Proscuitto

Air dried cured Meat Techniques

Proscuitto

Postby ped » Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:08 pm

I am going to have a go at Proscuitto as per this recipe: http://gozman.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/ ... rst-steps/ my question to you is, can/should I replace the Saltpetre (I have some) with cure#2 and at what % should I replace i.e. how many grams per kilo of meat (bone in)?, I have had a look around the forum but haven't been able to find anything that will guide me. Any other useful info would also be appreciated.

Many thanks
Ped
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Postby warston » Fri Jan 18, 2013 4:23 pm

first of all welcome to the forums ped !

something i have noticed about this recipe which indicates that it's not really good ( in my opinion):

1-boiling the cure or the saltpeter is not a good idea at all as if you google well about the cures, specially saltpeter you will find that bring it to a certain heat ( up to 75 Celsius) causing it to be carcinogenic ! and in this recipe the guy boil the cure TWICE !

2- the real proscuitto (if i'm not wrong) is air dry ONLY and the guy had brining stuff in his recipe , that's beside the uncertain amount of salt peter if you cut is less than 10 or more ( his recipe is 5 tsp) and very few days ( 8 days !!)
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Postby ped » Fri Jan 18, 2013 5:02 pm

Hi Warston, thanks for your welcome (if somewhat belated ! :wink: ), yes I too noted the heating saltpetre bit and was intending to add that or whatever alternative when liquid was cold. I appreciate that it doesn't follow the dry curing of say Parma but as it made reference to the fact that his family have done it for some time I thought that it was probably tried and tested, I was initially intending to just use salt without cure but have started to get cold feet and wanted to include some insurance (saltpetre/cure#2), the thought of spoilage and possible death doesn't appeal :shock:

Any more thoughts anyone?

Ped
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Postby wheels » Fri Jan 18, 2013 5:07 pm

warston wrote:first of all welcome to the forums ped !

something i have noticed about this recipe which indicates that it's not really good ( in my opinion):

1-boiling the cure or the saltpeter is not a good idea at all as if you google well about the cures, specially saltpeter you will find that bring it to a certain heat ( up to 75 Celsius) causing it to be carcinogenic ! and in this recipe the guy boil the cure TWICE !

2- the real proscuitto (if i'm not wrong) is air dry ONLY and the guy had brining stuff in his recipe , that's beside the uncertain amount of salt peter if you cut is less than 10 or more ( his recipe is 5 tsp) and very few days ( 8 days !!)


Sorry, am I missing something?

What's this about not boiling brine cures that contain saltpetre?

Phil
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Postby warston » Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:06 pm

ped wrote:Hi Warston, thanks for your welcome (if somewhat belated ! :wink: ), yes I too noted the heating saltpetre bit and was intending to add that or whatever alternative when liquid was cold. I appreciate that it doesn't follow the dry curing of say Parma but as it made reference to the fact that his family have done it for some time I thought that it was probably tried and tested, I was initially intending to just use salt without cure but have started to get cold feet and wanted to include some insurance (saltpetre/cure#2), the thought of spoilage and possible death doesn't appeal :shock:

Any more thoughts anyone?

Ped

sry ped just noted that you are not new to the forums :D
well i'm not that expert about those matters, but i just said what i know about it :)
guess phil captian_wassaname and other guys can be more helpful than me
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Postby warston » Mon Jan 21, 2013 1:07 pm

wheels wrote:
warston wrote:first of all welcome to the forums ped !

something i have noticed about this recipe which indicates that it's not really good ( in my opinion):

1-boiling the cure or the saltpeter is not a good idea at all as if you google well about the cures, specially saltpeter you will find that bring it to a certain heat ( up to 75 Celsius) causing it to be carcinogenic ! and in this recipe the guy boil the cure TWICE !

2- the real proscuitto (if i'm not wrong) is air dry ONLY and the guy had brining stuff in his recipe , that's beside the uncertain amount of salt peter if you cut is less than 10 or more ( his recipe is 5 tsp) and very few days ( 8 days !!)


Sorry, am I missing something?

What's this about not boiling brine cures that contain saltpetre?

Phil


agree about this point. can u please tell ped about the other points as well ? like using saltpeter to cure in 8 days ? and about adding the ascorbic ? and others .. you are the guy
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Postby captain wassname » Mon Jan 21, 2013 2:29 pm

probably my fault Phil I never boil nitrate or nitrite always boil up the non soluables and let cool.
I did tell Roger not to boil the cure.

Jim
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Postby wheels » Mon Jan 21, 2013 3:44 pm

Ah, no problem. AFAIK, you're fine to boil saltpetre. Like you, I add nitrite when it's cooled.

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Postby wheels » Mon Jan 21, 2013 4:06 pm

ped

I'm afraid that I can't help with this one.

That the cure is enough is evident by the fact that the writer has some lovely looking ham. Whether it's too much? That I can't say; the weight of meat, combined with the short time curing are such that I couldn't be confident in saying whether the level of cure is excessive or not.

Warston mentioned ascorbic. This would not be appropriate as you are trying to provide long term protection.

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