Thanks guys for the information. Jonathon - I had not even considered the Tube Smoker causing an over temperature problem. But I will certainly do a test run with nothing in the smoker except a temperature probe to see what it does and post up on the results… the thing is though that a salt cured ham, if done correctly is shelf stable. Below is a quote from a Paper from the University of Kentucky - and here is a link to that paper on Curing Country Hams. I think you and Cablelas90 and others may enjoy reading it. The initial cure takes about 60 days - which I will do at a controlled temperature. Even though I’ve worked a lot of hog butchering, sausage making and ham curing sessions - I was young and not very observant of the process of curing hams - that was my Captain’s task and he left us a long time ago - so I personally have not cured a Country Ham and I want to hurry and add that what I will end up with at the end of my process will not be a true Country Ham as you will see from this article. To be labeled a true Country Ham it has to go through an aging process that I’m not set up to do.

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ASC/ASC213/ASC213.pdf

"Smoking hams is a personal preference, but care should be
exercised during the process. Country hams should be cold
smoked; a hotter smoke (greater than110°F) will destroy the
enzymes responsible for flavor and aroma. The duration of
smoking is a personal preference; the majority of hams are
smoked for 12 hours or more. "

I’ve been around dry curing pork hams many years ago but my Dad was the lead man so to speak. I’ve been doing a lot of home work and even picked up a Frig for curing. So the University of KY published a really good paper on this topic. At this point my cure mix will consist of salt with the appropriate amount of Instacure #2, brown sugar, black pepper - spend about 60 days in the frig and the I will Cold Smoke it. But then I ran across an article that talked about Sodium Erythorbate and so I bought a pound from Waltonsinc along with some other stuff. The directions for use says to use 0.0546875 lb per 100 pounds of meat! I’m curing a 20-25 pound country ham! So I’m thinking I have really misunderstood the use of Sodium Erythorbate. Can someone educate me? I believe I may have bought something that I have no use for… but maybe not.

lamurscrappy Using Ice water if needed to reduce the temperature in a smoke is a really good tip. thanks

lamurscrappy Using Ice water if needed to reduce the temperature in a smoke is a really good tip. thanks

Thanks guys for the information. Jonathon - I had not even considered the Tube Smoker causing an over temperature problem. But I will certainly do a test run with nothing in the smoker except a temperature probe to see what it does and post up on the results… the thing is though that a salt cured ham, if done correctly is shelf stable. Below is a quote from a Paper from the University of Kentucky - and here is a link to that paper on Curing Country Hams. I think you and Cablelas90 and others may enjoy reading it. The initial cure takes about 60 days - which I will do at a controlled temperature. Even though I’ve worked a lot of hog butchering, sausage making and ham curing sessions - I was young and not very observant of the process of curing hams - that was my Captain’s task and he left us a long time ago - so I personally have not cured a Country Ham and I want to hurry and add that what I will end up with at the end of my process will not be a true Country Ham as you will see from this article. To be labeled a true Country Ham it has to go through an aging process that I’m not set up to do.

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/ASC/ASC213/ASC213.pdf

"Smoking hams is a personal preference, but care should be
exercised during the process. Country hams should be cold
smoked; a hotter smoke (greater than110°F) will destroy the
enzymes responsible for flavor and aroma. The duration of
smoking is a personal preference; the majority of hams are
smoked for 12 hours or more. "

Hello Jonathan: It is good to find you a couple of people have suggested you as a source for answers to a couple of questions I have about dry curing hams. Is that a “cold smoking” house? If it is I would really be interested in leaning about how you are generating the smoke without raising the temperature above 65 - 70 degrees. My plan for cold smoking is to use my vertical cabinet smoker - to hang the ham but only use an “A-MAZE-N” Smoker tube with wood pellets to produce the smoke.

I’ve been around air curing hams many years ago but my Dad was the lead man and I was just a kid at the time. I came up with a used refrigerator for the 60 day curing period and I will be using a pretty standard curing mix consisting of salt, Instacure #2, brown sugar, black peeper and may through in some paprika. I’ve done a lot of research on the use of SODIUM ERYTHORBATE for accelerating the breakdown of sodium nitrite in the interest of not producing Petrosamines; it appears though that it is mostly intended as a additive for sausage making. If I were wet curing and injecting a ham then the introduction of Sodium Erythorbate could be easily done. Do you think Sodium Erythorbate is even necessary in a ham that’s going through a 60 day curing process? If I need to use it - how could I possibly incorporate such a small amount into a dry mix when the usage rate calls for 0.0546875 per 100 lbs of meat and curing one 20 - 25 pound ham?

craigrice Thanks for the reply. I just share the following with the disclaimer for anyone who might read this - that I know next to nothing about curing meats and what I offer here is my interruption of what I have read. “A little knowledge can be dangerous” so beware. I’m sure there are people on the Forum that are experts in curing meat.

After doing a little more research on the use of Sodium Erythorbate - apparently it is intended for use in processed meats and not as in aid for Dry/Air curing Hams? My guess is (and it is strictly a guess) if I were making a 100 lbs of sausage I would want to incorporate 24.805833 grams of Sodium Erythorbate - 25 pounds of sausage would require 6.2 grams etc… The only way I would know of to incorporate that small amount of material evenly into ground meat would be to dilute the Sodium Erythorbate into water or some kind of liquid carrier. These are incredibly small quantities to work with.

I would not know of any way to incorborate Sodium Erythorbate into the process of Dry/Air curing hams - I could if I were wet curing by virtue of submerging and/or injection . I think I recall that the FDA requires the addition of Sodium Erythorbate to any meat that has had Nitrate/Nitrite used in the process to reduce or prevent the formation of Nitrosamines which is a known carcinogenic. Nitrosamines are generated from unconverted Nitrite. Nitrite needs to be converted into nitric oxide.

Sure would like to hear from one of you experts out there on Air/Dry Curing whole hams. :)

I’ve been around dry curing pork hams many years ago but my Dad was the lead man so to speak. I’ve been doing a lot of home work and even picked up a Frig for curing. So the University of KY published a really good paper on this topic. At this point my cure mix will consist of salt with the appropriate amount of Instacure #2, brown sugar, black pepper - spend about 60 days in the frig and the I will Cold Smoke it. But then I ran across an article that talked about Sodium Erythorbate and so I bought a pound from Waltonsinc along with some other stuff. The directions for use says to use 0.0546875 lb per 100 pounds of meat! I’m curing a 20-25 pound country ham! So I’m thinking I have really misunderstood the use of Sodium Erythorbate. Can someone educate me? I believe I may have bought something that I have no use for… but maybe not.