So how does one smoke a ham?

This is probably one of those questions that have been eating
at you for so long. Well if it has been bothering you and you
need to know how to smoke a ham, then I will explain it to you,
as it was explained to me.

This morning my next door neighbor was hanging out these
( pig flanks ) hind legs from pigs.

As you can see they are processed and ready to eat. I
asked him what was involved in preparing these flanks and
he told me how it is done.

So I am writing this article to share the knowledge that
I've received.

First, after of course harvesting the flanks, you need to
cover the flanks in salt. But as he explained, not just any
salt, a salt product that is used for preserving. These flanks
are covered for between 5 to 6 weeks. This depends on the
humidity at the time. The more humid the quicker the salt
will be absorbed by the meat. During this 5 to 6 week period
the flanks must be turned over approximately 3 or 4 times
and salt applied as needed. After this time the flanks are
washed off of residual salt then hung up outside to air dry.

The next step is to smoke the flanks and they have a little
smoke room that holds about 20 or 30 pieces depending on
the sizes. They smoke the flanks for 2 or 3 nights, until the
skin gets a golden color ( see in picture below ).

During the day they open the door to the smoke room to
allow ventilation and cool air to enter.

What they use to create the smoke is sawdust, but not
just any sawdust, they want it to be from good smelling
hardwoods. If they used softwoods it would give a bitter
taste to the meat and would actually ruin the whole flank.
I think that he used the sawdust from the 'stejar' tree
( the word for oak in Romanian ).

But the key to smoking is to make a lot of smoke with
little heat. Coolness throughout the process is needed.

Here is a bird's eye view of a flank that is finished. It is
hanging outside in the cool air.

So there you have it, if any of you were staying up nights
due to the fact that you needed to know how to smoke the
flank of a pig ... then ... pleasant dreams.