Buster has placed a total of 9 MasterCook recipes in this file: Barbecued Ham - Ala Starzingers Curing Hams Curing Pork Virginia Style Danny Gaulden's Easter Ham Mustard Glazed Ham Steaks Outrageous Ham Steak Sauce (Bbq) Smoked Virginia Ham Whole Ham Barbeque Wine Glazed Ham Steaks ----------------------------------------------------------- * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Barbecued Ham - Ala Starzingers Recipe By : Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 each cured ham -- about 7 pounds 1 tablespoon cinnamon 1 teaspoon dry mustard 1 tablespoon ginger 1/2 teaspoon cloves -- ground 2 ounces JD sour mash whiskey 2 tablespoons brown sugar 1/2 teaspoon molasses 2/3 cup wine vinegar pineapple juice Make your fire of prune or fruit wood, approximately two or three inches in diameter, and enough charcoal to keep the bed of coals at an even heat. If ham still has some of the rind, cut it off. Leave fat on and score. Place ham in cooker, and cook it about the same length of time you would bake it (follow directions on label for the type of ham you have). Baste ham as it cooks. The outside fat will char black, but don't let that worry you. Just don't let it burn. Keep the fire constant. When ham is done, break off charred fat with a knife. Put back on cooker for another 10 or 15 minutes and use up remainder of basting sauce. Remove ham, cut off excess fat, slice, and serve..... Basting Sauce: Place the cinnamon, mustard, ginger, and cloves in a mortar, or small jar, and cover with the whisky. (The alcohol will dissolve the essential oils, and that's what gives the flavor). Let set for an hour or so. Put the brown sugar, molasses, and vinegar in a pint jar. Grind the spices with a pestle, or stir well, and add to the vinegar-sugar solution. Pour in enough pineapple juice to make a pint. Stir well. Now your are ready to paint your ham. Mix the sauce each time you baste, so that the spices are evenly distributed. Don't leave any dregs in the jar, put them all on the ham to get the full, spicy flavor. By "Carey W. Starzinger" on Jul 10, 1997. Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Curing Hams Recipe By : Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 500 pound ham -- uncooked 1 pe and 1 1/2 gallons fine Liverpool sa 1 3/4 pounds saltpeter 1 quart hickory ashes -- well sifted 1 quart molasses 2 te cayenne pepper 1 te black pepper Mix these ingredients well together in a large tub, rub it into each ham with a brick, or something rough to get it in well. Pack in a tight, clean tub and weigh down. Let the hams remain six weeks: then take them out and rub each one on the fleshy side with one tablespoonful black pepper to avoid skippers. Hang in the meat house, and smoke with green hickory for from ten to twelve hours a day for six weeks, not suffering the wood to blaze. On the 1st of April, take them down and pack in any coal ashes or pine ashes well slaked. Strong ashes will rot into the meat. I wonder what it tasted like? Now, I can drive down hill to my local Safeway and *buy* fresh meat government inspected. I wonder though, are we missing something? A lot of work, that is for sure. NOTES : For curing 500 pounds of ham. Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Curing Pork Virginia Style Recipe By : Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- ***See Directions*** Good cures start with good meat. We raise our own hogs and fatten them on a corn based ration supplemented by whatever is available - stale bakery products, household garbage, etc. Garbage should not dominate the ration as the fat will be soft. Top hogs weigh 220 pounds and yield about a 16 pound ham. We like to cure hams between 20 and 30 pounds. Large hams with adequate fat layers age better and don't dry out as much during extended storage. Country cured hams will keep indefinitely but achieve their full flavor after about one year when "white flecks" appear in the muscle. We feed our hogs to 300 pounds or better but don't let them get too fat.. Some cuts may be slightly tougher with heavy hogs. Hams, shoulders and bellies may be bought from packing houses and can be ordered by butchers if you are not in position to grow your own. You may have to buy box lots but make absolutely sure that the meat is fresh and quickly chilled. Pork should be put in cure as soon as possible after chilling and trimming but, properly handled, it can be a couple of days old. I once bought ten, 25 pound hams that had been two days in transit to the butcher and then were left in his cooler over the weekend. I lost the whole batch! Those hams had also been trimmed excessively leaving little skin and fat covering. As a result, I have gone back to raising my own so I know what I have to work with. I am supposed to talk about