anything I can buy here in Norway, no matter the price. At the moment the smoke taste is a bit bitter and raw, as I have oversmoked it. This is on purpose.
I know that after a few days in the fridge/freezer the smoke taste gets more mellow.

Looks quite nice as well, doesn't it?



As usual, klick on pic to go large.
 
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