Early Morning Thread 1/3/15: Hamtacular edition [krakatoa]

First weekend EMT of 2015! The wife & I are holding off on our New year's resolution until Monday, as it is her birthday today. So we're stretching the holiday eat-fest until after that. Then it's back on the low-carb train.

Here's the ginger pig recipe some of you requested from Chez krak/t. I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Raspberry Ginger Glaze

I used Penzey's Raspberry Enlightenment as a base, and just added ground ginger to taste. Very simple, and you could use any fruit jam or sauce as the base. If you use a jam, I'd recommend cutting it with some cider vinegar or just water to thin it out for easy application. You want it thin enough to spread, but thick enough to stick without running. I made about 6 oz of glaze for this -- you may want more or less depending on how many coats you do.

Gingerbread Pig Brine

12 c water
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c sorghum
1 1/2 c kosher salt
1 cinnamon stick, crumbled
1/4 t ground cinnamon
1/2 t whole cloves
1/4 t (heaping) whole allspice berries
1/4 t freshly ground nutmeg
1 green cardamom pod, crumbled
1/4 t ground ginger
6 g candied ginger, diced
3 g dried ginger root in chunks

4 c ice (aiming for one gallon of water per 10 pounds of meat)
8 pound pork shoulder (weight is after skin/fat has been removed). For a larger ham, you may want to inject brine as well.

Add first 13 ingredients to a large pot & bring to a boil, stirring to dissolve.

Add ice & let cool to approx 40 degrees before adding brine to pig. Double-bagging the pork in roasting bags, settling into a large bowl, and pouring the brine in on top to cover worked well.

Keep pork no colder than 38-40 deg F (or brine will stop permeating the cells), and slosh spices around daily for 9-10 days. One day before cooking, drain brine & soak pig in fresh water, changing fresh water 3-4 times throughout the day.

Drain & allow to come up to room temp before smoking with cherry chips @ 225 deg F. Cook to 150 internal temp, than allow to rest down to approx 135 internal. Then glaze in the oven at 375 for about 60 minutes, reapplying glaze ever 20 minutes.

It could take more cinnamon & ginger, but overall very happy with the flavor.

Unpaid testimonial follows the break:

This was Baby Soraya's reaction after every bite of this pig. I am not kidding. She did this over and over again. It was both adorable and immensely complimentary.

posted by Open Blogger at 06:30 AM

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