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I'm planning on raising a couple hogs for us next year, and my how to book discuses curing and smoking ham. A friend had a butcher make cure his venison hams two years ago, and he raved about it. I know I could probably do this.

Has anybody cured and/or smoked venison hams? What is your technique?
Thanks

I have been wanting to learn how to cure and smoke a ham for a while now. Very interested in this thread...

We hunted the same little place in Seaboard, NC for almost 20 years. Down the road was a little old man with a smokehouse in his yard, We'd buy bags of pulled pork sandwiches from his place just about every afternoon. He would cure your venison and smoke it for you but we never had the time to leave it with him. We had venison ham at the camp though. It was definitely more smokey than hammy. Good, but more like roast beef.

bja105, I'll send you a PM.

Okay, that was just rude not to post it.
Here's what I do with them - works the same for bacon!

5 lb. Morton Tenderquick
2 c. brown sugar
2 T garlic powder
2 T onion powder
� c. black pepper
1 sm pkg. whole pickling spice � optional, I don�t use

Combine and mix thoroughly. Use for dry rubbing meat to cure for smoking. Keeps almost indefinitely.
For slab bacon, thoroughly rub cure into meat, leaving some on the outside after a good rubbing. Cure in sealed Ziplocs for 50-60 hours, turning over the bags morning, noon, and night. Rinse and soak in clear water for 30 minutes. Smoke on low heat for 3-6 hours. For more salt flavor, cure longer, obviously. We've discovered 52 hours to be the "perfect" flavor for us.
For cured venison, split roasts into sections no more than 3 inches thick. Rub thoroughly, leaving some cure on the outside. Seal in Ziploc, allow to cure for 6 days, turning twice per day, smoke on 7th day with hardwood for 4-6 hours with enough heat to cook to rare/medium rare. I cook at 225 � 250 for 4-6 hours in a smoker. If the smoker doesn�t get enough heat up to do this, it can always be finished in a slow cooker/crock pot or wrapped in tin foil in an oven.

I've never tried it, but I'm sure that if one took the femur out of the ham, rubbed the dry cure inside and out and used the same cure period as with sections, maybe a bit longer cooking time, you would get very similar results. I also like to "dust" everything I smoke with brown sugar. I put a cup or so into a mesh strainer and just tap it over the meat, it is a large and even shaker that way. Enjoy!

Thanks for the tips, guys. Keep them coming.

This thread got me to thinking today, so I asked at a butcher shop that processes game meat for hunters what they would charge to make hams from deer hind quarters. They said they'd cure and smoke them for $10 per ham. I think I'll have them do a couple this year because I don't have a smoker anyway.
Got me to thinking that I may need to go find that apple-stealing bear, too.

For you local guys, I asked at Butcher Boys in Vancouver.

I have an entire rear quarter (ham ) from this spring's black bear waiting to be cured. Thanks for the instructions, selmer!

What is this "Morton Tenderquick" product, and where might I purchase it?

I love hunting Seaboard NC! Best cook I ever met was from there.

Tenderquick is sugar salt, and nitrates, and is used in various cured meat recipes. I got mine at a local grocery store in the spice isle next to the salt.

Selmer, at what temperature are you curing the meat?