curing bacon and I will get around to it. As hams (and shoulders) are more valuable, demanding and risky, the entire process is keyed to the larger cuts. Curing and smoking facilities vary greatly. Traditional farm hamhouses / smokehouses are windowless wood frame buildings about ten feet square with a dirt floor. Wooden plank benches provide work areas for mixing the cure and salting down meat. Joists are within reach and studded with 20 penny nails for hanging meat. The dirt floor allows a higher humidity in winter and allows a smoldering fire to be built inside - both for smoking and to keep meat from freezing during extreme cold. Some hamhouses have external smoke generators - simply a firebox with a stovepipe stuck through the wall. This arrangement makes it easier to cold smoke for several days (or weeks) in the spring without exceeding 100F. and is essential if the smokehouse is made of wood and insulated. Either the eaves are loosely fitted or there are operable vents to allow for air exchange, especially during smoking, so that there is adequate fresh air and the smoke does not become stale and acrid. Openings are covered by fine screen mesh and the interior is kept dark to discourage skippers (larvae of a small black fly which also likes pork). My smokehouse follows the tradition except that the walls are poured concrete and the roof is metal. The thick walls store a lot of heat and smooth out daily temperature fluctuations. I have no smoke generator or operable vents but there is plenty of air exchange at the eaves. In places where conditions are not favorable, curing and smoking chambers with temperature and humidity controls and a smoke generator can be easily fabricated or small cuts may be cured in the refrigerator. My dry cure is mixed by the "pour 'til it looks right" method. My daddy showed me how. There was a request from a pork eater in Israel to provide metric measurements. Unfortunately, I don't know how to convert the SAH (Standard American Handful)! I buy plain (not iodized) dairy salt in 50 Lb. bags from a farm supply co-op and other ingredients from one of the warehouse retailers. To each 50 lbs. of salt, mix about 1 gal. of molasses (blackstrap if you have it), about 2 pounds of ground black pepper, about 8 oz. of paprika and 1 SAH (about 4 oz.) of red pepper or cayenne. I use molasses rather than brown sugar so that the mixture can be packed around the meat. Color should be light brown and texture should be friable: it should pack when squeezed in the hand but crumble easily; like good loam soil ready to be plowed. Proportions are not critical and you canGood cures start with good meat. We raise our own hogs and fatteSpread a 1/2 inch layer of cure on the bench, place meat skin side down and cover all surfaces with about 1/2 inch of cure. Force cure into the cut shank ends of hams and shoulders. I prefer laying all of the pieces out separately so I can see when cure gets thin, but you can pile it all up and overhaul more often. During the phase of rapid cure uptake, a lot of fluid is drawn from the meat. That is why you use rough wooden benches with the planks not too tight - dirt floors help too. Of coarse, never use treated wood in contact with food. Check the meat every few days at first then not as often as salt absorption decreases. Overhaul several times by moving the pieces around, making sure they are covered with cure (it won't stick to the dry skin on hams so don't worry about it). Bacon, at last! As a rule of thumb, smaller pieces such as bacon should stay in cure for 1.5 days per pound. This usually coincides with the time that the fresh sausage runs out. At this point I usually slice some to try. It should be salty but not too salty to eat without soaking. When you are satisfied with the cure, brush the salt off and hang. I like to let them hang for a couple of days before smoking but it is not necessary. Use cold smoke (less than 100F.) unless you plan to use it or freeze it within a few days. I use 2 fairly green hickory logs about 12" in diameter. Once burning on the dirt floor I adjust the distance between the logs so that they smolder actively but don't flame. Hickory will keep going like this for a day or so with minimal tending. I just check it every few hours and make adjustments. Smoke does not need to be thick and heavy to flavor meat and adequate air volume is important when using green wood. I believe that smoke should enhance flavor rather than dominate. It is not necessary to smoke bacon for preserving so an alternative would be to smoke pieces at a higher temp. before use. Bacon should be frozen or eaten before summer as it starts to get rancid if hung too long. If frozen it should be eaten prior to the next hog killin' as it will get rancid in the freezer too. When