Where to hang at 15 degrees?

[npsmama]

Hello!

I'm new!

I really desperately want to make my own ham but I'm worried about hanging it...I haven't got a cellar or anything like that (I live in a 2002 biult house!).
How can I hang it at a constant temp of 15 degrees?
Also, I'm worried it'll go off and I won't know it and we'll all have food poisoning!!!

Newbie stupid questions I know but I'd be grateful for help.

Tahnks!

[TJ Buffalo]

Folks might need to know a little more about where you are; for instance, if you don't have a basement, you might need to wait until fall before curing the ham and hanging it in a tool shed or a spare room. Alternatively, you might be able to rig up a box and feed in air off an air conditioner, if handy enough.

[npsmama]

OK, I'm in the souteast of england.
we have no basement, no air conditioning but do have an airing cupboard and central heating.
we've got an unheated garage.

does that help?

[akesingland]

Hi npsmama

My ham hung in an unheated out house. You obviously can't control the temperature, but starting the curing process at the start of the year gives you the best hope for favorable temperatures outside. I know many people modify old fridges so that the upper limit is raised, or for a more expensive option you can get a wine cooler, which also helps with humidity.

Cheers
Adam

[tristar]

If you search on the forum in the cured meats section there has been a discussion about using an old refrigerator, with an external thermostat etc. I just use an old refrigerator with the thermostat set to the highest temperature about 8 degrees C, and a tray of salt saturated brine in the bottom to increase the humidity, but I am only drying cured sausages and a small piece of cured lamb, nothing long term such as you are proposing.

Just have a look there I am sure you will find something useful, if you have an old redundant fridge that is!

Regards,
Richard

[Wohoki]

I know that this isn't the advise you are after, but I'd recommend that you wait for Winter. Ham and bacon making are traditionally late Autumn and Winter activities in NW Europe.

If you can't provide a fridge or a very good cellar there is a good chance that the meat would spoil, whereas a shed or garage is perfect from October onwards. This still gives you plenty of time to stock up for Christmas.

[dougal]

As per the above, either waiting for (fairly) certain cool weather or getting a salvage fridge are the main options.

A central heating room thermostat (or rather one that can control aircon *cooling* - usually described as having "changeover" contacts) controlling the power to the fridge (ideally just the motor) should give you control over temperatures above the range of the fridge's own thermostat. Unfortunately, it also means switching 240v mains inside the fridge. Which isn't something that can be recommended as being wholly safe under all circumstances.
However there are thermostats which have a radio link between the measuring/setting unit and the mains switching relay... giving mains isolation, but what I don't know is whether the fridge casing screens the radio signals.

You can't control the humidity in a garage very easily. There are things you can do to control the humidity in a fridge.
As Tristar says *salt* can be used to control humidity to a set point of 75%, which is useful, if a little high. 60-70% is usually considered ideal for air-curing.
The way salt works is that a saturated solution would control to 75%, anything *less* than saturated would control to a *higher* humidity.
A simple solution doesn't *de*humidify very well. The extra water taken up dilutes the surface layer, which becomes less than saturated and so controls to a higher humidity.
The way round this is to have a pile of wet salt rather than a dish of solution.
The more surface area you can get, the more powerful the control action.
Note that the cold chiller elements will tend to be the site of condensation, dehumidifying the enclosure when the fridge is cooled.
A tiny amount of air movement (but not a blast) is a good thing - both to even out conditions and to discourage mould, so a tiny ex-computer fan mated to a bit of plastic pipe can come in useful.

Using a fridge also saves most of the concern you might have in the garage about dust and insects.

A "larder" fridge *without* an icemaking compartment is preferable, giving you more usable room - but I've read of people doing wonderful stuff in a small "drink chiller" cabinet.
If you can set it up in your chilly garage, the fridge will use hardly any electricity to maintain an internal temp below 15C.


"Air curing" a whole ham, on the bone, is not considered an ideal project to start with. Just as one consideration, it takes ages! And success isn't guaranteed. Personally, I kinda suspect that there are butchery considerations particular to whole leg curing... Since you've picked up on the 15�C, I wonder if there's anything on butcher pre-cure prep that you've encountered?
You could probably start more simply with salami and small cuts of meat. That should also help to give you confidence that you have food poisoning under control!
And if you want to make "ham", you could have a bash at some brine cured, "boiled" ham (its simmered really) and maybe even bake a glaze onto it.
You can make a nice ham in a traditional British style from a piece of leg of pork that the butcher has prepared for roasting... and a bowl in the family fridge is about all the hardware you need

Do keep us updated on your progress!

[npsmama]

Thanks for the replies.

TBH, I'm now a bit confused!

Perhaps if I explain what my goals are:
I would like to make nice ham and bacon for us to eat in sandwiches or for dinner. I hate the stuff from supermarkets and really enjoy what we have at the farmer's market but can't afford it regularly so would like to see if I can make something similar.
I am very happy to make small joints often.
Smoked and unsmoked would be nice.

Can you please point me to some fairly easy fool-proof projects (if any exist!)?

I've ordered some Plain Brine Cure and some Traditional bacon dry cure. I made some bacon once before using homemade cure but it was so salty we couldn't eat it!!

Thank you!

[dougal]

I'm new!

I really desperately want to make my own ham but I'm worried about hanging it...I haven't got a cellar or anything like that (I live in a 2002 biult house!).
How can I hang it at a constant temp of 15 degrees?
...

Thanks for the replies.

TBH, I'm now a bit confused!

Perhaps if I explain what my goals are:
I would like to make nice ham and bacon for us to eat in sandwiches or for dinner. I hate the stuff from supermarkets and really enjoy what we have at the farmer's market but can't afford it regularly so would like to see if I can make something similar.
I am very happy to make small joints often.
Smoked and unsmoked would be nice.
...

Right....

Can we just leave smoking aside for the moment?

There are lots of *different* things you can do to the back leg of a pig - a "ham". And you could *add* smoking to the things I'm going to describe.

Well, you originally asked about "hanging at 15 degrees".
Thats for dry air curing. Making things rather like Parma ham. You leave a whole leg hanging for, quite literally, months. And you'd like it to be no more than 15C, ever, during all those months.

For sandwiches, you'd be after a "boiled" or "baked" ham.
Which need involve *no* hanging at all.
In its simplest form it involves soaking a boneless pork leg joint in a brine, in the fridge, for at least a week, then poaching it ever so gently in flavoured broth, before letting it go quite cold in that broth.
You might call that York ham, Jambon Blanc or boiled ham. It should be firm but juicy, quite dense in texture but not chewy. You wouldn't expect anyone to say it was "strongly flavoured", but it should have a good taste... of ham! And maybe some subtle flavours from the brine and broth as well.
You might stud it with cloves, bung it in the oven for a few minutes and baste it with melted Marmelade or somesuch and call it baked ham or whatever you wish...
But there's no hanging. At all.
You can have beer in there and call it a Wiltshire cure, or treacle and call it Bradenham...

You'll find loads and loads of confusing stuff on here regarding brine curing.
Hopefully, tomorrow I'll post a thread explaining in detail what worked for me! (But if you'll excuse me, I'll not put it in this thread, 'cos there wasn't any temperature controlled hanging. At all.)

And in the meantime, you might be interested in this thread...
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=1736

[npsmama]

thank you
that clarifies things