More Hams in the Pickle

More hams are in the pickle

 

So I arrive early this morning to the kitchen and unseal my ham pickle
barrel. They look marvelous! I do the normal slice the face off the
first one and fry that sucker to convert the nitrate and have a taste! I
have finally hit the taste I was looking for in the ham. I have not been
happy with the last couple hundred I have made up as they are good and a
salable product, but they are not special, in that the just taste like a
good ham. So this year I was determined to modify my recipe to the point
where they taste not just good, but special. I have basically kept my
recipe the same for over a decade. But last week I pulled a rabbit out
of the hat and added finely ground clove to my pickle, but not in the
normal way, first I toasted the ground clove to move the oils out of the
center, then I put it into the heated honey and brown sugar and let it
steep before incorporating it into pickle. Then I modified the injection
method. I use the normal leg artery and vein injection method to pump
the legs. But I added a pump injection on five points around the bone.
This has allowed the infusion of the pickle to be nice and prevalent at
the dark bone meat. I have to wait about 10 hours for the smoker to
finish but the ham slab has the zip I was looking for that says "this
ain't no ordinary ham" when you taste it.



Did up another six pork legs this morning and got them into the pickle.
They will hit the smoker Thursday or Friday depending on the catering
load.

Chef Bob Ballantyne

The Cowboy and The Rose Catering

Grand Junction, Colorado, USA