Curing on the bone

[PepperPig]

Taken from the bottom of Emmetts product page

From start to finish a pickled ham takes me about 10 weeks to make. Having been brined the gammons are put into a Suffolk beer based sweet pickle for 6 weeks. During this period they are turned by hand every other day so that they take in the taste, colour and flavour of the pickle.

Once they have been pickled they are hung on hooks in a smokehouse so that they don�t touch each other. Oak sawdust is spread evenly on the floor and is lit using straw and paper. This is hot smoking; i.e., the fire is within the 'room'. The period of time it takes to smoke depends upon the amount of sawdust used and the weather. It generally lasts for 2 days. The hams upon leaving the smokehouse are wonderfully dark, oozing with stickiness and smell. They are then sealed ready for cooking or sold uncooked.

The bacon is made in exactly the same way. All the sides of bacon we use contain their bones. This is so the side doesn't lose its shape when being smoked thereby ensuring that when we come to slice the side it can be done easily. The mild cured hams and bacon, having been brined, is smoked in the same smokehouses.

Let's get a recipe please, so we can all enjoy this for Christmas!!!!

[quietwatersfarm]

Hot smoked?!

I'm not sure I would have ever eaten that bacon as it was.



Better get building that smokehouse

[PepperPig]

I think the hotsmoking only refers to the hams!

A start date of 15th October will give us ten weeks to Christmas Eve, plenty of time for Phil to create a stunning recipe for us all

Colin

[quietwatersfarm]

The bacon is made in exactly the same way. All the sides of bacon we use contain their bones. This is so the side doesn't lose its shape when being smoked thereby ensuring that when we come to slice the side it can be done easily. The mild cured hams and bacon, having been brined, is smoked in the same smokehouses.

Have I read it wrong somehow?

[PepperPig]

Must polish my glasses

I have read somewhere, that commercial producers heat set their bacon by cooking up to 50 degrees. Possibly this is the case?

[wheels]

Blast - Mrs Beeton's got a recipe for the Suffolk Cure but not the treacle one.

I don't get this at all; most references for suffolk ham include beer, vinegar and brown sugar, but no treacle.

However, there are two types of Wiltshire ham so maybe the same applies in Suffolk.

Emmets website says "The curing, marinading and smoking of our hams takes 10 weeks. As these hams sit in the marinade for 6 weeks the flavour of the ham can be sweet and quite strong whilst the texture can be coarse and slightly dry."

That gives a 4 week (ish) cure followed by a 6 week marinade. Followed by smoking (see above post) and maturing. Delia's Christmas book says that it is brined then marinaded - so a wet cure for 4 weeks. Given it's traditional nature, time-scale and texture it will almost certainly be a saltpetre cure. I imagine that the salt level is quite high but offset by the sweet marinade?

Has anyone tasted it and guess at the spicing before I make a fool of myself by trying to formulate a recipe for something I've never tasted?

Phil

[quietwatersfarm]

Like you I have assumed the salt content would be quite high, but the taste definitely isnt, its sweet and sticky when cooked.

Also sure about the stout as this gives a slight edge amongst teh sweetness of the sugar and treacle.

[Oddley]

The following is from an old book called Farmhouse Fare originally posted by aris. It's here.

SUFFOLK TREACLE CURE

RUB the meat well with salt and leave for 3 days in earthen
pots or a slate tank. Then, take out and empty the brine
away and wipe the vessels out clean and dry.

Now, having made the pickle the day before (consisting of
4 gallons of water; 8 Ibs. of black treacle; 2 small bars of cook-
ing salt; 4 Ibs. of brown sugar and about 2 ozs. of black
pepper), bring all this to the boil and let it simmer for about 20
minutes. Remove from the fire and when cold pour over the
meat, which should be well covered.

Hams up to 20 Ibs. need to be in pickle about a month; if
larger, about 6 weeks; breasts and hands and rib spears about
3 weeks, according to thickness. Turn these in the pickle every
other day, then hang them up to dry slowly.

The meat is ready to eat in about a month or 6 weeks and
will keep good for 12 months and over, and the longer hams
are kept the better, anything from 1 to 2 years.

From Mrs. G. Keeble, Suffolk.

[saucisson]

Thanks Oddley, a saviour as always
Iwas going to spend tomorrow scouring the site for a Suffolk recipe with treacle in it, and I bet you I wouldn't have found it
Dave

[wheels]

'ere, no disrespect to Oddley, we really need his help and experience at times like this, but I posted that link hours ago!

...but there's no beer in it!

Seriously, I think that Oddley's original Wiltshire cure, would be a very good starting point for designing a cure to fit the bill. As I recall it had beer and treacle.

