dry curing pork leg - too salty

[johntranstel]

I have air dried quite a few pork legs over the last year. They are all tunnel boned, then placed in salt with a weight pressing down. I leave them from 14-17 days depending on weight (can be 6-8kg each leg).
I have looked at them before 14 days but I am not convinced they are fully cured.
They are then washed down, hung uncovered for a week to dry, then wrapped and dried for 6 months.

They taste great, but too salty for many people tastes.
Most posts seem to concern salt in brine cures, mine is the dry salt method (Serrano rather than Parma), but I cannot find much knowledge for this method.
Two questions - is there a reliable 'days to cure per weight' formula for tunnel boned legs (lots of salt inside the leg).
Is it possible/sensible to soak the cured leg in water for x hours/weight before drying it? Or any other ways of removing the salt?

Any advice appreciated.

[johngaltsmotor]

If you are concerned they are not fully cured at 14 days but overly salty at 17 days, then it would seem logical (but I have no experience to base it on) to remove them from the salt at 14 days, but do not wash them yet. Instead leave them sit for several days for the salt that is inside the meat to distribute further. By doing this you would stop the introduction of more salt, but provide time for the curing process to migrate throughout the leg.

[wheels]

...mine is the dry salt method (Serrano rather than Parma), but I cannot find much knowledge for this method.
Two questions - is there a reliable 'days to cure per weight' formula for tunnel boned legs (lots of salt inside the leg).
Is it possible/sensible to soak the cured leg in water for x hours/weight before drying it? Or any other ways of removing the salt?

Any advice appreciated.

I don't quite get this as Parma is made by what is basically a dry cure method.

Para E.1.4 in this document covers salting the meat:

http://www.prosciuttodiparma.com/pdf/en ... ations.pdf

E.1.4.Salting
Refrigerated and trimmed legs are sent by slaughter-houses to salting plants; it is extremely important that salting is carried out on legs that have been kept at a correct and constant temperature; as it happens, an excessively cold leg absorbs little salt, while a leg that has not been sufficiently refrigerated can be prone to decompose. Salting involves the use of wet and dry salt. Skin is treated with wet salt, while lean parts are sprinkled with dry salt.
No chemicals, preservatives or other kinds of additives are used. Legs do not undergo smoking.
Hams are stored in cold storage rooms at a temperature ranging between 1°C and 4°C at about 80% humidity. After 6-7 days of storage in these rooms, known as preliminary salting rooms, hams are taken out, cleaned of residual salt and sprinkled again with tiny amounts of salt. Hams are then put back into a new cold storage room, known as the final salting room, where they remain for 15/18 days depending on their weight.
During this period the hams slowly absorb salt and give off some of their moisture. At the end of the salting period hams weigh about 3.5% to 4% less.

E.1.5. Resting Period
After removing all residual salt, hams are stored in so-called resting rooms for a period ranging between 60 and 90 days at about 75% humidity and at a temperature between 1°C and 5°C. During this stage, hams must be allowed to “breath” and should not become too dry or too wet. The air in the rooms is changed at frequent intervals. The absorbed salt penetrates deeply, becoming evenly distributed in the muscular mass.
During this phase the ham’s weight reduces by about 8-10%.

Although this mentions wet salt, I'm sure that it is not wet enough to be a brine.

I hope this helps.

Phil

[johntranstel]

Thanks to both of you for your thoughts. The exact situation I struggle to find figures for is when a leg is tunnel boned, allowing salt to be pushed inside, and taking less time than the classic bone in leg.
I am interested in the idea of 6-7 days in full salt then a further period with a sprinkling of salt. I will try this. I would guess that wet salt just means wet enough to stick to the skin.

If anyone comes across similar material relating to Serrano hams I would be very interested.

regards
John

[johngaltsmotor]

For other cuts of meat dry curing time is often based on thickness, so it would make sense that for a deboned leg the thickness is reduced by 50% (1/2 from bone side out, 1/2 from skin side in) so cutting the time by 50% does seem like a reasonable experiment.