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David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

I'll try and post pics of the different stages in this message:

Stage 1...get a pig, or buy a whole leg from an organic butcher:

Make some flavoured salt...mix in cinnamon, pepper, bay and any other spices you like. Add sugar to the salt, we use a ratio of 1 kg sugar per 4 kg salt. Rub the mix all over, bury in salt, leave overnight. Pull it out next day and repeat, then bury in salt, put a clean board over the top and weigh it down. The pic shows a wooden box that I made specially. It has 4 large boned out hams, buried under a good 75kg. No metal of any kind in contact with the salt, and your box should have holes in the base to allow the exuding liquid to escape. Don't buy salt from the supermarket...it'll cost a fortune...you can buy food grade salt in 25kg bags. The wood box has a false floor, the red plastic box has holes drilled in the bottom and it sits on a couple of rails:

Leave the hams buried for 12 nights. Then we soak them for 24 hours to correct for saltiness. I use an old beer fermenting bin for this. We use a mix of molasses, wine and water, but you can just use water if you like, or you needn't bother (ham might be too salty though, particularly on the outside). Molasses + wine stains the meat and skin a lovely dark colour. Then take hams out, dry them and truss them, and hang them near a stove or something to dry thoroughly:

Paint exposed meat with a lard + flour paste if you like. Minimises wastage as exposed meat may need to be trimmed later. Just like icing a cake:

Then wrap in two layers of muslin, and hang in a draughty cool place:

Keep the dust off them, treat them with respect, and try to keep your mitts off them for 12 months! In fairness, you can start into them as soon as you like, but if you leave them 12 months, they will be delectable. Anyway, here's one I prepared 12 months earlier...

It will smell mouldy, and look like an old boot left too long in the bottom of a kit bag. It will also be rock hard. Don't Panic! Scrub with water, then vinegar:

Then cut off a lobe with a VERY sharp knife. Cut enough to last you a week, then re-wrap and hang the ham back up. I usually cover the cut surface with lard or something to stop it drying out too much. I posted a reply lately regarding cutting hams...The skin does get extremely hard. I forgot to mention that the most important thing is a really really really sharp knife. I have 2 main knives, a boning knife and the steak knife in the following picture...victorinox is a good brand. Invest in good razor sharp knives, along with a good quality sharpening steel, and they will last a lifetime.

Trim the skin, then cut slim shards with a really sharp knife...or put your lump of ham through the slicer at the finest setting. We have a cheap lidl slicer which works really well:

The home made effort tastes way better than parma ham. The process is a bit long drawn out and involved, but it's a labour of love. We've been making these for years now, and have never lost a ham...what are you waiting for? Give it a go!

Oh yeah, perfect weather for hanging them now! Just think, you could be unwrapping a ham ready for Christmas 2008...

D

David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

Sorry, i said bury the hams in salt for 12 nights...should have said 14.

keithrawlins · Joined: 18 Feb 2007 Posts: 152 Location: banbridge

the hams look great and your stages look easy to follow i will keep this one for the future.

blowin · Posted: Mon Nov 26, 2007 4:42 pm Post subject:

Great article , David Very Happy

. Quite an inspiration . If you have the time to post up any more of your methods I'm sure they would be very well received .
I am particularly interested in the salami type of things .
And a way of curing bacon so it doesn't turn out salty , if you know of one . Cheers Wink

David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

Hi Blowin

Salty bacon is a bit of a problem...I like to cure bacon after a pig kill so that it will keep. I'm not keen on freezing lightly salted meat, as I think it affects the flavour... I also love the idea of preserved meat hanging without the aid of high-tech help. Warms the cockles of your heart to see it all hanging up! We sometimes lightly cure a couple of bellies for quick consumption, but the majority of the meat we cure is "hard-cured" so that it will last. The only cut that I'm really careful with over salting would be the proscuitto style hams described above...as you eat them raw, you have no opportunity to soak out excess salt...so the salt-correction occurs after salting and before air-drying.

If frying bacon, you can always get the salt out by pre-soaking before cooking, which works pretty well. I slice rashers, soak for an hour or two, then dry them in a tea towel before frying. For boiling meat, soak a hard cured joint for at least 2 or 3 days, and when your cooking water just starts to boil, throw it away and replace it with fresh water.

You could also go for the "salt pork" method, which we have tried successfully...e.g. freeze a fresh belly of pork, defrost and brine (or dry salt) for one or two nights to make a mild cure streaky bacon. "Charcuterie and French Pork Cookery" by Jane Grigson is a good book..has a nice section on salt pork, and some nice tips on removing salt from bacon. Post-freezer salt pork is a nice way of making "speciality" cures, which I usually don't have time for when in the throes of pig processing! For example, I have some shoulder cuts in the freezer that I plan to defrost and turn into a Cajun Tasso style cured meat.

Hope this helps, and i'll try to post some salami info. Cured sausage has to be my favourite piggy product...the smell of curing salami..ahhhhhh

D

blowin · Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2007 1:13 pm Post subject:

Brilliant . Many thanks for that Wink

.
I can well imagine the satisfaction of seeing your own produce hanging up to cure and I am very keen to try it . I need to approach this in a slightly "stealthy" way to start with , hence my particular interest in the salamis . We haven't actually killed any of our own pigs yet but the first one will be coming up soon . While MOH is doing her best to overcome her sentimentality about turning Diamond Bum-Spot into sausages , I think a whole ham hanging there might be too brutal a reminder to start with .
She might turn vegetarian and I really couldn't deal with that ! Laughing

David · Joined: 03 Jan 2007 Posts: 180 Location: Co. Clare

Hi Blowin

I know what you mean about the killing bit...I am Mr Sentimental...but you do get used to it and every time is easier. Don't worry too much about having hams hanging up. They lose all their personality once they are dead, and at least you can be happy in the knowledge that they had a great life. I was talking to a vet lately...he had been in to a commercial factory style pig farm...a horrific experience apparently!

I'm sure you'll be fine, but if you want any help or advice when it's killing time give me a shout

D

Rebecca · Posted: Sun Jun 29, 2008 9:51 pm Post subject:

some of our own air dried and salami efforts here too ;
http://sallygardens.typepad.com/sallygardens/pigs/index.html

... many thanks to David for you kind advice and help with our first efforts. By the way, the black pudding turned out great too, thanks for the tips.

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