Another Busy Sunday

We had two hams that had been in the cure 11 days and needed to be smoked today. Phil ran to town because he can't live without a Sunday paper (we tried having them delivered once, they sent them on Mondays) and I wrestled the smoker through the house and out the back door. ( I had to stop in the kitchen as I had scared Hippo half to death and he was trying to claw through the window.). Here are what the hams looked like when they went in. I wish I had a way to weigh them. I would love to know how  much they weighed. It was a good bit, I can tell you that. The smoker was set on 225 F and left to..smoke.

I, then, fed all the animals except the meat birds. They are long overdue to be butchered and I was determined to get at least two of them done. They aren't stupid; they know what I am doing when I step in the pen and they run. They are slow and easy to catch but they are also HUGE now and heavy. I skinned and cut the breasts and thighs and legs off. Because there is no freezer space, I had to can the meat. I started with the breasts and cut them into chunks. I was going to raw pack them but there is just something about putting raw meat in the jars that just doesn't sit well with me. So I put the meat in water and boiled them for a short time. Then I packed the meat in the jars, set the lids and pressured canned them for 75 minutes. The breasts made 8 pints, the thighs and legs another 5 pints and I filled the other three pint jars with the stock left from cooking the legs and thighs. It was exactly the 3 pints I needed.

At about 5:30 p.m. the hams reached and internal temperature of 160 F. and looked done when we checked them so we got them out. Here is the one we cut for supper.

We had this and some canned potatoes that Phil made into our favorite fried potatoes with garlic and thyme.

And here is the other, larger ham.

The only other thing I needed to do was to rack the wine but I think it is going to have to wait until next time.