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by **Lurch and his tribe** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 8:49 pm

My aunts pigs have gone to slaughter today and I have agreed to have one. Fancy the idea of doing my own hams and bacon most of the meat will go in the freezer as joints however.

Fancy trying parma ham and dry cure bacon. Tips for the utter novice would be very welcome. Now I have found the site I will also do some quick reading. I have a spare fridge for curing and a large airy garage for hanging.

Thanks in advance for the help. Ta lurch.

by **jpj** » Mon Mar 20, 2006 10:57 pm

you can't (hopefully) go wrong with the premixes available on the main site, which in the future you can devise for yourself - most of the constituent parts are also available for you to buy. and you can spend hours trawling through this forum to get all the info you need. good luck :-)

by **Lurch and his tribe** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 5:39 pm

cheers,

well after four hours hard work i managed to get the two 102lb sides butchered and after a further four hours my kitchen is now completley clean and dissinfected to ensure no nasty food poisining episodes. News has spread fast and friends have already had 16chops, 2lb sausages and a few joints off me.

I have bought some parma ham and bacon cure and plan to start these tomorrow. I have a little fridge set aside. which I plan to use for storing them away from my other products. Question is is it ok to cure and then hang to seperate products in the same small fridge. Advice would be greatly appreciated.

by **Wilf** » Sat Mar 25, 2006 7:48 pm

Hi Lurch, I have done both bacon and parma ham with the mixes, both need to be vacuum packed or zip locked bags to start with, so being together is no problem, after that the bacon can stay in the fridge and the parma will need hanging probaly garage, porch or back bedroom to get the right temp and humidity for a couple of months. I got a hygrometer of ebay to find suitable location, probaly OK this time of year before weather starts warming up, as freezing temp or too hot will be no good.

by **Lurch and his tribe** » Sun Mar 26, 2006 8:53 pm

cheers wilf. have done my bacon and ham today. Surprised how nervous im am about the whole thing.

by **Lurch and his tribe** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 4:53 pm

Help needed! checked my ham which is all clingfilmed up and its got lots of liquid sitting at the bottom. What should i do?

by **Wilf** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 5:31 pm

While the Bacon or Ham has the cure on they should be sealed as they will generate liquid, we vac pack ours but have done with the big freezer bags or zip lock bags before. You can them turn them every couple of days.

by **Lurch and his tribe** » Wed Mar 29, 2006 6:45 pm

Wilf,

Mine is completley sealed in in that sense. Its tightly wrapped in abt 20 metres of cling film as suggested somewhere on the site. So does the prescence of what looks to be a considerable volume of liquid imply that the curing process is working as normal. Reading that back it sounds a daft question but better safe than sorry.

Cheers

Lurch

by **Paul Kribs** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 11:27 am

Lurch

It is normal for the ham to exude the moisture from the meat. Once the first curing period is up, just pour away the liquid then pat the meat dry with a tea towel or kitchen paper and apply the second part of the cure.

Regards, Paul Kribs

by **Lurch and his tribe** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:58 pm

Cheers paul,

Seperate note I cant find Francos step by step guides for bacon and parma ham. I know there on here but have spent last twenty five mins looking. Anyone able to point a blind bat in the correct direction!

Ta

by **Paul Kribs** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 4:30 pm

Lurch

The Parma instructions are on the main site http://www.sausagemaking.org/acatalog/Parma_Ham.html

If you want to see a step by step for the bacon look at the tutorial on my site.. it also gives the relevant amounts of cure.

Regards, Paul Kribs

by **welsh wizard** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 12:13 pm

Hi All

Just a quick question - how important is it to achieve a constant 70% relative humidity and 15 degree c?

Do you have a particular room or part of a room in your house where this temp / humidity is constant?

Cheers WW

by **Paul Kribs** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 1:55 pm

welsh wizard

Those are ideal constant recommended conditions. Unfortunately most of us cannot adhere to them due to constant changes in humidity and temperature in our fluctuating climate. I test different rooms including my workshop, to determine the nearest to those conditions, and also test during maturing and move the ham if need be. At present I have a rolled loin (skin on) curing in my biltong box (heat off) and the RH fluctuates between 58% and 63%, and the temperature between 14ï¿½C and 19ï¿½C and it appears to be doing nicely. It is losing weight nicely as the butchers twine loops indicate and I have to retie each week.

Regards, Paul Kribs

by **Lurch and his tribe** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 3:32 pm

Ok my bacon comes out of cure tonight. what should i be looking for good and bad?

by **Paul Kribs** » Fri Mar 31, 2006 4:03 pm

Lurch

Provided you have followed the instructions, everything will be good. Just give it a rinse with water then dry with a cloth and leave in the fridge for a day to dry a little. Slice and pack or cook.. That's it.

Regards, Paul Kribs

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