What we can't ignore is the process; the curing is separate from the marinading - presumably it's the marinade that gives the depth of colour because the treacle is less dilute? That black colour is not solely from the smoking or cure, surely?

...oops are we still talking about bacon - or, with the reference to Christmas, have we moved on to ham. (If we have I'm partially to blame, and apologise - I've had a lousy day!).

I also missed the info about the meat being bone in to preserve it's shape in the smoke - that now makes sense - It's a great idea!

Phil

[Hickory_Bill]

I made a cold smoking chamber out of cardboard to test the concept.


I found a recipe (German I believe) for a whole bone in roasted pork loin roast.

I smoked the roast for about 4 hours at 40 deg F.

I used my hot smoker to pipe over the smoke.

After it was smoked, I put it in the refrigerator over night, and had it for dinner the next day.

It was roasted on a grill at med heat for about 2 hours to an internal temp of about 170 F.

It was really great.

I can't say that curing or smoking on the bone imparts any different flavor, but roasting on the bone has a big impact on taste.

here are some photos. Sorry, there are none of the finished product. Ill have to make this again.

[captain wassname]

I made a simlar ham using a pump and dunk cure.Used 20% treacle and 67% beer.I used IPA 5 days in brine ,gave an almost black finish.
Treacle is about 65/70% sugad and about 2% protiene it also contains water which may effect your calculations.Ill try to get a picture up later.

Jim

[Oddley]

Just as an academic pursuit I decided to convert the Suffolk Treacle Cure to a recipe that could be used.

A word of caution, I don't really like these recipes, that guess the amount using time as the yardstick. You try this recipe at your own risk.

That being said I might give this one a go myself.

SUFFOLK TREACLE CURE

5897 Meat
106 g Salt (1.8 % of meat)

16184 g water
2000 g Beer
3629 g black treacle (10.4 % to equilibrium / 2468 g dry sugar approx)
1873 g salt (10 % Brine concentration with salt from cure #1 - 6.4 % to equilibrium)
1814 g brown sugar (5 % to equilibrium)
57 g black pepper (0.163 % to equilibrium)
161 g Cure #1 (299 mg/Kg NitrIte to equilibrium)
19 g saltpetre (600 mg/Kg NitrAte to equilibrium)

Ingoing amounts at half equilibrium time:
5% Salt
6.8 % Sugar
150 mg/Kg Nitrite
300 mg/Kg NitrAte
0.0815 % Pepper

Some Totals:
Total Meat Weight = 5897 (9072 g - 20lb ham (minus 20% for bone / minus 15% for skin and fat))
Total salt = 2025 g
Total weight = 25737 g Brine / Ham + Brine = 31634 g (without bone, skin or fat)

Method:
Rub the meat with the 1.8 % salt. Leave in a nonmetallic container on a plastic mat in the bottom of the fridge at 2 - 3 °C for 3 days. The day before the meat is due to come out of the fridge make the brine, by heating the water and beer to boiling point, then cool a little, then transfer to a sterilised plastic bucket, adding all the ingredient's except the cure #1 and saltpetre. Cool the brine to room temperature, then add the cure # 1 and saltpetre, stir well, with a sterilised wooden or plastic spoon.

Cover the meat with the brine, cover container with a lid and leave in the bottom of the fridge, or other cold place 2 - 3 °C for 5 days per kilo of meat (not fat, skin or bone). Remove from brine and air dry, or leave in the bottom of the fridge to dry, and cook. You could of course smoke this product when a suitable pellicle forms.

IMPORTANT :
Unless you know what you are doing please follow the recipe exactly. To get the calculated levels the meat must be left in the brine for only half the time it would take to reach equilibrium.

[PepperPig]

Hi Oddley,

thanks for this. I shall give this a go.

My questions on this (awkward type that I am) are:

how do you calculate the time for equilibrium?

If a chart was created showing cure/salt uptake into the meat I imagine it would be a downward curve with high uptake at the beginning and very slow uptake towards the end of curing and this would mean half the time to reach equilibrium, would give higher than half of equilibrium results, possibly 65% (Hope I made sense there). Is this not the case?

Colin

[Oddley]

Hi PepperPig

I understand what you are saying about charts. Any of the long standing members will tell you, if it could be done this way, then I'm the one to try to do it! I have been called anal retentive, and although I have loosened up a bit, with the little knowledge I have gained, I'm still always worried about the ingoing amount of nitrates.

Through experience, I estimate for other than thin pieces of meat, equilibrium will take 10 days per kilo of meat. I have found this works well for me. Meat is a natural substance, so every piece will have a different dissipation time, (Damit! ).

If in the due course of time you find some reliable way of finding the dissipation time, through meat of salts, and nitrate, please post it on the forum, we would all be pleased to hear it.