Combine the salts together in a large bowl and mix. Add the rest of the ingredients and stir together. Place the picnic ham in a large dish. Pour and rub the cure all over the picnic ham, making sure to get in and around the bone ends. Place the dish on a tray. There will be a lot of water drawn out so the tray is a ‘just-in-case’ safety measure. Mine didn’t overflow but it was a lot of liquid. Place another tray on top of the picnic ham and weigh it down with 10 pounds. ( I put the curing speck on top and then a weight on that )
Refrigerate or store in a cool room with temps between 34-38 degrees one day for each pound of pork. 6lbs = 6 days to cure. We do all of our cold smoking in late fall or winter. About halfway through flip the picnic ham over and redistribute the cure on it.
Remove the picnic ham from the fridge and rinse off the cure with cold water. Soak it in cold water for up to 8 hours in order to remove any residual salt
Place the cleaned off picnic ham on a rack, uncovered, and refrigerate or place in cure room overnight to develop a pellicle, a tackiness which protects the meat as well as helps grab smoke flavor.
Cold smoke for 6-7 hours. Weigh the meat and record. Hang the ham in the curing fridge or room and dry for at least 4 weeks. Our smokehouse also doubles as our cure room so when the smoking is done we just hang it. Should be aiming to lose 30% or more of post smoking weight.