creating my own local ham

Air dried cured meat and salami recipes

Postby saucisson » Mon Jan 25, 2010 12:25 pm

Judging from what I saw washed up on the local beaches last time I was up in the Lakes, there's a sewage outlet not too far off the coast as well :shock: (it was 20 odd years ago though, maybe they've cleaned up their act since then). Should be plenty of natural nitrates in there by now :)

Dave
Curing is not an exact science... So it's not a sin to bin.

Great hams, from little acorns grow...
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Postby wheels » Mon Jan 25, 2010 2:46 pm

It makes you wonder what the water's like off Kent where the restaurant collects it's water. Given the amount of shipping etc in that part of the world it makes you wonder.

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Postby beardedwonder5 » Mon Jan 25, 2010 3:18 pm

The present fashion is for beers to have outlandish names. Salt? "Old Tank Washigs"? And remember that some of those North Indian Salts are strange colours. "Midden Diggers' Special No. One"?

(A few hours ago I was toying with the idea of harvesting roof water to avoid minerality. Lots of birds around.)
GOS, yeah!!!
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Postby bigJ » Mon Jan 25, 2010 10:41 pm

at the risk of appearing to nag, could i encourage anybody to comment on some of the original queries, i.e the effect of hanging times/ weighting?
thanks
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Postby saucisson » Tue Jan 26, 2010 9:56 am

Sorry BigJ, agreed: I think we can leave the salt subject for another thread. I think your idea of going for a Black Forest type of ham is a good one and I suspect you are right about the difference in the production method. If you have lots of local pine I think it would be worth a try, just do it on a piece of belly bacon first.

Dave
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Great hams, from little acorns grow...
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Postby wheels » Tue Jan 26, 2010 4:59 pm

I think that smoking does dry the meat somewhat - smoked bacon always seems firmer than unsmoked.

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Postby bigJ » Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:14 pm

Pigs are off in the morning so getting down to formulating my cure recipe. Previous hams have all been the 'bury in a box of salt' type but i thought i'd go with the 'rub and wrap' type this time. I was just wondering when calculating the amount of cure to add (i.e. at 87.5 g per kg, like the parma style hams) do you just take the weight of the whole ham or deduct 20% for the bone as with a brine pumped ham?
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Postby wheels » Wed Jan 27, 2010 11:32 pm

BigJ

I think that the amount you've quoted is for a ready mix cure. Are you using this, or cure #2? If it's cure #2 the amount will be a lot less.

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Postby saucisson » Thu Jan 28, 2010 11:10 am

You should still deduct he weight of the bone I think.

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Postby bigJ » Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:31 pm

Hi, sorry about the delay, i was in the middle of composing a response the other evening when the computer decided to turn itself of and refuse to start again, and as i now have the two carcasses back this is my firast chance to clear up whtat i meant. Phil by cure i meant a mix of salt, spice etc. this is what i am thinking:
350g fine sea salt
250g heather honey
25g cure #2
8 cloves garlic
10g bay
10g juniper berries
applied in two batches for a total of 7days per inch.
This is assuming a 10 kg ham (on the bone therefore - 2kg) Currently the hams are about 11.5 kg before trimming- obviously i'll adjust as necessary if i trim more/ less. Then cold smoked for approx 24 hrs over beech and heather.
If any one can see any obvious flaws in this plan please let me know.
As per your suggestion earlier in this thread i also intend to make a brine pumped and rubbed ham with similar ingredients.

Well today i've started curing approx 18kg of bacon (including a first try at black bacon which i'm a little concerned about as having warmed the cure to apply it seems to have set quite hard- i'm hoping it will disslove as the juice leaches out to make a brine), as well as a coppa and lonzino from two of the tenderloins.Already got some good rustic liver pate in the freezer and the plucks boiled ready for haggis, when the bung arrives!
And i'd better go and check on one of the heads, which has been simmering for about 3 hours now ready for some brawn.
There's still a lot of pig to get through! (haven' t touch one yet)
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Postby wheels » Sat Jan 30, 2010 9:41 pm

bigj

Sounds like you've been busy.

Thatt cure looks sound enough, I imagine it will give quite a 'honeyed' taste so to be on the safe side pick one that you really like!

If I were nit-picking I'd probably increase the cure #2 to 27gm - a small amount I know but I have worries about these low nitrite/nitrate cures for long term curing - I know, I've read all the scientific bumf that says that they're OK - but I still can't help but worry!

Phil
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Postby bigJ » Sun Jan 31, 2010 3:53 pm

Thanks phil, i'm always busy!
cure amount noted, if you think that will make a difference i'll give it a whirl.
I think i'll be ok with the black bacon- judging by the mess its made-leaking all over the fridge!

J
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Postby bigJ » Sun Jan 31, 2010 4:37 pm

something thats just occured to me- when monitoring weightloss on a ham- presumably the bone is not losing much weight, so do you take this into account? i.e a bone in ham should loose less of its total weight than a boneless ham?

J
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Postby wheels » Sun Jan 31, 2010 6:52 pm

J

If the recipe is for a bone-in ham and has a certain weight loss then I would assume that allowance hasn't been made for the bone when it was weighed so you shouldn't either?

The only time you may have to make allowances is if you make a bone-in ham but the recipe you are following uses a boned one?

Or, that's my take on it anyway!

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Postby bigJ » Mon Feb 01, 2010 11:03 pm

Phil,
I'm not really following a recipe, just found a few for guidance and take it from there. I am intending this ham to be on the bone, although i think i'll tunnel bone another and put different flavourings on it, still working that one out though. I was just going to monitor the weight for about 25-30% weight loss (taking bone in to account ie if initial weight of whole ham is 10 kg, initial weight of meat is 8 kg, therefore a loss of 25% of the weight of meat is 2kg so final weight of ham is 6 kg (meat) plus 2kg (bone)=8kg)
Sound about right?
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