Ham and bacon

Dry Cured with tenderquick in a fridge for 3 weeks. Getting smoked tomorrow. Hams will get slow cooked for 14 hours with mulberry wood. Target temp of 200. Bacon gets cold smoked. We try to keep temps under 150 for about 4 hours. They will come out of the water in a couple hours or so. I will fry a slice to see how salty it still is.

Please tell me that ain’t the same tub you wash the day off with?

Get
get ‘er done!

been washed hobbie. why? you scared to eat chicken or potato chips with your fingers?

I don't think Danny would fit well in that tub right now. It does look like he did an excellent job cleaning it.

Keith

LOL, one of my brothers built and serviced food processing equipment for decades.
Said he'd NEVER eat anything that comes out of a can!
He used to.laugh, as they required him to wear hair and beard nets on services calls.

Don't the maggots need them?

Don't think some tub crust'll hurt anything!

Mildly disturbing soaking the meat where ya wash your dangly bits lol. But hey, I knew a Lady that made wine and gin in her bathtub and she lived into her 90's. So rock on Danny.

Once the meat is cured, will it need to be refrigerated, how long will it last? I'm researching the ways my kin did it back in the day. Supposedly, once they cured it, it would last years without refrigeration.

My last long cure was too salty for my taste. Will do things different next time.

Soaking in water for an hour or so will help remove some of the salt

And give Danny a salt water bath to bathe in.

Keith

Catch22 it will keep awhile. I dont know about years. Bob thats why its in the tub. To get some of the salt out. Didnt figure a bunch of trappers would be disturbed by soaking in a tub. How do you manage to live with yourselves?

meat got a final rinse in the kitchen sink then patted dry with paper towels. ate a piece of the bacon and was just right. salty but not too salty. its back in the fridge, wrapped in saran wrap, till it gets smoked tomorrow

that just ain't right !!!!!

Good thing nobodys gramma used the same wash tub for making soap, soaking salt meat before smoking, washing clothes, making head cheese and bathing on saturdays, holding chunks of beef waiting to be canned, and holding live catfish till daylight so they could get filleted. If she had everybody woulda been sick to death for sure.

When I was single, I put a whole lot of soft shell turtles in my bathtub once. If I remember correctly, there were 27 of them. Some of the big females were well over 20 inches long. I just wanted to watch them swim.

Keith

Better not tell them you wash coyotes in your washing machine, lol

Gross.

I bought some totes for 7 dollars apiece for butchering, with lids.

I'm not knockin ya, ain't nothing wrong with it. I myself would probably have used a clean cooler or 5 gal buckets, not the blue ones lol. I always thought my Mama coming up in the 30's in coal camps were poor. But they must of been rich because they had a designated wash tub for bathing/laundry. It sat behind the cookstove and was brought out for baths on Saturdays whether you needed it or not lol.

I enjoy all the meat curing threads, I'm trying to learn. I wish I'd payed more attn to the Elders down home when I was a kid. They did stuff that most nowadays would pitch their nose up at it. But it worked! Let us know how it comes out after the smoke.

hippie those plastic totes add a foul taste to meat. its not the right kind of plastic

The shower curtain is hanging in it too. lol, heads are exploding.

probably going to poison us. water runs down that shower curtain when you bathe

Some folks make me wonder how they survive. It used to be babies were bathed in the kitchen sink and no one died from it.

my babies all got bathed in the kitchen sink and so did grand babies. i bet the great grand baby i am getting in january will be too

Never noticed any foul taste.

Here's what I use to cure in or whatever.


Hopefully be some Deer going in it soon!

They might cost more now, I've had mine for years of butchering.

My buddy prefers trashcan shaped ones for some reason.

I have brine cured meat in them. it definitely added a plastic taste. soaking after a dry cure probably doesnt add a taste. not going to be in it long enough.

Yep, I'd use the tub before I'd use those totes.

It's not recommended to store/soak meat in plastic unless it's food grade plastic, which totes are NOT. It's said to leach chemicals into the meat.

You trappers are killing me. We had a plumbing problem last week and so I washed our dishes in the bathtub. As long as you clean the bathtub well first there's absolutely nothing wrong with it. I never thought a bunch of trappers would be reacting like a bunch of sissy city girls on here, lol.

Still gross, gotta be something better even if you don't like totes.

Heck, use your toilet, just flush twice! lol

Maybe the bathtub wasn't quite clean enough? Hahahaaaa

That said, I'd eat a piece if offered!

Its the same tub he washes coyote hides in too.

That made me lol.

Angela, I don't think it sissified that someone's first thought isn't hey, lets wash are dishes we'll be eating on tomorrow in the same place we wash are butts. We have had plumbing issues in the past as well but used are camping coolers, one to wash, one to rinse, until I fixed it.

I think personal hygiene is important, but more so, the separation of food and dishes from the place we wash are no no spots is paramount. There are other options lol, but to each there own. Please tell me if your toilet breaks, y'all ain't gonna use the kitchen sink.

If you're afraid to touch food with anything that's touched "no no parts" you must have some REALLY stained up tighty whities.

Hey now, you leave my mildly stained unmentionables out of this lol. Equating non stained vs stained doesn't feed the bulldog in the realm of proper hygiene. You'd pee in the kitchen sink wouldn't ya lol. Poor Danny is probably thinking wth, how did a simple post about preserving meat take this turn.

Angela my mother had that exact same bowl. I could have made that post lol.
She also wrapped a skinned out deer in a bed sheet.
We used to use dang black garbage bags until I realized wasn't good idea. Lots them totes and thing people use are like you said. Not food grade plastic.. Some are even made from recycled plastic. Yummy.

