# Sugar curing hams.



## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

While digging at Darin and Rick about vinegar, I mentioned using molasses to cure with and was asked for the method. I'll put this up in two parts so as not to have it eat up for being too long. There are a bunch of ways to cure a ham. Salt cured[aka dry cure], wet cure and smoking. The two methods used here will be salt cured and sugar cured, both being known as the dry cure method. WNCRICK can jump in on brining. The above ways come from my folks. Dads people came from Franklin Co. and did straight salt curing. Mom was from Grayson Co. and they salt cured for the first 6 weeks then sugar cured. Neither one, Mom or Dads folks smoked them in my recollection.

Part 1---
I'll include a link here since it's pretty much straight forward for the salt curing that most folks use.
http://www.motherearthnews.com/real...d-ham-zm0z91zblon.aspx?PageId=1#axzz2pMmAaVUz.
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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Part 2-----Sugar curing.
The salt curing part is pretty much the same as described in the link in Part 1. Now for the molasses cure. After the ham had been cleaned good, we rubbed it down with old molasses and put in every crease, crack, crevice and the hock end packed full. Black pepper, some red pepper and borax was mixed together in a good sized box that the ham would fit in and was patted, rubbed,[again in any place there was molasses]. I always stuffed the hock end as full of straight RED pepper as I could. Now time to wrap and hang. One Kroger bag was slid down over the butt end. Then the ham was slipped into another Kroger bag. Both bags were then mashed and pressed together, gently so as not to rub off the cure, then I started wrapping with twine. Don't spare the string since that holds the bags good and helps seal the ham. As with most everything in the country years back, a feed sack was used to slide the ham in with the hock end down and either knotted or tied with string to hang it up with. The longer a ham is hung, the redder it will be and look more like ham. The longer it is hung, the drier and tougher it also gets. I always had one for Thanksgiving and X-mas and tried to have another for Easter. So, we're talking about the ham hanging around 10 to 12 months from date of kill. Here's another link worth reading that touches on sugar curing also.

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/458/458-223/458-223.html


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

Should have mentioned every square inch of the ham needs to be covered good with the molasses and pepper mix, including the skin as well as the meat.


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## WNCRick (Sep 24, 2007)

I had better get started for Christmas!! Thanks again for posting this. Where do you get those old timey good molasses I remember? Old fella told me 20 years ago i'd never find em again, something about how they were cooked? Any Ideas? What do you use now??

Many thanks
Rick


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## wdbrand (May 24, 2007)

You either find some farmers that raise sorghum and make some for themselves or stop at every country store you come to and ask if they have any. Several seasonal markets[roadside, local produce has it around here] but don't know how it was made. Could be a lot of preservatives added. Good luck. Outside of that, go with a roadside market, and not store bought. Should work fine. A good place to check would be anywhere there's a dunkard/mennonite group,church, community. They tend to be rite self sustaining.


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