Help me win Thanksgiving aka I'm going to cure my own ham

So 2/3rds of my sibling family are good cookers and maybe just a little competitive.  We're doing Thanksgiving together and my SIL decided what they would do then asked us what we wanted to bring.  My sister chose easier stuff with my niece doing most of it.  I text fought my SIL and grabbed cranberry sauce from her but now I'm in charge of second meat to the turkey.  Not going to buy a ham to heat up.  I'm going to cure my own picnic shoulder, cold smoke it, then cook it.  I have curing salt getting here tomorrow.  I'm not totally sure what seasoning I'm going to cure it with.  I'll probably follow Alton Brown on the cooking because he's never done me wrong.  Any advice from the hive?

2 weeks is a short time for a big ham. Mine has been in brine since 10/1. 2 weeks has been good to me for ham hocks and loins, for future reference though, 30 days is my personal minimum for a 10lb butt, 60 is better, I haven't been patient enough to go longer. 

Follow Pops advice and you will have the best ham you've ever had.

I've modified his brine slightly for a spicier version, each gallon gets 1 tablespoon cayenne, 5 whole peppercorns, 5 cracked peppercorns, 3 allspice berries added to it before injection. Really nice background heat without being overpowered. 

I also let sit overnight in the fridge the day before smoking after pulling it out of brine. Smoke to internal 145, pull it, let it set overnight, and finish in the oven 350 until 165 internal. 

Out of the smoker

 out of the oven

a two week ham hock

My Dad cured his last ham 40 years or so back.  He'd been curing them since 1952 when he bought the farm.  He cured them for at least 6 months.  Made the best ham I've ever had.  I wish I had paid more attention.

Cure your ham?

I didn't know it was sick.

Stampie, is that a euphemism?

In reply to RevRico :

This is 8lbs and from the internet which is always right a week should do it.

In reply to M2Pilot :

That's a country ham.  I'm doing a city ham.  A country ham is a dry rub cure vs. a brine cure for the city ham.  I might try a country ham next.

In reply to Tom Suddard :

What happens between a man and his ham in the privacy of their home is their business only.

In reply to Stampie :

The longer it's in the better the penetration of salt and flavor. And inject inject inject. 

Looking forward to seeing it.

RevRico said:

In reply to Stampie :

The longer it's in the better the penetration of salt and flavor. And inject inject inject. 

Looking forward to seeing it.

I wonder if a vacuum chamber would help get the salt and flavor in there

In reply to Mr_Asa :

That's an interesting thought. Maybe? Mine is only 1 gallon so I can't really experiment. 

I wonder how it would handle all the liquid already in the meat though. Maybe do it once to pull everything out, then again filled with brine to somehow get it to force the brine in? Would it have to stay under vacuum the whole period?

Still, 5 minutes with a good needle with multiple holes on it does a fantastic job. Sometimes the old ways really are the best. The main concern is on bone in pieces, you get rot around the bone if you don't hit it well on all sides, and you don't know until after all the work is done. 

I did one a couple years ago, maybe 10lbs or so? I think I had it curing for around 10 days and it wasn't long enough. I would get it in as soon as possible and let it go as long as you can. I used the McCormick pickling spice and it was pretty good. 

I got it in the brine. I used kosher salt, brown sugar, cure salt #1, and McCormick pickling spice as recommended by EvanB.  I injected the hell out of it. Think I'll have to pull it out next Saturday morning so I can let it sit 24 hours before smoking it next Sunday. 

Did y'all flip your ham today?  I flipped mine.

Pulled it out of the brine yesterday and cleaned it off. Left it in the fridge almost 24 hours and started cold smoking it today. Using a smoke tube with apple pellets. 

10 hours of cold smoking done. I'll cook it Tuesday. Timing stuff has been hard with other things that need to get done.

That looks really good.  I brined a shoulder a few years ago and then hot smoked it.  It surprisingly good.

Good luck on yours.

Ok so we need sliced ham proof of deliciousness picture, for science. 

I'll put ham making on the list to complete after I break in the cheese making kit Wiffee got me for my birthday.

In reply to 84FSP :

That'll be coming up. It get final cooking tomorrow afternoon. 

I stopped eating meat like 18 years ago and the only thing I miss is ham. This thread is absolutely not helping. 

smoked to 145 today, ready for the oven tomorrow. In brine since October 1. 

Tuesday I did a glaze of mustard, bourbon, brown sugar, and ginger snaps. Stolen from Alton Brown but tamed down for my Dad that doesn't like spicy. Then I cooked it to 140.

This morning we warmed it up and my nephew carved it up. 

Oh my FSM. This is the best ham I've ever had. Next time I will brine it for longer to hopefully get more of that spicy inside. I'm pretty sure I won.