[farmers wife]

I have a number of hams hanging in the walk in fridge but I have noticed they look so dry.  My large ham is still in the brine and ready to come out later (my christmas ham).  I wasnt impressed with the look of the smaller hams but thought it would change upon boiling but no, it is very very dry and the outside edges are rock hard and no good.


What has gone wrong? - I can only assume I left them in the brine too long?  I am really concerned over getting the big legs wrong and panicing than I that I have gone over again.


I used the HFW cure method in cider, sugar and salt.


My bacon was worked very well and I have a prosciutto in salt due out next week.


Far too expensive to get wrong!!!!

[HappyHippy]

I've not done air dried ham myself (and don't have the charcuterie book to hand) but aren't they supposed to be smeared with lard and wrapped in muslin? (Of course, there's a very high chance I'm mistaken!)
Hopefully someone experienced will be along soon 

[Bionic]

I have only done one air dried ham so I don't know enough to say what went wrong ?ith yours.
I just covered mine in salt inside, where the bone had been, and outside, and left it for about 3 weeks. Then I covered it in a couple of layers of muslin (no lard) and hung it up outside for 6 months. It was under the eaves of the stable so didn't get wet but had plenty of air.
Mine looked very similar to Parma ham when I took it down. The outside was a bit hard but nothing very bad and the hard bit was only a millimetre or 2.


I hope someone with more knowledge comes along to advise properly.

[cloddopper]

I have a number of hams hanging in the walk in fridge but I have noticed they look so dry.  My large ham is still in the brine and ready to come out later (my christmas ham).  I wasnt impressed with the look of the smaller hams but thought it would change upon boiling but no, it is very very dry and the outside edges are rock hard and no good.If I get a few thing sorted i too  hope to take th same root
What has gone wrong? - I can only assume I left them in the brine too long?  I am really concerned over getting the big legs wrong and panicing than I that I have gone over again.


I used the HFW cure method in cider, sugar and salt.


My bacon was worked very well and I have a prosciutto in salt due out next week.


Far too expensive to get wrong!!!!

If I get a few things sorted fairly soon I too hope to take the route you have
Dick Sawbridge is an author of a good book on home curing .

You say you have hams in the walk in fridge .. could that be the problem as the fridge will cause drying perhaps you have dried it too much & for too long .The humidity of a big fridge tends to be fairly constant as well as on the dry side , what sort of temperature is the fridge set to ?

 Do you have any idea of each individual weight loss incurred by each individual joint? If so work them as percentages and post the results , ideally you would be looking at around 30% weight loss .

 Like you say over brining will also draw out too much moisture .. there are charts that give the formula for fresh weight , brined weight and finished air dried weight.
 
Having the bone out also makes a difference apparently , you have to inject the  brine close to the bone at several points to stop internal decay in the greater thickness of flesh & in the bone where as if it is deboned I suspect that it would cure quicker .
Brine injection pumps are stupid prices , Before I start my curing & air drying I  hope to use my lathe to turn up some thin bore stainless steel tubing to make a brining needle that fits in to a clean cycle pump body

 I did do several kg of home made salami earlier this year . they lost almost 35% weight and were rock hard .( good nagging meat though )
 My salami was hung suspended on a strong well fitted bar in a food grade blue barrel that had seven rows of nine 10 mm dia holes all over it and then a jacket of fine nylon mesh to keep bugs and animals away
 It's stood on a wheeled dolly out in the garden ( no holes in the uppermost face so as to stop rain dripping in )  and was allowed to have all manner of varying temps & humidity around it . 

[Sudanpan]

We have done air dried hams - but only ever with a dry cure, so can't comment about what might happen with wet curing.
Certainly with the dry cure method the meat face does get incredibly dry and rock hard, so much so that it needs to be cut off and wasted, but the meat inside is nice and firm, not moist but not dry.
There is an incredible reduction in the amount of viable meat after the air drying process - the last ham we did started off at about 15lbs (bone in) but after all the salting, drying and processing (ie deboning an cutting off the unusable stuff) we ended up with about 4lbs of simply fab parma type ham.
That's why the stuff is so expensive!