Has any one ever tryed to cure a deer ham ?
I want the finished product ,so that you can just hang it.
Like a Virigina salt cured ham.

I have done several. I put them in a brine of 1 part tender quick and four parts water. add some brown sugar. Need to put a dinner plate with a brick on it to hold them under the brine. After a week I cold smoke it for about 12 hours. Then wrap in cheese cloth and hang.

mulberry

Is temperature while in the brine important?

Yes. You want it pretty chilly. Can do it in a fridg also.

I do it very similar to Danny but I cure it for 21 days
And smoke to 125 with hickory. I do refrigerate it when it’s done but it will last for a month
Or probably longer

Anyone tried a dry salt cure?

have talked about doing a sugar cured deer ham for years and never did it.
now morton's is not making sugar cure anymore and i have not found a replacement yet.

I saved a couple of bigger roasts to cure this year, gonna try lem ham cure

Son and I dry cured some bacon about 6 weeks ago. We bought a cure in a box from a company called back woods. Put the meat in a fridge. Put newspaper on the metal grate to absorb liquid and the meat in walmart bags with a few holes cut in the bottom. Had to change the newspaper twice. There are directions. After two weeks of dry brining you rinse then soak the meat in clean water for a couple hours before smoking. It is real good. As thin as deer ham is I think that bacon cure would make a real nice deer ham using the same method. Dont skimp on cure.

I see they also sell a ham cure or two. We bought the bacon cure at a local grocery store.

https://www.lemproducts.com/category/bacon-ham-seasoning

this is the one we used for bacon. (pork) I really feel like it would be great for a deer ham.

https://www.lemproducts.com/product/bacon-cure-dry-rub/bacon-ham-seasoning

If you use news paper or paper towels to soak up the liquid you need it pretty thick. I think a plastic tote that is not real tall and of the proper size would be great. Put a wooden grate in the tote to allow the liquid to drain off and the meat not sit in it. I have not built one yet. I will before we butcher our next hog though.

This is want I was gona try.

Its pretty good newt

I dry cure. If you want shelf stable outside of the freezer you NEED NITRATES! Tenderquick, has some. Its much cheaper to buy "Prague Powder #2, or "Instacure #2" and mix with regular salt/sugar to make your own version of Tenderquick. Old timers used "saltpeter" to get nitrates, some will use celery powder.

https://hoosierhillfarm.com/Hoosier-Hill-Farm-Prague-Powder-No.2-2-Pink-Curing-Salt-1-lb..html

Make sure you do the math right. That one pound can will do 400 pounds of meat when mixed appropriately with regular salt/sugar.

When ive done venison hams I prefer to bone them out and use the larger muscles. I also cure backs straps this way, and they are really good. (think canadian bacon).

I just finished up an Instacure #1 cure (needs frozen after done) on pork belly for bacon , and cold smoked for 8 hours with oak. Man is it good.

I use Morton's Sugar Cure and smoke the ham several hours. Maple is one of my favorites. I intentionally and without shame kill a couple fawns each fall just for the hams to cure. It comes out just like lean ham, light pink. Old cheese, cured venison, crackers and Paul's Skeeter Pee and it's convention time. (Except in Virginia where that could constitute serving alcohol without a permit and get you arrested!)

John Your Fawns are most likly bigger then my South Jersey Pine barren bucks.

Last week I shot a big bodyed .With a small 6 point rack .

Weighted him Head, hide and guts. 100#