This Ham Never Saw A Refrigerator

No electricity. No freezer. Just salt, smoke, and six months of patience in a wooden smokehouse that's stood on this property longer than almost anything else here. This is the first video on this channel about meat — how Gretchen's ledger cured and smoked a ham off every November's hog, start to finish, and why I was more nervous making this one than almost any other video I've made. ⚠️ A real safety note: curing salt ratios and timing are the one place in this video where I'm pointing you toward a current, reliable charcuterie or meat-curing reference rather than any historical recipe, mine or Gretchen's included. Get those specific numbers right before you start. 📖 The garden side of this farm is in both books, 33 right now for the full set: https://amoskrueger.netlify.app/ One free chapter, no charge, same page. Next time: finally sitting down with the neighbor whose voice you've heard about for several videos now — including his own family's much older tradition of curing meat the same way. Tell me in the comments if curing meat runs in your own family, and what's been passed down about the method. I read every single one. I'm Amos Krueger. This channel comes from a leather ledger my great-grandmother Gretchen kept on this same Ohio ground for twenty-seven years, starting in 1931. Every video here is one honest piece of what's in it. #homecuring #charcuterie #smokehouse #homestead #countryham #oldfashioned #selfsufficient #offgrid #ohiofarm #foodpreservation