But anyway as you know I have eaten more than a couple things Danny cooked or made. Never had any issues with how he does things. Most always on same page.

Mac

Omg I'm laughing so hard im crying...thanks y'all for the humor....I needed it today ! Thanks also Danny for the curing post.

We wrapped elk deer and beef all three in sheets to let it hang and age. Always put lots of pepper on the carcass first.

Moms...and mine is green

I ain’t scared to eat chicken or potato chips with my washed fingers but I still ain’t flicking them in my gullet with my washed hog.

Catch 22 you can make a quick toilet with a shovel, a five gallon bucket with the bottom cut out, a toilet seat. a couple tarps, some cord and six poles. A little quick lime before you fill the hole back in.

Yes, been there. But I didn't wash my meat or dishes in it. Why? Because my food doesn't need to be where my taint has been, there's options.

Catch. Does that mean you wouldn't except a shot good whiskey from a clean bed pan??? Or some young ladies bellybutton??


Mac

Easy to know how they go back on.Yellow in the front,, brown in the back !! Aint that how everybody does it??

Mac, no on the bed pan. Yes to the belly button, two different critters lol. Upstate, I'm going to go on record saying no, that's appalling and disgusting. Off the record, between just the two of us, don't whisper to anyone ok. Your dead on correct once a certain age has been met. However, I will not wash my unmentionables in the kitchen sink because I have thought out options which don't require mixing the no no's with food.

Never thought of mulberry. I use pear wood more than anything. I have a 3 year blow down mulberry in the timber, will have to cut some tomorrow.

I’ve found mulberry can be harsh at times so I’ve gone to using a lot of maple it’s milder and around here more plentiful, as far as cleanliness I’d rather eat the food out of that bathtub than a gut shot deer.

Know of more then 1 that has used ice in a bath tub to col out a deer.

This look better than a bathtub?

Looking good..


Mac

Well, depends what else you do with that thing?

Looking good Danny!

.that's alot of good eating
I use mortens sugar cure.

I'm gittin hungry just thinking or how good that will turn out

It smells good. Fire staying around 200. Ham is at 135

That house is full of coons. Son lives in a city of 12000. We are going to dog proof em in a few days. Probably cook and can some of them for bbq

I'd eat your bathtub ham no problem but I ain't near hungry enough to eat coon yet, lol.

Ang, I wont cook any with worms coming out of the ankles. I can it in homemade bbq sauce. Make sandwiches

5 hours at about 120 Time to see how the bacon tastes

I think people are being a bit judgey if I have projects I usually make it work with what I got, hope it turned out good

Looking good Danny!

I grilled on mulberry the last 4 days in a row, though yesterday I did put in a little white ash, that fell into my hay field. Mulberry is by far my favorite wood to grill on. I cut and store 3/4 inch to 3 inch pieces of mulberry just to be able to grill quickly. It turns to very nice coals in a short time.

Keith

Nice!

Hey wait a minute. Isn't the bottom of that grill the old tub they used for the annual feet washing down at the Episcopal Church???

Sorry Danny.

Daughter in laws uncle built that year’s ago. Steel is an 1/8 inch thick. Had sat at her grandmas house for years. Said they were tired of mowing around it.

Danny, your bacon looks great! I would eat that whether it was made in a bath tub or not.

Keith

Left it in the smoker a couple more hours after we ate that. tastes pretty good

No hint of dirty feet or sweaty balls? lol

It looks good!

Looking at that bacon I see I got one more thing on my list to try doing.. I swear I can smell it just looking at the picture.

Mac

The spice of life!

Looks like you had some good meaty bellies and those make very good bacon.

Great thread, thanks for sharing Danny.

I've never dry cured before, but I want to try it. I have a good fridge in the shop I can use and want to try your method. I've got a herd of pigs I've been baiting and will drop the hammer on them next good cold front that comes through. I've never used tender quick for a dry rub, but only wet brined them. How do you prep the meat with tenderquick in your method......amount per pound, etc. Thanks! Chancey

Oh, and for what its worth. I spent 2 years living with other buddies on a ranch I used to work on and we thawed out, cured, and processed most all of our meat in our bathtub that three nasty 23 year old men used daily. We never had any problem with a soap are nasty ball taste! HA!

Your going to need some of Kramer's salad for a side dish made while taking a shower of course!

Chancey, the meat was fresh. Had not been dead two hours. I was going to scald them but ended up skinning it. I just covered the meat in the tender quick Putting it on the sides with my hands and rubbing it in everywhere. As much as would stay on. Put it in a refrigerator for three weeks. After a week I turned it over. Seems to have worked pretty good. We took it out on a Saturday. Got down in the 40's that night but I think it was cured pretty good anyway. We wiped the meat down with paper towels and put a trash bag ontop a chest freezer. Just let it sit out out all night ontop the freezer. We rolled that fridge out and washed the inside out with a pressure washer. It was nasty to start but cleaned up good. No stains. the liquid mostly collected in the drawers in the bottom. This fridge has glass shelves. I think if you have one with a metal grate you could cover the metal with ply wood or one bys or something. I am pretty sure setting it on the metal would be a problem.

Chancey I bet some of these guys throw plates away rather than wash and reuse them

And none of them would EVER eat out again if they saw everything that went on in the kitchens of their favorite restaurants.

Danny when I dry brine meat I set it on a cookie cooling rack, and put the whole thing inside of a turkey cooking bag. Eliminates any mess.

I sort of hate to post this. This is a funny thread.
Menards sells food grade 5 gallon plastic buckets.
I never thought of smoking with mulberry.
You've solved my "where do I get hickory" problem. Thanks
Bob

I can't resist this, I made sausage and bacon in this tub. Now I'm washing a ten lb ham in it.



Bathtub is too big.