Last night we had some family over for dinner and I thought about this recipe idea. I made a few adjustments and whipped up the glaze (also called a mop) just before putting the ham on the BBQ. The initial review of the sauces smell and flavor was a bit lackluster by my wife, who thought the experiment should wait for a dinner without company. I, however being as stubborn as any mule within sight, went forward with the plan. I thought the sauce was perfect and loved the aroma.

The ham was a Butt half ham weighing about 9 pounds. I laid the ham on the BBQ with the cut side pointing to the side. A person could put the cut side down but I thought that would dry the ham out more. All of the other sides have been through the smoking process already and are able to withstand the heat without as much moisture running out into the flames. Since this is a fairly large piece of meat, I used an indirect cooking method. My BBQ has two burners, so I placed the ham over one burner and used the other to provide the heat. If you don’t have that option make sure you turn the meat two or three times during cooking (Not a bad idea anyway). If you are using briquettes, try to keep the pile to one side and the meat on the other. The downside of cooking such a large piece of meat is that the bottom gets the most heat through the whole cooking process. It could be a bit overdone on one side if you don’t have some way to shield it.

Here are the ingredients:

• 1/4 cup water ( just enough to dissolve to dry ingredients)
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• 1 cup Mustard (I used a spicy deli variety)
• 1/4 tsp Cloves (ground)
• 2 Tbs Honey (optional)
• 1 tsp Garlic powder or 1/2 clove of Garlic (optional)
• 1 tsp Horseradish (optional)

In a small sauce pan bring the water to a boil and add the brown sugar and spices. After stirring these in and bringing it back to a boil add the mustard. Give it a few minutes to simmer and the mop or sauce is done. Take it and the ham to the preheated grill. Place the ham on the grill and mop down the ham with the sauce. Use a basting brush or your hand to apply the sauce (have a towel handy). Close down the lid and let it cook. Your target cooking temperature is 325 or so, although mine was more like 375 for most of the cooking time. I use a meat thermometer to gauge its progress. The internal temp should be 160 plus and on the 9 pound-er I cooked, this took 4 1/2 hours. The ham should also be mopped with sauce at least 3 times during the cooking process to keep the outside moist.

Our ham turned out very good, even my wife liked the finished product. I kept some of the mop so that it could be used as a sauce on the ham at the table. The outside does dry out a bit but the inside was juicy and tender as could be. It was a big hit. Thanks to Seriouswriter for pointing me in the right direction. It worked great.

Good luck with your next ham dinner. Let me know how you adjusted this recipe for your tastes.

Some people like to make their own or are curious what it takes to make tasty sausage. So here we go, a short tutorial on this breakfast treat.

First you need trim with enough fat content. Roughly 30 percent. The range for acceptable fat content is fairly flexible but it is necessary to have some fat in sausage. It adds to flavor and texture as well as allowing the meat to hold together in patties for cooking. This isn’t like ground beef where you can select extra lean grind at about 7 percent and get a good result. I would guess anything below 20 percent would be unsatisfactory for most people.

Second you need seasoning. These seasoning can be mixed by your own hand or you can use a good premix. I hope to have list of seasonings you can mix for your own sausage before too long. For now I will give you a couple of good options. For breakfast sausage All American Seasoning has a seasoning for breakfast sausage that has been the standard for meat rooms around the West for decades. It can be a little difficult to come by though. They don’t sell retail. You can find it at meat markets that use the mix. Otherwise there are more brands of seasoning available than I could list. Zach’s have a long list of sausage seasonings as do Vecchi’s. For breakfast sausage, you are looking for country style sausage seasoning. This is a seasoning featuring sage and other spices. There are also fine Italian seasoning available from these outfits. The meat and the process are the same for these two varieties.

Once you have selected your desired flavor there will be a ratio of seasoning to meat. For example 1 lb of seasoning per 25 lbs of meat. For most seasonings I prefer to add a bit extra seasoning. About 5 to 10 percent. The limitation is the salt in the seasoning and how spicy you want your sausage.

