Today was the day to smoke the ham and bacon I’d been curing since last Tuesday. The bacon was a dry cure of salt, Prague Powder #1, and brown sugar, and the ham was in a brine with essentially the same ingredients.
The Cure.
I went and chopped a small branch from a wild apple tree growing on the edge of one of our fields and cut a dozen chunks or so about 1/2 an inch thick for the smoker. The smoker is electric with a cast iron skillet sitting on the burner to put the wood chips in. Makes it easy to control the heat and smoke.
Here are the hams in the smoker.
Unsmoked Hams.
And after smoking.
Smoked Ham.
I froze most the ham, but we had a few slices still warm from the smoker. It tastes even better than it looks!
The bacon is cold smoked. I turned the smoker down to just keep the wood chips smoking, but not hot enough to cook the bacon.
Smoked Bacon.
Little Owen was anxiously awaiting a taste of the bacon.
Hungry Owen.
He’s still waiting…
Finally, slicing the bacon.
Slicing
Notice the glass of wine left center. Whenever using incredibly sharp powered slicing tools, plenty of alcohol is the perfect complement!
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