to skin: Some folks leave the skin on if they have a slicer that will handle it. I take it off toward the end of the curing time when it is still supple and fairly easy to remove. It can be removed before curing but the bacon may get too salty. When you are ready for some home cured bacon, cut a slab in half and trim to the desired size. Save the trimmings for a pot of beans (you can render a lot of the grease out in a frying pan before adding to your bean pot). Soak for several hours if too salty and chill for easier slicing. If you don't have a slicer, you can do a pretty good job with a sharp knife. Bacon is relatively easy and safe to cure as the mixture penetrates the thin slabs quickly. I would have no qualms about trying it in the refrigerator and would be interested in hearing about experiences and experiments. Hams and shoulders are more risky because of the size. The cure has to penetrate completely before warm weather or they will start to taint around the bone. A common practice is to pump some liquid cure around the bone so that it can start curing from the inside too. The addition of salt peter also helps. Hams and shoulders stay in cure for about 2 days per pound. After the curing period, I just brush off the salt leaving a thin coating of attached spices and hang. Contrary to many recommendations, I never wash or wrap meat which I am going to hang. I has been my experience that wrappings keep moisture in promoting excessive mold and spoilage but I also live in a humid area. Some mold is desirable and does not indicate problems. There are a lot of things that can go wrong in curing hams. I remember going with my father to buy country hams as a young boy back in the fifties (before the meat inspection laws robbed us of our heritage). Country stores would buy locally cured hams for resale. After discussing curing methods and inspecting the hams, the storekeeper would pull out a thin bladed pocket knife and insert it into the face of the ham right next to the bone (the most likely place to find spoilage and skippers). The aroma of that blade drawn from a properly cured ham is unforgettable (it is pretty hard to forget the smell of a bad one too!). Point being that encountering bad hams was enough of a problem to warrant precautions. Shoulders don't age as well as hams and should be used within six months or so. Hams only get better with age but small ones tend to dry out. I have some forty pounders that should be about prime by the turn of the century! Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Danny Gaulden's Easter Ham Recipe By : Serving Size : 0 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- *See Below* I'm assuming that you have a cured ham. If it's a bone in, cured ham, here is a good way to finish it. Most hams of this style are skinned in most areas, but will have a few sections where the skin (hide) is still on. Especially around the tapered end going toward the end of the bone. Cut the skin off with a good sharp knife, being careful not to cut or remove the fat under it. You're not really concerned about deep cooking since it is actually already cooked. What you are interested in is giving it a better and richer flavor. Therefore, you don't need a very hot fire, but a low to medium fire with good smoke. The reason I like to keep the smoke a heavy medium is because the meat won't be on the pit that long, compared to a raw ham. The reason I like a low to medium heat is to extend the smoking time a bit. Bring smoker up to about 225 to 230 degrees and try to keep it in that range. Make sure you have an oven thermometer placed about an inch or two away from the ham. This will guarantee accuracy. Smoke ham until it reaches about 150, no higher than 160 degrees internally. Prepare this finishing sauce: 1/3 cup prepared mustard, 1/3 cup brown sugar, and 1/4 to 1/3 cup vinegar or beer. Mix these ingredience together in a large cup or bowl and bring to warm in a microwave, etc. Stir again. This will insure that all is blended well. If you feel you need more, just double the recipe. If you feel it is too thick, add more vinegar or beer...if too thin, cut these back a bit. You don't want it too thin. Baste ham with mixture about 30 minutes, then again at about 15 minutes, before ham is ready to be removed from smoker. If you like, you can mop ham one more time as soon as it is taken off the pit. Add pieces of pineapple and marichino cherries to top of ham about 30 to 45 minutes before it's done. You can hold these down with toothpicks. Makes it look real pretty! MC Formatted by Kurt Lucas Posted to the AZstarnet BBQ Mailing List by dgaulden@caverns.net (Gaulden, Danny) on Apr 07, 1998, converted by MC_Buster. NOTES : Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Mustard Glazed Ham