In October I've been to Montenegro and couldn't afford not visiting and tasting "Njeguski Prsut". It's really worth it: i like prosciutto very much, but the magic taste of a beech smoked njeguski prsut exceeded my expectations.
In addition, in the middle of Njegusi village there is a sign that explains how the locals prepare the prosciutto, in very high level.
Being equipped with smoker, refrigerator, two hog legs of 11 kg each (about 24 pounds), books, sea salt and a lot of enthusiasm i started my way to fiasco.
I took 330 gr of salt for every leg and divided it to 3 even parts. First part was applied in the beginning, the second on the 7th day and the third on 17th day. In between, the legs were put in refrigerator at 2-3 degrees Celsius (35-37 F) in plastic container with a plastic wrap as a lid. after 35 days i took out the legs and they had some unpleasant smell of stale meat. I trimmed the "brown/gray" areas of flesh, washed the legs with vinegar, covered each one with another 200g of salt and put in refrigerator for another week without covering with plastic wrap. After a week i washed the legs from excessive salt, the smell was ok. To equalize the salt i put them in refrigerator for another week.
After that, i started smoking the legs according to the instructions on the village sign. The outside temperature during the day is about 16-18 C (60-64 F) and during nights it drops to 10-12 C (50-53 F). The temperature during the smoking haven't exceeded 24 C (75 F). All the time the legs remained in smoke house. During the days i was opening slightly the door of the smoke for the fresh air to come in.
Yesterday i examined the legs and noticed white "something" (unfortunately i don't have a picture of it). Then, i saw white worms in two places on each leg. I cut the leg at the not infected areas, the flesh was pink and taste was ok, as of raw prosciutto. Then, it was thrown to bin.
I still want to benefit from the relatively cool temperatures in Israel and to try preparing it again. What do you think were my mistakes and what would you make differently?
Any help is appreciated,
Alex
