curing times

[roger evans]

I tried curing a leg of pork off a home killed pig for christmas and it came out still pretty much pork. the leg weighed 9 kilos and I was told the min cure time would be 3 days for each kilo. I followed the recipe for a wiltshire cure and the leg was fully sumerged in the brine with a weight. What went wrong? I still have the other leg in brine from 24th november but am concerned that it will be uncured

[jpj]

can you post a breakdown of the cure used, that'll help to get a better idea . . .?

[saucisson]

One rule of thumb I go on is is 10 days per kilo, or 11 days per inch at the thickest part, that's why bigger joints are often pumped to speed the process up.
Dave

[jpj]

pumping a wiltshire type cure is tricky as opposed to an immersion cure, as you have precious little of the stuff to cover such a large leg

though it's more expensive than a classic brine, it's still quite cheap (especially if you're making the beer also) and therefore worth making a larger batch than is required

and turn it every day

the cure used by roger evans may have been too small or too weak

[roger evans]

The cure I used was 100g salpetre, 6 litres beer, 2kg molasses, 4kg salt and 12litres of water.The leg was then put into a tub in my garage and left for 27 days but was probably only half cured. The outside cut surfaces were very black and hard when it came out. I was told that if you did more than 4 days for every kilo it would be very salty and that 3 days per kilo was sufficient. roger evans

[jpj]

with that much liquid, was it immersed constantly?
and were all the solubles completely dissolved?
dark and hard can come from burning from the salts used . . .

[Fallow Buck]

Hi all,

For what it is worth I pumped my Wiltshire cure Hams before Xmas and immersed for 8 days. I had one of ish-10lbs (4830g) , and two of about 2350g each.

The big one was quite porky (in texture more than taste) and I think should have been in more brine for twice as long. The Smaller ones (I am told as they were presents) were much more Hammy although still not fully cured. I did have a fourth small one that was again pumped and immersed for 10 days and I'm told this one was superb. I did it on a hunch of these results and gave it to a mate to try. He said noone ate Turkey at his table on Xmas day! !!

All Joints were pumped to 110% of their weight with the brine then fully submerged and turned every 2 days.

I think next time round I will be immersion curing hams of about 3kgs for a month as I now feel that will be easier. I also felt that I'd be more comfortable if there was a real surplus of the brine available to the joint so I'll probably get a small plastic barrel/bucket to use.

These were my first hams and overall the taste seems to have ranged from half and half pork/ham to quite Hammy.

I hope this helps.

FB

[saucisson]

The cure I used was 100g salpetre, 6 litres beer, 2kg molasses, 4kg salt and 12litres of water.The leg was then put into a tub in my garage and left for 27 days but was probably only half cured. The outside cut surfaces were very black and hard when it came out. I was told that if you did more than 4 days for every kilo it would be very salty and that 3 days per kilo was sufficient. roger evans

That cure sounds right, Could it have gone longer ? By which I mean was it the right amount of saltiness or could it have taken more?

Dave

[Fallow Buck]

I was reading one of HFW's books last night and it gave the recipe for a basic brine cure. The same cure/brine was used for both green bacon & salt pork then with flavourings for hams.

The salt pork recipes had 3-4 days/Kg and the hams were left for 10-11 days/Kg.

The brine cure looks very similar to the one used here although I don';t remember he exact recipe of the top of my head.

RGds,
FB