To Smoke Ham, Bacon and Shoulder
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Remove the meat from the brine and soak overnight.
Wash the meat with a brush.
String the meat and hang it up for 12 hours.
Smoke
Start a slow fire using corn cobs, green hardwood, or hardwood sawdust, and be careful not to let the fire get too hot.
Smoke the meat for 48 hours.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Ham
- The main cut; its surface takes on smoke flavor and dries slowly during smoking.
- Bacon
- A fatty cut that absorbs smoke flavor and renders fat during the long, slow smoke.
- Shoulder
- A tougher cut that takes on smoke flavor and becomes tender through slow, low-heat smoking.
The step that matters
Keep the fire slow and low. Too much heat cooks the outside quickly, can make the smoke taste acrid, and dries the surface before smoke flavor has penetrated. A steady, gentle fire lets the meat smoke evenly over the full time.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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