What you buy in a store SO called "smoked" and actually smoked in a smoke house are two different thinks .I remember as a kid in Europe 40/50 lbs ham would be smoked in a smoke house for 3 wks and would then hanging in storage for a year no refrigeration no problem. Henry

What you buy in a store is NOT ham period. It is some kind of jellied spamlike stuff. I used to love ham and bean soup but quit making it years ago when I couldn't get home grown ham. My hams are from my own pigs. My meat gets smoked at a government inspected abatoir/processer because I need to sell it to the public. Still not the quality you are talking about, but a darn sight better then store bought.

I have reserved one side of pork from the latest group of pigs, to be smoked in my own smoke house that is going to be built shortly. I will salt cure it (no nitrates) then smoke it to death so it can be hung for storage just like you mentioned.

OddDuck You make me jealous .When ready we are coming for supper you serve ham i bring nice home made wine. Henry

I don't drink, but hubby likes that cherry wine. I can think of some good recipes for it though. Could make a killer glaze/gravy for that ham.

Hey odd Duck
When soaking large pieces of meat for smoking is it required or even a good idea tio inject brine with a syringe
I have done jerk meat the traditional native way but never large chunks
Thanks Hobo

Hey Hobo that is right we did not have syringes so we made deep cuts into meet and forced brine right down to the bone. Henry

PrepperGreen,

You just made my smack my forehead. For some reason, I never thought of dehydrating ham. I have 2 32 lb smoked hams in the freezer. I was going to can some, eat some fresh, but ham jerkey sounds pretty good. My only worry is that there may be too much fat for dehydrating as they came from a rather large, large black sow.

Hi OddDuck. I trim off the fat and cube the ham before dehydrating. Right now the fat is in a baggie in the freezer - not sure what I'll do with it, but I hated to throw it out. Any ideas?

Render it down and send it to eggman; he could use it to make pemmican or render it down and make pastry for a meat pie with it. You can always feed it to yours or someone else's pets this winter.

refrence the discussion about how long jerky lasts, i made jerky in december 08 and kept it rolled up in waxpaper like a sausage in the cupboard, ate it in a treestand the following october, tasted the same as the day i made it (there is a reason it stayed in the cupboard for almost a year) almost cracked a tooth but it wasnt moldy and i suffered no ill effects.

So you had my windowsill jerky minus the dust. I have been thinking of wrapping a batch in waxed paper and then vacuum sealing it to keep it water proof.

good to know jerkey can last...i used to eat some military food and they came ith small packs of beef jerkey vacume sealed....they lasted a while as well.

the dust may have made it taste better, i found that it was much more dry after storing it, next time i make jerky im going to dry it twice like double baking hard tack and see if that makes it last longer, has anyone tried this?

Is inside round roast a good enough cut of meat for making jerky? It's on sale this week for $2.99 a pound

Is inside round roast a good enough cut of meat for making jerky? It's on sale this week for $2.99 a pound

Yes. When slicing, trim out as much grisle and fat as you can; these are what goes rancid. You can make jerkey out of any meat as long as you do this and the cut isn't full of fat marbling.

Good advice OddDuck. I have found that ANY lean meat makes good jerky. Venison jerky is fantastic.