Wheels everyday ham

[johnfb]

I was turning the ham over today and licked my finger to try out the brine for saltiness. It wasn't too bad; in fact it seemd to be settling down and leaning towards the everyday ham brine. A nice balance of sweet and salt.
I doubled up the spices for the big boy..I'm sure it can take them no problem.

More to follow...

[wheels]

John

The brine is a 14% concentration or there abouts. Hence the salty taste.

We are working on a 10% pump which should give 1.4% in the finished ham.

Phil

[johnfb]

Hi Phil
I think it is settling down, as in the post above, to be similar to the normal (by that I mean the proper brine using cure 1) brine.

I hope it is as nice as the other one as it would be a cheaper option for full legs for me...I think.
Thanks
John

[wheels]

John

I'm not sure that the saving is as much as you would think as cure #1 is far higher nitrite.

I guess it probably boils down to the postage involved.

If you're going to use it regularly ask for a spec sheet so we know the amounts of nitrite/nitrate.

Phil

[johnfb]

Will do, but the cost of the cure 1 is �10 for 400 grams which is what I would need for the 8 ltrs of water needed for the brine right now (256 grams). Then I must include post on top. So if I wanted to do a ham for my brother and I then I would have to spend that each time, although I could use the rest in other recipes.
The supracure costs �5.95 for 2kg plus postage. I use a little over that for the 2 hams but can use the leftovers, if I have to buy 2 x 2kg packs for dry curing bacon.

It is almost 6 of 1 and half a dozen of the other. It may all come down to the final taste and colour fo the second Supracure one.

What I am gaining on the swings I am loosing on the roundabout.

And I cannot get any more cliches into this post.
John

[johnfb]

Ok, so I have just cooked a 2kg piece of pork leg that was in the brine made from Supracure.
I followed Phils recipe for this, in this post.
I have just taken it out of the water and my wife and I have tasted it.
It is as nice as the brine using the cure 1. Virtually the same sugar to salt flavour.
I cant complain with this. The full leg in the brine in my shed should turn out perfect if the sample is anything to go by.
The 2kg piece cured for 6 days so the 2 weeks I am giving its big brother should cover it.
Another home run for Wheels.

[wheels]

John

You can save money by using boned and rolled ham. The last one I did was just over 7kg (b + r) and I used a brine made with just over 3 litres water. If you use a fairly close fitting container this will cover it. I filled the spare space with the hock and a few old tea plates.

I looked at all the alternatives to cure #1 and they all had draw-backs. In particular, I go for low salt in my corned beef and I couldn't get this with commercial curing salts. With other's, I couldn't get any info as to nitrite/nitrate in them or they worked out about the same cost and had things in them I didn't want.

I notice that finally Scobies have given instructions for their complete mix. Their Nitrite Salt is thought to be 1% (Spuddy).

Also, I like to support Sausage Making, as long as it doesn't hit me too much in my wallet, as my thanks for providing this forum.

Phil

[johnfb]

I used a picnic type plastic cooler box. I placed the pork leg in there and covered it with water...8 litres to just cover it. Of course when the brine went in it bobbed up over the inital water line. There certainly is a lot of "wasted" space on either side of the leg...just brine sitting there doing nothing.
Perhaps boning it would have allowed more squishing down on it and less water and mix.
I will try this next time.

[wheels]

John

Here's my last one in the fridge - that's brine with 3 litres water, 7kg ham.



Curing salt about 16p per lb meat, plus p & p. It would be nice though if we could get all the supplies we need without having to go to 2 or 3 suppliers - the p & p would be an awful lot less!

Phil

[johnfb]

What are the dimensions of that tuppaware box Phil?
My post cost �10 each time...

[wheels]

It's roughly 12"x12"x7" John.

Phil

[johnfb]

As in another post: I took out the 7 kilo leg of pork yesterday that was in this brine blend for the last 14 days.
I minced and stuffed large fibrous casings with 3.5 kg of it. Poached it. turned out amazing.
Just sliced the rest of it off the bone, amazing. We have the mother-in-law over for Easter dinner today .
My wife, my biggest and most blunt critic, says it was some of the best ham she has ever tasted.
"God, it looks like ham!!"
What did she expect???