This summer I have been playing a lot with different meats trying to find smoke
nirvana.
Yesterday I cooked a green ham. I had to jump through hoops to get it, for some
reason the nearest meat market would not sell me a green ham, only cured. That
market also would not get me a packer's cut brisket. They didn't even know what
that was. For those on list who also don't know, this is the whole, untrimmed
beef brisket, which is about 12 to 18 pounds. It's a huge honking slab of meat.
The briskets you find in the store in those neat little packages have been
trimmed to within an inch of their life, and it's only one part of the brisket.
They don't hold up well to long and slow smoking due to their lack of fat pack,
as I have discovered. you have to baby them a little bit in order to make them
good. But I managed to get my hands on a whole brisket, and will be cooking
that next month as part of my coming out party. It will be the first time my
barbecue has come to the public.
So anyway, I had to go to another meat market ten miles away to get my brisket
and my green ham. And then when I got it, the thing was mostly bone. I orderd
an eigh pound ham and maybe four of it was bone. I felt kind of ripped off.
Well other than that, it was pretty darn good. I let it rest in the fridge for
twenty four hours with a wet rub consisting of cider vinegar, brown sugar,
kosher salt, pepper, and some other spices. Next time, I may try brining it and
see what that does. I scored the ham all over in a crosshatch pattern to let
the rub seep in a little bit. Then I fired up the smoker and cooked it about
eigh hours low and slow over hickory, flipping twice.
I would like to try curing a ham and making sausage as I discussed on list here
before. However, I have done a little research and discovered that old
fashioned methods of curing meats such as the way I would prefer would not work
with modern meat processing practices. There is too much cross contamination
due to the fact that the slaughter houses run through thousands of animals each
and every day. The only way I would be able to cure and cold smoke sausages and
hams is if I had direct control of the meat from farm to counter. I may have a
way to get this done; a friend of mine has another friend who knows someone
that will sell you a pig and help you process it. For about 225 dollars. If
this happens next year, I may be in for a treat with real salami and a nice,
month long cured ham.
