Tasso ham is a seasoning ingredient in Cajun cooking. It can be used in gumbo, red beans and rice, jambalaya, etouffee and cooked greens. It is cured, smoked, and heavily seasoned with paprika, garlic and cayenne. A little goes a long way.

Though called ham, it is made from the pork shoulder rather than the leg.

After reviewing recipes from John Fosse, Emeril Lagasse and Bruce Aidells, I wasn’t completely pleased with any of them. All of them relied on a brine cure for relatively small pieces of meat.

This is my approach using a dry cure.

Ingredients and method

651 g  Pork butt, lean (UK-Pork Collar)
1.56 g  Cure #1
13 g  Salt
6.5 g  Lt. brown sugar

Cure for seven days in a food-safe bag in a fridge, turning daily. 

14.7 g  Paprika (2T)
2.6 g  Black pepper (1t)
2.8 g  Cayenne (1t)
3.8 g  Garlic powder (1t)
1.5 g  Red pepper flakes (1/2 t)
0.7 g  Thyme (1/2 t)

After curing, apply the following as a dry rub:

This seasoning blend was adapted from “Prime Time Emeril” by Emeril Lagasse.

After two days, cold-smoke the ham twice overnight (I used oak, beech and pecan sawdust).

Then cook the ham in a sous vide bath at 62°C (144°F) for three hours. Alternatively, cook it in a low oven (say 130°C, 270°F, gas mark 1) until the internal temperature is 65°C, 150°F; hold at this temperature for 10 minutes.

Rinse it lightly to remove any excess seasoning, then slice.