We learned ham-making from our Zen master of backyard butchery, Dr. Ray McConnell, a Rhode Island dentist and swamp Yankee redneck who retired and moved to coastal Maine so he’d have more room to shoot, butcher and cure a variety of meat-filled animal species.

 

Doc McConnell learned his craft in the Bavarian breweries and smokehouses that passed for his hearth and home while an Army officer stationed in Germany. The Bavarians do amazing things with pork and Doc absorbed everything they taught him and voraciously ate the results.

 

Back here in the States, he built a smokehouse in his backyard and fills it each autumn with hams, bacons, salmon, beef tenderloin and anything else that can take a cure and some smoke. When done, he stocks the freezer and has some very beer-friendly salted and smoked meats to munch on throughout the season.

 

This is his basic homemade ham recipe. You’ll want to start in mid to late September to make sure you have hams available for the holidays and cold-weather football.

 

We bake whole hams at holidays and other hams we cut into smoky ham steaks. These come in handy when a recipe calls for nice, smoked hams. You simply pull out a ham steak, chop it up for your jambalaya or chili, and you’re read to go.

 

Quite frankly, once you taste these hams you’ll give up on store-bought hams. They’re simply not as flavorful or as smoky as these you make yourself.

Mix water and dry ingredients very well in a very large crock until salt, sugar and Insta Cure are completely dissolved. The cure is ready when a small potato will just begin to float. If potato quickly sinks to the bottom, add some more salt.

 

Fill a meat pump with cure and inject each ham dozens of times. You cannot over-inject the hams and the more brine you inject the better it will cure. You should actually see the meat expand as it fills with brine. When you think you’ve injected enough brine, inject some more.

 

When done, place your hams in the crock so that they are completely covered with the cure. (If needed, place some clean boards on top of the cure and weigh it down with some clean stones.) Store in a cool, dark place for three to four weeks and inspect every four or five days, skimming off any fat that rises to the top.

 

After three or four weeks, remove the hams, scrub the skin and meat gently with a clean, plastic scrub brush and then soak in plain water for 24 hours. Remove from the water and, using a large needle, thread a piece of high-quality butcher’s string through the skin and narrow piece of meat on the shaft of the ham. Use this string to hang the ham and let it dry in a cool, dark place for 24 hours (a big, heavy nail stuck into a beam in your cellar is a perfectly good place to hang your hams). Double-string for heavier hams.

 

When the hams are dry, build a fire in a smokehouse or very large smoker, making sure to have plenty of wet wood available (either freshly cut wood, or wood that’s been soaked for about an hour in water). Wet wood will create plenty of smoke. You’ll need dozens of logs to complete the job. Place hams in the smoker, as far from the fire as possible.

 

You want a fairly steady stream of smoke at a very low temperature, no more than 110 degrees or so. This is cold smoking. (It’s hard to keep such a low temperature in a small smoker, which is why it’s helpful to have your own smokehouse or a very large smoker.) Smoke for two or three days, or until smoked to your liking. The hams will turn an attractive brownish red as they take on smoke.

 

Whole hams can be frozen for a year or more and baked at big gatherings. If you have an industrial meat slicer or had the good sense to befriend a butcher – maybe the guy who got you the large, fresh hams – you can slice a series of ham steaks off the end and use them as needed.