• First, I add the spice to the meat spreading it out fairly evenly.
• Second I grind the meat and spice mixture with a course plate.
• Third, I add a little water to the ground meat and mix by hand. The amount of water varies. The meat should be able to absorb the water, so don’t get carried away. If you are running the sausage through a stuffer to make links you will want to add a bit more water.

That’s it. You’ve made sausage. Fry it up or freeze it for another day.

It’s a surprise to many people that not all salt is created equal. The table salt most people use to fill their salt shakers at home is not pure salt. Most salt has iodine added to it, as a solution to a shortage of the element in most people’s diet. This is the ubiquitous Iodized Salt. In addition to iodine, table salt and some other fine pour-able salts have sodium ferrocyanide added to prevent caking. These additives have benefits but for some recipes they have drawbacks. In canning these ingredients will make the liquids cloudy. They can also contribute an off flavor for brine’s and dry cures. When you want absolute control of the appearance and flavor of your creation take salts with these ingredients off the list.

In addition to the purity issue, there are differences in the coarseness of available salts. Popcorn salt for example is very fine. Table salt is normally fairly fine. Canning and pickling salts and kosher salts are fairly coarse. Rock salt is left as crystals that are not ground. These salts can be mined or extracted from sea water through evaporation. They are normally made without additives and are largely the same in terms of content but they will react different in recipes and have different purposes because of how quickly they dissolve. Kosher Salt for example gets its name because it is used to help make meats kosher by extracting the last of the blood from meats. It’s coarseness prevents the salt from being absorbed fully before the blood is picked up by the salt.

In addition to these differences, there are salts available that have flavors added to them. They can have fruit flavors added for use in tropical drinks, smoke flavors used for dry curing, and even pickle flavored salt used for… well I was surprised at how popular pickle flavored salt was for making chips, burgers or your favorite side dish have that pickle taste. (Not to be confused with pickling salt which has no flavor added to it.)

Smoked flavored salts are very useful in dry cures. This is especially true if you are cooking the meat in an oven where smoke can’t be introduced. They are normally pure so the only thing they add is that smoky salt flavor to your recipe.

Knowing what is available and how it can be used can be very helpful when preparing to dive into that special recipe. The coarseness of the salt will also effect its volume when measuring it for a recipe. So until you get a handle on how it will change your recipe, use a little less salt. Then add to flavor. It won’t take long to get the right amount.

I have a variety of salts in the IGT Store so you can see some of the available offerings.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope the added complication added to your life is worthwhile.

So here we go.

First of all, I am most familiar with using a brine to cure and flavor the meat. In a bit of research about what is out there I see quite a few recipes from people that are not worried about using a cure, in addition to salt, for low heat cooking. I think this is a bit risky, especially on poultry and fish, unless you are using a fairly high salt content by today’s standards. In ideal circumstances there would be no problem, but if the meat has a higher bacteria count than normal (maybe Earl at the plant got a bit careless when moving Porkchop to the breakdown area and dropped her on the floor, giving her an unintentional marinade in unmentionables or perhaps you were distracted as you were getting the ham out to put it down in the brine and the game you gave up on became a higher priority than that special project that got a bit warmer than intended before brining) you may wish you Had upped your protection. Point is that a cure is a great insurance policy against the unknown without having to make your brine too salty. The low heat cooking process is a more favorable environment for bacteria than a normal cooking process. The meat will spend twice as long in the ideal range for bacterial growth. So I recommend incorporating a cure in any Low Heat Cooking.

The original cure used in this process is salt. However we have other preservatives we can use, so the level of salt needed is lower and more a factor of taste than necessity. These other preservatives are the dreaded Nitrites, Nitrates, and Phosphates we spent a decade or more fearing. When the big studies were conducted to put the nails in the coffin of preservatives like these, the scientists were red faced to report that there were no links between these preservatives and health problems. In fact they found that there may be some health benefits from them. So when putting together a recipe, I recommend including a cure with your other ingredients or substitute a mix like Morton’s Tender Quick. It includes salt, sugar, nitrites, and nitrates. You use a 1:4 ratio of Tender Quick to water by volume. The directions say 2 cups of Tender Quick to 8 cups of water.

Hot Smoking Similar to Barbecuing but generally done at slightly lower temperatures. Smoke can be used for adding flavor.

