When making a ham...

How does one get it ham like near the bone?

I did a shoulder of pork with a brine of equal parts sugar and salt dissolved in water soaked for two weeks and then smoked.

It was FANTASTIC but the nearer the bone the less ham like it was and by the end it was just boiled pork

Nice but not ham

Do I HAVE to bone my pork to make ham or is there something I am doing wrong? Longer in the brine or injecting the brine maybe?

My butcher friend told me to use a skewer to perferate the meat at regular intervals so that the brine worked its way in. I daresay Billy will be in later with what he does.

Definitely not cured long enough then. Remember smoking will flavour the meat and aid in preservation but it will not cure it in the first place.
What weight was the shoulder? What concentration of salt did you have?
Shoulder is an awkward one because of the large surface area of the bone inside it. Personally I would probably bone it out.
I almost always bone out hams - it is not difficult once you have the knack of it, a sharp knife and a lot of patience.
When boning out legs to make air-dried hams I have frequently come across pockets of blood/air next to the bone which would become nasty little pockets of rot long before the salt had a chance to work. I think there is a picture of this in pig-butchering pictorial I did (although I can't actually find it now), So I would rather not take the risk - losing a whole ham nine months down the line is heartbreak.
You can of course inject brine which would go a long way toward remedying such issues, but I don't choose to - that injection-cured, brine pumped ham and bacon you buy in the supermarkets is one of the main reasons I make my own. Half a pint of salty jism in my frying pan every time I fry a rasher or two does nothing for my appetite.

Two cups salt, two cups sugar and a gallon of water. And a shoulder of about 8 pounds.

Will most likely just bone them out in future and throw the bone into the cure too. That way I can smoke it for flavoring some beans with.

At teh moment I am going for taste instead of preserving the meat. If I ever get good enough with my pig hunting to actually have some meat that isnt essential to the dinner plate I plant to experiment with long store hams and the like.

Well, a gal can dream, cant she

Is anyone else getting excited about hunting season in a couple of months?

Can one leave a ham in brine for too long?

And if one does a large bone in hindquarter ham without injecting the brine, will the meat near the bone go off before the brine gets that deep into the meat?

Am starting to plan the Christmas ham but for certain members of my family ( ) a ham is only a ham with the bone in place with PROPER skin on the outside.

Will have to master scalding as well as hamming to pull this one off