I have to preface this post with the smart-aleck comment made by Mr. Fix-It this morning. As he was looking through the photos being chosen to include and saw the title of the post, “Home-Cured Ham”, he asked, “The ham’s sick? What’s it got? Swine Flu?” Yes, you can groan too.


Though I was born an “Okie”, I spent most of my “growing up years” in East Tennessee. If one lives in East Tennessee long enough, one eventually falls in love with the local treat – Tennessee Country Ham. This salty, aged and sometimes smoked miracle of meat is only improved when accompanied by beans, “red-eye gravy”, fried okra, biscuits and Spoonbread or grits. Because it is salty-salty, slices are soaked for a few hours to overnight, depending on the amount of saltiness enjoyed, and then pan fried in a cast iron skillet for a crusty delicacy.

Various stages and amounts of mold can cover salt-cured hams
The unique feature of country ham is the layer of mold that forms on the wrapping paper and ham surface as it hangs and ages. Newbies who receive a Tennessee Country Ham for a gift usually freak when they unbag their present and then unwrap the paper that has shrouded the meat all during the curing process. A nice, moldy carpet coats portions of the rind and paper. This is simply removed by scrubbing the ham with a mixture of vinegar and water or with plain water and a stiff bristle brush. The meat is sliced with a saw just 1/4″ thick.


Having worked in a meat department that was constantly visited by local farmers toting their treasured cured hams to be sliced, I learned that it was ‘bragging rights’ when it came to how long one of these hams were hung. Three years was the limit, but it seemed that the more mold and the longer aged the better these ‘specialists’ viewed their product. Hog killing commenced around Thanksgiving, hams, bacon and shoulders were cured and smokehouses were loaded with the goodies to be smoked or to be used without smoking.


I remember one farmer’s story about a most disastrous year. He had corn fed and slaughtered his pigs to put up meat for the year. After a gruelling day of salting down, wrapping and hanging portions, cutting up roasts, chops, ribs and other cuts for the freezer, grinding sausage and rendering lard, this industrious man and his family went to bed and slept the sleep of hard workers. The family went about the rest of the year and on into winter with the happy knowledge that come Fall, there would be good eatin’s from the smokehouse for sure. Sometime during the summer, the farmer went to the smokehouse and opened the door. To his horror, all that he found hanging from the rafters were bones tied with rope and picked totally clean of any shred of meat. Rats had crawled along the rafters, shinnied down the ropes and feasted on the cured meats without so much as asking!


In the meat department, we cured hams all year long. We purchased fresh hams from our local packing plant, which you can do as well. We let them warm at room temperature for a couple of hours and then coated with our cure, hanging them in the cooler for the first 12 weeks. As meat begins to cure, it must be kept cool. This is why the farmers always waited until Thanksgiving or later to kill their hogs. With a walk-in cooler or refrigerator, however, the curing process can take place any time of the year.



Boning the loin to make boneless pork chops and babyback ribs

I thought that I would give you a step-by-step lesson on how to create these wonderful hams with the help of some great kids. A group of home schooled students got to mix an anatomy and physiology class with learning to cure meat at the Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ digs. We had purchased a hog that was taken to our local packing house and then we picked up the quarters to process ourselves, including curing the hams. As you will see, curing meat is a pretty simple process and is a wonderful way to preserve meats for a long time. One note, however, once these hams are sliced, the meat must be wrapped in freezer paper and frozen or, if eaten soon after slicing, kept in the refrigerator for a short time.

Cure Mix For One Ham

3 cups salt without iodine

1 cup brown sugar

1 1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 tablespoon saltpeter (purchase at pharmacy)

1 teaspoon red pepper

Open two paper bags to lay flat and tape together or use butcher paper. Center ham onto paper. Mix ingredients together into a bowl and pack, little-by-little, around the meat





Force cure into crevices, under flaps of skin or fat and into and around any protruding bones.





Fold paper bag or butcher paper over the ham and tape as a tight package





Tape completely shut and tape around shank area so that final product has the shape of the ham





Place in a bag – we use old pillow cases – with the shank end into one corner of the bag. Twist top tightly and tie a rope around the twisted end. Hang in a refrigerator with shank down by tying the rope to one of the refrigerator shelves. An old extra refrigerator works great for this as other shelves can be removed, using only one shelf from which to hang hams. The temperature should be normal frig temperature. Hang for 12 weeks. A pan should be put below the ham because fluid will drip from it for those 12 weeks. At the end of the three months, remove ham from refrigerator and hang anywhere convenient at room temperature. We like to hang ours for a year but some people hang them for 8 to 9 months.





When the ham has cured for the desired length of time, take it down, remove the cloth sack and cut away the paper.





Wash the ham, using vinegar and water or just water and a good bristle scrub brush





Cleaned ham ready for cutting





Cut off rind and trim fat



Slice with a hand saw or band saw or take to your local meat packer to have him slice it for you. Wrap slices in freezer paper and freeze





To cook, soak meat in water for a couple of hours in the refrigerator and then place in a heated cast iron skillet coated with a little bit of olive oil. Brown on both sides and add water to nearly cover. Allow to cook for about 15-20 minutes until water cooks down to nearly gone. Remove ham and add more water plus about a tablespoon of coffee. Cook down until the consistency of thin gravy for “red-eye” gravy.


So there you have it!!


Happy Curing!


MB