I have read the archives and googled everywhere and I am truly
confused and a little frightened to pursue my plan to cure a country
ham. Here is my plan, and a couple questions I hope some of you
experts can provide closure for.

1. I am picking up a pork leg from a butcher that slaughtered on
Monday. I plan on applying cure on Saturday. The "ham" will be the
full leg with skin on an "aitch" bone still there (?not sure I know
what I mean by that); should be about 24-30 pounds

2. I purchased both Morton Tender Quick (8 lbs) and Morton Sugar Cure
(Smoke Flavor (8 lbs). The instructions for both are clear, but
different. I am looking for a taste that is traditional KY, TN
country ham or prosciutto, not something that tastes like bacon. What
should I use?

3. I have conflicting temperature ranges for the cure. Some say no
less than 34F and no more than 40F...some go as high as 38F-44F. My
garage is attached to my house and I plan on working/curing/hanging
aging in there. I am rigging up a heat lamp that will come on at 34F,
however I am concerned about curing the ham in the polyethylene
(closed tub) I have rigged up...(By the way, I am in Wisconsin and it
is currently below 20F) Because we can hit 40-45F during some days, I
am concerned about this fluctuation between night temps and day.

4. Given my rambling in number 3 above, I do have a refrigerator I
can use in the house, but I am concerned about it getting too cold,
being enclosed without drafting..how important is air current/drafting
to the curing period? Would the refrigerator be too low humidity? At
least the refrigerator would give me consistency.

5. Going with the refrigerator, I would be going to the aging/hanging
stage approximately mid March, with higher but still fluctuating
temperatures in our part of the country. We could hit 70 during a
rare March day or as cold as 10-15F on some evenings. After two
months of curing, are the fluctuations in temperature as important, or
should I stay in the refrigerator until April/May?

6. I plan on hanging in the garage behind 32 mesh screen in a cotton
ham bag, for at least the summer and probably to November. Temps
could get as high as 90-95F during summer. Garage has window, but not
real good circulation. Can an electric fan provide the air drafting.

7. When I finally take down the beast, how will I know if it is a
botulism bomb? Is there a consumer-based test that can be done?

Hope ya'll don't thing I'm a dumb Yankee...I actually spend a lot of
time smoking and grilling meats, but this is my first crack at curing.

Tim from Sheboygan (Go Packers by the way)