Kippering Devised in particular for fish, this process relies on both the curing and cooking of meat. Smoke here is also used as a flavor enhancer.

Cold Smoking The process involved the use of smoke to preserve meat. Today, cures are used to help kill bacteria and parasites. Some people will also use a period of time (3 or more days) in the freezer to eliminate parasites, especially from fish. The cure alone only slows the growth of bacteria.

If I tried to include all of the different sources that contributed to all the ways of smoking meat, we’d have a book or two not a recipe.

That having been said, how about a recipe for something.

First, a good recipe for brine.

• 1 gallon water (Hot)
• 1 cup salt
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup whole cloves (ground cloves are fine)
• 1/4 cup ground nutmeg
• 6 cinnamon sticks ( ground is fine, but I don’t have an amount for you, My guess 1/4 cup)
• 1-2 oz of liquid smoke (2-4 Tbs)

The original recipe calls for boiling the mixture. I combined the ingredients I used very hot water out of the tap and mixed it until the ingredients are dissolved as much as possible. If the ingredients aren’t dissolving as much as you would like, boil the brine for 20 minutes or so. Either way make sure the brine is cool or even cold before putting the meat down into it.
I adapted this from About.com And is by Derrick Riches.

I used this recipe because it is the most similar I have found to the recipe we used in the Smokehouse ( Yes, I added and subtracted a bit). The ingredients we used were only available commercially. This recipe does not include any cure, so here are some options. Add 1-2 oz of Tender Quick to the recipe or find a cure with no salt and follow the directions or substitute Tender Quick for the salt and the sugar.

Anytime you are making a brine or marinade you should be able to sample it and get an idea if the ratios are right. It will always be too strong to call tasty but it will give you an idea.

As far as time in the brine, that will vary a lot depending on the type of meat. Something small (A cut of chicken or a fillet of Salmon) can be cured in 8-12 hours. Something large (A Ham) may take 7-10 days. Also anything thicker than 2 inches should have brine pumped into it. We use, shockingly enough, a brine pump for this. It is a giant syringe like device, but with a needle about the size of a large nail, only longer. No you won’t want any flu shots with this. You pump it up like a beach ball and put it down in the brine. This is handy and recommended on hams, shoulders, and even loins.

After the meat is cured, you need to rinse it. For the large cuts, 1 1/2 - 2 hours under running water. It doesn’t need to be running at full tilt, just a light flow around it. In the meat business we use a sink that over flows into another sink, so the meat is immerse. You can use a container that can overflow into you kitchen sink or (raised eyebrow time) a container set in the bath tub overflowing into the tub. (There go the brownie points with the wife) You get the idea, use your imagination and have some good excuses ready.

And finally, you cook it up. An oven will work fine. Set it at about 225 and figure on 6 hours although it could take 8. A meat thermometer is critical here. Small or thin cuts will cook much faster, probably in 3 -4 hours. When it gets to 165, its ready. Remember in lost cases it will be heated up again, so don’t expect this to look like dinner. Smaller cuts may be ready to throw on a plate but the larger cuts normally are going to be cooked again. If you find the outside is getting too well done before the temperature gets to your target, then cut the temperature back to 210 or so. Adjustment is the name of the game.

Smoked meat is a lot of work, but it is very rewarding. I highly recommend that you write down exactly what you do to make your product. It will make adjusting your recipe much easier and since there are so many steps it can be hard to remember what you did a week ago when you made that brine.

You weren’t supposed to bring a list, it was a rhetorical question.

Whether it makes your top list of worst disappointments or not, it’s certainly not what we bargain for when we pick up a cut from the meat case.

I thought it would be a little helpful to write about what causes spoilage so that you would have an idea of what to look for and how to prevent the early demise of hard earned dinner ingredients.

The first culprit is the one most likely to take food off your dinner menu. Bacteria. These microorganisms are everywhere looking for a free meal.  It should also be mentioned that we are chocked full of beneficial bacteria.  Some types of bacteria are harmful and sometimes high levels of, otherwise harmless, bacteria can cause problems for us.  So how do we keep the harmful bacteria away from our food. The main thing to remember about bacteria is that they like what you like.

