ben 10 Posted December 12, 2017 Share Posted December 12, 2017 Pork leg went into the brine just now. Will take it out next Thursday or Friday and get it ready for Xmas day. I found I needed to inject it to get it perfect. First couple had roast pork in the middle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 13, 2017 Share Posted December 13, 2017 I'm wondering whether I'll need to do that too... mind you, the size of the piece of leg isn't a whole lot bigger than the loins I make bacon from (it's only 2.6kg) so it might be fine just sitting for 8-10 days in the brine. This is more than double the length of time I cure my bacon, which takes 3 days. There's only gonna be 8 people here on Xmas day so I figured a smaller sized ham would be the go, rather than making 5kg+ that'd take a million years to get through. My first bacon also had that slither of roast pork in the middle due to not leaving it in the brine long enough. Left it an extra day on the next lot and that solved the issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted December 17, 2017 Share Posted December 17, 2017 Pork shoulder - salt n pepper rub - with coleslaw and mac n cheese tonight. Also threw in a banana leaf wrapped achiote paste rubbed shoulder for tacos tomorrow. YUM. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 Turned the ham over a couple of times in the last few days, it's definitely firming up. The plan is to take it out of the brine on Friday to rinse, boil and smoke it for 5 or 6 hours. Still deciding whether or not to do a glaze for it on Xmas day itself which I'll just do in the oven. Probably should. I'll consult the book for a glaze recipe and process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted December 18, 2017 Share Posted December 18, 2017 rinse' date=' boil and smoke it for 5 or 6 hours. [/quote'] Boil? I have not done that, I just hot smoke like the bacon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 20, 2017 Share Posted December 20, 2017 rinse' date=' boil and smoke it for 5 or 6 hours. [/quote'] Boil? I have not done that, I just hot smoke like the bacon. The recipe I was following does it, probably because it spends 2 weeks in the brine instead of only a few days, just helps drive some of the salt out. They don't leave it in the fridge overnight either, just pull from.the hot water, Pat dry and smoke it for a few hours. I'll see how it turns out, next time I'll do the same long cure and boil but might leave it in the fridge overnight that time and see if it makes any difference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted December 24, 2017 Share Posted December 24, 2017 Not bbq but... Cured pork loin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted December 28, 2017 Share Posted December 28, 2017 I gotta do another loin next week, but that one will be turned into bacon. My Christmas ham came out a treat. First time making a ham and just did a small one rather than a full leg. Decided to do a honey maple glaze on it on Xmas day itself as well which turned out well. I can't remember the exact weights of the salt etc. in the brine but the leg sat in it for about 10 days and came out looking like this After that it was rinsed off, and placed in boiling water where it simmered for around 10 minutes. I cut a slither off to taste at this point; it tasted somewhat like corned beef from the pickling spice but the salt was just right. It then came out of this simmer and went straight into the smoker. It was smoked with Hickory chips for about 4.5-5 hours until it reached about 64C internal temp. After it cooled down, I cut the skin off and then stored the ham in the fridge until Xmas day. A bit after lunchtime (we were having more of a late lunch/early dinner thing), I mixed up a glaze with maple syrup, honey and brown sugar. I took the ham out and scored some somewhat uneven diamond shapes into the fat, then brushed a liberal amount of the glaze over the ham and placed it in the oven set to about 180C, applying more glaze once every 25 minutes. This is how it looked after the first 25 It baked for about 100 minutes, and before the last stint in the oven I tipped the rest of the glaze all over it. It came out looking like this This ham was a hit with everyone who tried it, pretty well all saying it was the best they'd eaten in years. I had to agree with them, and it definitely turned out better than I would have expected it to, given it was my first attempt at making a ham from scratch. The glaze was perfect and complimented the smoke and salt of the ham nicely. The cure had well and truly penetrated all the way through the pork so no problems there, and there wasn't much left of it after Xmas day I'll definitely be making more hams, and not just for Xmas feasts. Absolutely beautiful. Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted January 8, 2018 Share Posted January 8, 2018 Smoked another batch of bacon last Friday. Hickory again, for about 4 hours. This time I added about 250mL of maple syrup to the curing brine instead of sugar. While the brine itself smelt and tasted sweeter than previous ones, it has only lent a very slight flavor to the bacon which is hardly even noticeable, so next time I might increase the amount of syrup to 350mL to try to get more of its flavor into the final product. The loin was left in the cure for 3 days and has a really tiny piece of white centre where the cure didn't quite reach, however it was a thicker loin than I've used in the past. Will have to adjust curing times depending on the thickness of meat methinks. Overall though, really happy with the outcome and getting more consistent with it too as I've worked out the optimum salt amounts to give the flavor I'm looking for, and just change them up depending on the weight of the meat. Will have to make some more ham soon too, still got some left from Xmas but it's pretty well all gone now. Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Smoked another batch of bacon last Friday. Have you tried any of the classics like pulled pork yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted January 9, 2018 Share Posted January 9, 2018 Not yet but I do have plans this year to try some different things in the smoker, and also upgrade it to a better unit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joolbag Posted February 28, 2018 Author Share Posted February 28, 2018 Hey Kelsey and Ben10, I finally bit the bullet and cured and smoked my own bacon! phwoar, the flavour is phenomenal! I can't believe I took so long to do this given I've had the set up for years! Thanks for the tips. I loved it so much that I bought two pork bellies from Harris Farm and chose pieces with good ratio and layering of fat to meat to cure. I will smoke these next Friday. Since I am going to bring out the big smoker, I thought why not buy a 3kg let of pork for $3.99/kg and cure that up too! Am going to use a wet brine for the ham, probably cure it 8 days. Not planning to inject first time around, just a good, solid cure. Bacon will be the dry cure in a vac seal bag, flipped every day. Will add aromatics to this batch for a bit of extra zing. +1 for nitrites! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Top work mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted March 1, 2018 Share Posted March 1, 2018 Excellent stuff mate! I wish I'd gotten into it earlier too now that I know how easy it actually is, and how much better than store bought stuff it tastes. The only one I've found that comes close to my home made bacon is the stuff from the British Bacon and Sausage Company. I've been using pork loins for my bacon and just did another ham with one as well. I always use the wet cure with them and I'll have to leave them sitting in the cure longer for the bacon in future because I think it hasn't been penetrating properly into the middle of the meat, and while it's still pink and the flavor is fine, it's quite flimsy rather than firm like it should be. These loins are thicker cuts though. I smoked the ham on Monday, but haven't glazed it yet. Maybe doing that today. It sat in the cure for about 10 days, and was then removed, rinsed off, boiled for a short period to drive out some of the salt and then straight into the smoker for 3 hours. Turned out really well so the glaze will just be the icing on the cake really. The one I did at Xmas went down a treat. Not really much different of a process from making bacon actually. Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
therealthing691 Posted March 2, 2018 Share Posted March 2, 2018 Does anybody make there own Jerky??????????????????? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 Does anybody make there own Jerky??????????????????? I have twice and love it. Last lot was very simple. Salt, garlic, habanero, tequila then smoked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted March 3, 2018 Share Posted March 3, 2018 I haven't made jerky yet but it's on the list of to make things as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joolbag Posted March 13, 2018 Author Share Posted March 13, 2018 I really should post the photos, but it's such a PITA since Photobucket blocked third party usage of pics! It's simply too much of a faff to send from phone to PC to upload to forum. I haven't signed up for imgur or similar. I just want a simple way to post from my phone to an account that I can copy URLs to and put in my posts on here. *sigh* The bacon is going great, I've done three so far. Basic dry cure for a pilot batch, smoked in the Weber. It went well, so I went large - a 3.5kg pork leg cured for 8 days in a wet brine for ham. Then glazed with Dijon mustard, brown sugar and garlic whilst on the smoker. I also did two pork belly pieces, about 1.4kg each. One was savoury with bay leaf, garlic and black peppercorn. The other was the sweeter maple bacon cure. All three items smoked in my big smoker on Saturday. Came out perfectly. The pictures tell the full story, but honestly CBF faffing around tonight to upload. Maybe another night fellas. Washed down with my Gose and Galaxy Pacific Ale home-brew. God I love these two hobbies of mine! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted March 14, 2018 Share Posted March 14, 2018 . I haven't signed up for imgur or similar. Don't need an account with imgur. I made 3.5kg of pepperoni today. Smashed it with heaps of chilli, homegrown habanero and fiesta chilli. Also made hot dogs..... smoked, yum Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DavidB44 Posted May 13, 2018 Share Posted May 13, 2018 Bacon and Beer Festival Anyone out there near Boston? I'll be there on the weekend of 9/10 June and was looking at what's on. Only this boston bacon beer thing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koo wee brew Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 Smoked up some Devon today Done this a few times, the kids and myself love it. Lunches for the week taken care of! Thats how you polish a turd Cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikes15 Posted May 19, 2018 Share Posted May 19, 2018 11 hours ago, Koo wee brew said: Smoked up some Devon today Done this a few times, the kids and myself love it. Lunches for the week taken care of! Thats how you polish a turd Cheers Dave How long did you smoke that for, looks like not long with the small amount of coals you have? Also just water in the foil tray? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Koo wee brew Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 Hi Mike, Scored up the Devon and seasoned it with Salt, Pepper and Garlic flakes Smoked for about 3 Hrs @ 100C (threw in a handful of cherrywood chips every hr) Glazed up with BBQ sauce water in the foil tray Cheers Dave Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beer Baron Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 It was just me at home today and I found some mince in the fridge and made a jumbo meat pattie and put it on the smoker for 60 minutes and straight onto a hot BBQ and made a burger. SENSATIONAL!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted May 20, 2018 Share Posted May 20, 2018 Gotta make some more bacon soon. Last one was a 2.3kg piece of loin and has lasted over a month. This was one I did prior to that, they always look good after smoking. And in the pan too Cheers Kelsey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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