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Fifty frozen hams were thawed for 3 d at 2-3°C, skinned and partially defatted. Half the hams were passed twice through a Ross Industries needle tenderizer and half were not tenderized. All hams were dry-cured for 16 d with a mixture of salt, sugar, sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite. Cores of 2.54-cm diameter were obtained from the cushion of 5 hams from each group weekly for 5 weeks. Outer, middle and inner portions of the cores were analyzed for salt and nitrite. After curing, all hams were held at 13°C for 14 or 15 d for salt equalization. The intact hams were smoked and aged at 24°C until a yield of 82% or less was achieved. Half the hams in each group were then placed in vacuum bags and half were left uncovered. All were aged 4 additional weeks at 24°C. Hams were cut and examined visually, by a palatability panel, by shearing and by analyzing a center slice for moisture, salt and nitrite. Tenderization allowed faster salt and nitrite absorption but resulted in slightly lower flavor and overall satisfaction scores. Tenderized hams achieved the required 18% weight loss (82%) approximately 10 d sonner than non-tenderized hams. Vacuum packaged hams had higher final yields and contained a higher level of moisture and lower level of salt than non-vacuum packaged hams. Shear values in semitendinosus muscles were greater for tenderized than for nontenderized hams while shear values in biceps femoris muscles were higher in non-vacuum packaged than in the vacuum packaged hams. Aerobic and yeast and mold counts were higher while lactobacillus counts were lower in non-tenderized than in tenderized hams. Aerobic and lactobacillus counts were higher in vacuum packaged than in non-vacuum packaged hams. In general, tenderization allowed faster curing and aging while final aging in vacuum bags allowed higher yields.

Forty-two similar weight hams were held 3 and 6 days postmortem at 2 C, dry-cured, and held at 13 C for 4 weeks for salt equalization. Half were then smoked and half were not smoked. All hams were aged for 3 months at 24 C. Six hams from each group were selected for external microbial evaluation and three were selected for internal microbial evaluation before curing, after curing, after salt equalization or smoking, and after aging 1, 2 and 3 months. Aerobic counts were higher in hams held 6 days than in those held 3 days but the difference decreased as processing time progressed. Smoking decreased surface counts. Enterococci, Bacillus cereus and fluorescent pseudomonads counts were initially low and these organisms were virtually absent after aging 1 month. Coliforms were initially low and were not detected after salt equalization. Staphylococci increased through 3 months of aging with very few isolates being coagulase-positive. Yeasts and molds increased gradually through processing and aging. No Clostridium perfringens or Salmonella were detected in uncured hams. There were no significant differences in palatability traits due either to pre-cure holding time or smoking.