• moisture
• temperate or warm climate
• lots of light

Sounds like we could find them at the beach in California or Florida.

In all seriousness though, at room temperature (or a little above) bacteria are very happy, when they get happy they multiply quickly, and when they multiply, they ruin the neighborhood. That neighborhood was dinner. Some bacteria themselves can be dangerous when ingested. In high enough concentration these bacteria can overwhelm our bodies defenses and cause damage.  Normally, however,  it is the by-products of their existence that are the problem. The by-products cause bad smell, bad taste, or sliminess.  These are the signs of bacteria running rampant in our food. In addition to the effects we can see, there are also effects that are hard to see.   Poisons.  They can be harmful to us in many ways but the main thing to remember is that the poisons can be fatal and they are not always detectable.

Do spoilage bacteria make people sick?
Most people would not choose to eat spoiled food. However, if they did, they probably would not get sick.

Pathogenic bacteria cause illness. They grow rapidly in the “Danger Zone” – the temperatures between 40 and 140 °F – and do not generally affect the taste, smell, or appearance of food. Food that is left too long at unsafe temperatures could be dangerous to eat, but smell and look just fine. E. coli O157:H7, Campylobacter, and Salmonella are examples of pathogenic bacteria.

From the USDA Website

Whether bacteria ruins the flavor or is producing poisons it is something you want to avoid.  Cooking food properly will kill the bacteria, but if they have been in high enough concentration, the by-products, (poison) are left behind to do their damage.  So proper food handling is important to prevent spoilage or illness from bacteria.  Keep the food cool, this slows the growth of the little buggers.  Freezing brings their growth to a near halt.

Another culprit in the food spoilage campaign we are engaged in is Mold.  These organisms are larger than bacteria (bacteria is a single cell organism and molds are multi-cellular) but thrive in the similar conditions.  Some molds are poisonous wile others are benign.  We are in the fungus family. (Yes, mold is related to mushrooms) In general, mold in soft or moist foods should send the food to the trash.  Mold in hard foods like cheese or dry salami can be trimmed.  Also, if you are dealing with small pieces, like jerky, even though it is hard and can be fairly dry, it should still be tossed, out of caution.  The higher the moisture content, the sooner mold will steal your snack.  Sealing these foods away from air helps stop molds but in a airless environment you can get growth that looks like mold but can be a persistent bacteria.  Either way sealing meat away from air is not a solution by itself.  A thorough sterilization process would have to be applied to avoid molds and bacterial growth, even in an airless environment.  Cool temps are a good way to thwart the pesky mold and those nasty preservatives that so many people are afraid of are also helpful in keeping mold at bay.

So, keeping food in the fridge or freezer should do it right!  Wrong!  There is another culprit that lurks in the shadows.  It’ slower than the others I have written about but it’s all around us.  It’s Air!  Or more specifically Oxygen.  It’s the old we can’t live without it and we can’t live with it gag.  Oxygen is always burning everything it touches.  It is the source of rust and other oxidation around us.  Given enough time, oxygen spoils food too.  You know its fingerprints well.  They manifest themselves in several ways.  Rancid meat or butter is caused as a result of oxygen.  If you have a piece of meat for example that has little bacteria on it and you keep it in the fridge for a while somehow keeping the bacteria and mold away but exposed to the air, you will see in a few weeks the flavor turn rancid. Especially the fat portions.

An example more people are familiar with today is out of the freezer.  You put a cut of meat in a freezer bag and toss it into the freezer for a year long voyage.  On it’s arrival on the menu in your house, you find it is a little worse for wear.  Like it really went on a voyage around the world and put its time in as a fill in for the spare tire.  It is a frosty white color but you go forward with plans for dinner defrosting the well traveled steak or roast not wanting to waste a good meal over its having shown up in inappropriate attire.  After the careful thaw you notice an unpleasant odor coming from the long anticipated dinner guest.  Not wanting to be rude you insert the guest into its place of honor in you recipe only to discover the odor getting worse.  Kind of an old shoe leather odor but without the nostalgic memories.  You take a sample of the dinner, only to discover your recipe has been ruined by the apparent world traveler.  It’s not your guest’s fault.  It’s simply a case of a gate crasher beating you to the punch.  Freezer Burn ate dinner before you thawed it out, leaving spoiled meat in its path.  Freezer burn is oxidation that occurs in those low temperature conditions in the freezer.  It isn’t that it is dangerous, it’s just  distasteful and will give you an upset stomach.  Where you see it, trim away the burned portions and the rest will be alright.  The flavor from the unburned portioned may be a bit lackluster but it won’t be harmful or make anyone sick.  You just have to be sure to get it all trimmed off.

The way to protect your future dinner guests is to vacuum pack the meat if you plan to keep it in the freezer more than 2 months.  Vacuum packing pulls all the air out and seals the meat away.  This combined with freezing will preserve the meat for months or even years if done correctly.

Pressure Canning is another process that stands the test of time, with regard to these villains of good taste.  If the product is canned properly and the jars of goodies are kept in a cool spot (like a pantry or fruit cellar) the scale can be measured in years.

If a person is going to use a cut in 6 months to a year butcher wrap will work fine.

I guess the best advice I could give is invest the time to store it right and it will be ready when you need it.  Also, if it smells or looks wrong, be wary.  Don’t just throw it into a recipe for dinner to be served to your 90 year old Granny.  (Yeah, I know, you knew that already)  Test it on an annoying neighbor first.  Yes that was a joke, but don’t tell your neighbor.

Have a great day and a great meal.

I am normally sane and I do not usually mix math, philosophy, and cooking in my titles, but it somehow seemed right.

For Thanksgiving we had turkey of course, but we also had ham. As I have mentioned in other posts, I am not a big fan of turkey. I eat a little now and then (once a year). Ham on the other hand is food worth cooking and eating.

First, if you should decide to have a ham for Christmas or New Years, what kind of ham should you get. Does it matter? You bet it does.

The boneless processed and shaped hams (chopped and formed) are handy for lunch meat but even the best of these hams can’t hold a candle to a bone-in whole ham or half-ham. The difference is in the flavor and texture. They may not be as convenient but they are worth the effort.

A bone in ham has more flavor because of that annoying bone. In our society today people are unaware of subtleties like flavor. People are caught up in the marketing terms and catch-phrases like lean and convenient, or worse cheap. Flavor, real good deep flavor, is not insignificant to people like it used to be. My advice. Don’t hold back if you are serving a ham for dinner. Especially for a special dinner. Go bone-in. You do not have to go to the top end to reap the benefits of flavor. You certainly can go to a Honey Baked Ham store and get an excellent ham from them. A less expensive Hillshire Farms ham at your local grocer or one of many other makers of bone-in hams will reward you with a solid flavor and a good smell spreading from your kitchen. There are also hams smoked by small local smokhouses around the country. Find one that fits your needs and go for it.

You can get a whole or a half ham, depending on how big a piece of meat you need. The half hams come as butt-end (or upper end of the ham) or shank-end (AKA leg-end hoch-end, this is the lower end of the ham) The butt-end has more meat on it and the meat is of higher quality.

What always surprises me about a bone-in ham is how good it is as left-overs. It seems to improve with a day in the frig. You can’t say that about turkey.

How long to cook?

About 13 to 15 minutes per pound. Oven temperature should be about 325. I watch the bone, on a butt-end ham, when it is starting to separate from the meat it’s done. You will find that all of the indicators of the ham being ready will come along near the same time. Outside color, internal temperature, the timber of the meat (how it pulls apart and separates from the bone). You will have the best results when you can look at several things about a dish and see how it is progressing during the cooking process. Each piece of meat is different and each will vary a little as it is prepared. You are shooting for an internal temperature of at least 120 degrees. A ham, unlike other meats you are cooking, has been through one cooking process already. It has been smoked or cooked to about 160 degrees internal by the smokehouse. The objective then is to get it warmed up, without over cooking it and drying out the outside.

This year we used a cooker to heat up the ham. It is like a giant crockpot and uses indirect heat to cook. This helps keep the ham moist. It also catches the juices allowing the ham to bath in them. We did not baste the ham but doing so can help keep the outside moist and soft. However you cook your ham, cover it and catch the juices. Also, you can cover the outside of the ham with brown sugar or honey. Other sauces or flavorings can be used to help moisten the ham or to add to it’s flavor. If you decide to BBQ the ham be aware that this is one technique that will tend to dry out the meat. I recommend using something to baste the ham like a sugar or honey based sauce. If you prefer your ham a little dryer you won’t be disappointed with one off the BBQ. If you like a moist ham and prefer to have it without any sauces or flavors added then baking is the way to go in my opinion.

Consider ham for your next special meal. It will make a great meal and the left-overs are just as good as the original meal was.

Table of contents for Tools of the Trade

1. Tools of the Trade Part One of Three
2. Tools of the Trade Part Two of Three
3. Tools of the Trade Part Three of Three

As we continue looking at some spices I use in my cooking, and the companies behind them, I am taken back to my time in the Meat Department. Quite a bit of what I learned about meat comes from that time, including my experience with Vecchi’s Seasonings.

We used spices from several different companies in the Meat Department in the making of pre-seasoned main courses and for making sausages of different types. I used Vecchi’s Italian Sausage seasonings and their Poketta Seasoning. In fact I still use those today.

Here is a description of the company from their website:

About Vecchi’s Seasonings

Vecchi Seasonings, Inc., is a family owned business that has been successfully marketing their special blend of seasonings since 1989. It is owned and operated by Ann Vecchi and her son David P. Vecchi. The first products introduced to the market were our private blend of Vecchi’s Italian Porketta Seasoning, Vecchi’s Sweet Italian Sausage Seasoning, Vecchi’s Hot Italian Sausage Seasoning, and Vecchi’s Country Sausage Seasoning. These blends are used in bulk by numerous meat departments to make their own porketta roasts and sausages for their trade.Due to many requests from our patrons we developed the retail jars. Now the seasonings are available for the user to use at home. Our line of seasonings has now grown from the four original blends to nine, offering a unique variety of special flavors.Our seasoning blends are all natural with no additives, preservatives or MSG. We have them available in four different sizes. Bulk (10 pound boxes), PC1, PC5, and Retail Jars.

The Porketta pork roast recipe in the post titled ‘A Pork Roast Surprise!’ is done, at least in my kitchen, using Vecchi’s. The blend of spices is perfect for Pork Roast. Complex and flavorful but not overpowering.

Vecchi’s Seasonings have a very good reputation in meat departments around the country. Again, I find that this company has a larger selection of spices than I was aware of. I sense a ’spice’ buying spree coming on. Vecchi’s will be on that list.

Their products come in a variety of sizes and they have a gift pack so we can try their whole line. You may also find these products in your favorite Meat Department. That’s actually where I get mine. They also take phone and fax orders if you can’t find it nearby.

Our final company is in Part Three,

Brutus.

Well, first I can highly recommend this seasoning. It does work best on a roast, in my opinion. You can use it on any pork you’d like of course, but I prefer it on a larger piece of meat.

The flavor is mild and complex. It compliments the pork and the fat very well. I normally use it on a Pork roast from the shoulder or more specifically the Boston Butt. This portion of the shoulder has a fairly high fat content and good flavor. The roast will cook down to be quite tender. Because of the fat content it is very forgiving as far as moisture content goes. It is even a good piece for the BBQ, believe it or not. The key is to make sure it is done. It needs to get to 170 degrees all the way through. When your thermometer gets to about 160 or a little more take it off the flame or move it to a place to set for 10 to 15 minutes so it will finish cooking, unless your like me and like the outside pretty well done. I actually like to test it by checking how the meat pulls apart. As it falls apart easily and pulls away from the bone (if there is one) easily it is perfect for me. This will be after it has reached the safe targeted temperature but you should use a thermometer to be sure. As a starting point you can figure the time will run about 20 minutes per pound.

As far as adding the spice, if you are doing it yourself, you can lay it on pretty thick. It does not have a high salt content, unlike many BBQ rubs on the market.

If you’ve ever wondered about trying one of these, dig in and give it a try. Whether you cook it on the BBQ or in the oven it will melt in you mouth.

Brutus