Smoking pork ham at home - features of hot and cold smoking hams.

To smoke, you need to take a pre-salted ham, preferably from young pork, and put it in fresh water for 2-6 hours (depending on the degree of salinity).

For subsequent drying, a hole is made in the leg through which twine or thick thread is threaded, after which the workpiece is hung in a cold and well-ventilated room. Upon completion of the process of removing excess moisture, the ham is hung in the smokehouse.

There are hot and cold smoking techniques.

Hot smoking of ham.

This type of processing requires significantly less time than cold smoking and is used if the ham is planned to be cooked after the smokehouse. The product hung for smoking is treated for 12 hours with smoke at a temperature of 45-60 degrees.

To maintain the desired temperature during smoking, the firewood is covered with a layer of wet sawdust. It is important to monitor the fire level, constantly reducing it by adding a new portion of sawdust. The readiness of the ham can be assessed by eye: it should be well dried and have a smoky yellow-brown color.After hot smoking, the product can be boiled or baked in the oven.

See video: How hot-smoked frozen ham is made on an industrial scale.

Cold smoked ham.

This type of meat processing is necessary in order to obtain a delicious raw smoked product from the prepared ham. To do this, you need to create cold smoke at room temperature and slowly smoke the workpiece for 48–96 hours. After which, the resulting smoked product must be dried for a month in a dry, cold room.

Homemade hot smoked hams can be stored in the refrigerator and preferably consumed within a few days from the moment of preparation, while a cold smoked product can be stored in cold rooms for up to 6 months.