Steaks Recipe By : Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 4 each boneless ham steaks 5 tablespoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon dry mustard 1 teaspoon onion salt 2 teaspoons soy sauce 2 teaspoons lemon juice 1 cup unsweetened pineapple juice 1 can pineapple slices -- (8 oz) Combine brown sugar, dry mustard, onion salt, soy sauce and lemon juice, mixing well. Simmer sauce five minutes, stirring occasionally. Place ham steaks on grill three to four inches above medium coals. Cook 30 minutes, turning steaks every five minutes and brushing with sauce. Serve steaks with a sauce. Garnish with heated pineapple slices, if desired. Source: "Best Barbeque Recipes" by Mildred Fischer Posted to the BBQ List by Carey Starzinger on Aug 02, 1996. Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Outrageous Ham Steak Sauce (Bbq) Recipe By : Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 3/4 cup ketchup 1/4 cup cider vinegar 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce 1/2 teaspoon hot pepper sauce 2 tablespoons mustard -- prepared 1/4 cup sugar -- dark brown 1/2 teaspoon salt Cook sauce uncovered for 15 minutes. Marinate ham in sauce for 1/2 hour or longer, grill, broil, or fry ham steak basting with the sauce as needed. Very Good!! This is a very simple BBQ Sauce ideally suited for ham... Posted to the BBQ List by Carey Starzinger on Mar 28, 1996. Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Smoked Virginia Ham Recipe By : Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 35 pound Virginia-cured country ham As long as we are talking ULTIMATE, my vote goes for the Virginia cured country ham which I cooked last weekend. We had about 60 friends over for our annual Silver-Queen and steamed crab Fest. I selected a moldy thirty-five pound ham from the smokehouse, washed it and soaked it about 18 hrs. I started the fire in our masonry cooker about 10:00 Fri. night and put in the ham skin side up. The intention was to slow cook with apple and oak for 14 hrs to an internal temp of 160F as I had done with a cured shoulder last month, but I woke at 3:00 and the fire had gotten too hot. I had forgotten to activate the alarm on The Sunbeam thermometer in the firebox and the temp was over 400F. Luckily, the ham fat had not caught fire. After knocking down the fire with water, it cooked the rest of the night at about 275F so that the internal temp was up to 170F by 8:00 in the morning. I allowed it to cool slowly in the cooker so that at noon the internal temp was still 160F. We served the ham about 7 p.m. and it was fantastic. The size and ample covering of skin and fat had protected the meat from the excessive temperature. It was crusty on the outside and moist (for cured ham) on the inside. It was pullable but firm enough to slice and though only seven months old had a good depth of aged flavor and just the right amount of smoke. After the pickers finished, we only had a few scraps left for ourselves. Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Whole Ham Barbeque Recipe By : Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- ***See Directions*** Cut off the skin (this lets the smoke penetrate more), but leave the fat. Put a basic rub on it. If you don't have one handy, some salt, pepper, and a little garlic will work just fine. Cook slow at 220-225F, and keep the smoke going fairly often. I like to Q mine till the temp reaches 175F or higher---remember, this isn't as lean as a pork loin, so you can go to a higher temp. Makes it really tender if you bring it up easy. About 30 minutes before done, baste a couple of times with this mixture: 1/3 cup brown sugar, 1/3 cup mustard, 1/4 cup vinegar. Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - * Exported from MasterCook Buster * Wine Glazed Ham Steaks Recipe By : Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time : Categories : None Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method -------- ------------ -------------------------------- 1 pound center-cut ham slice 1"thick ***SAUCE*** 1/2 cup dry white wine 1/4 cup orange juice 1/4 cup maple syrup 1 tablespoon cornstarch -- dissolved in 2 teaspoons white wine vinegar 1/2 teaspoon dry mustard 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger Combine all ingredients except ham in saucepan. Bring the sauce to a slow boil, stirring constantly, then reduce heat and simmer for a few minutes. Grill ham over mesquite coals. Brush frequently with sauce on both sides, allowing 10 minutes of cooking time for each side. When done, place ham on serving dish, and pour remaining sauce over entire dish. Posted to the BBQ List by Carey Starzinger on Oct 13, 1996. Preparation Time: 0:00 The British Barbecue Pit - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -