The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: yvilalba on April 10, 2012, 05:02:30 pm
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We are wet curing a leg of pork,we have done dry curing as per "john seymour's" book,but in the wet curing he suggests 4 days per pound ?? but have read in other articles 1 day per kilo in brine ?? so bit confused !!...does anyone know the length of time best left in brine ???
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Depends if it's off the bone or on , I think you are safer off the bone so the salt can get well in to the leg, at about 2 days per killo.
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:wave: Hi yvilalba
although we now dry cure our Berkshire hams - there is a very good wet cure recipe on this forum from user hilarysmum - I have used this and it is very successful.
We do take the bone out of our hams (butterfly) and then dry cure ...then after the appropriate time rinse, dry and tie.
Ready to cook.
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Hi,thanks for replies, I really didn't get the answer I wanted in so much as we now have 4 legs weighed..with bone..in brine solution,and we are doing this to preserve them..ie with the dry cured previous legs we now have them hanging and air curing more..like the spanish do( we live in spain) and like I say we put them in the curing brine to try, but I can't find the exact time they need to be left in it,ie time per kilo or pound.Thank you once again for your suggestions.
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The crucial question is what strength of brine are you using? We started off with the Hugh F-W recipe of 250-330 g salt/litre, which came out far too salty, but needs less time. At the other end of the scale Hilarysmum (on TAS somewhere) recommends 140 g salt + 60 g sugar/litre. This year we settled for 160 g salt + 60 g sugar/litre, with bone in, for 3.5 days per kg of leg including bone, which worked perfectly as one of the hams we had to chop in half and the brining had worked all the way through to the bone. It was perfect when cooked - not too salty at all after the normal, pre-cooking, 24 hour soak in fresh water. During the brining we also made a few holes into the leg and along the bone with a skewer in the hope that that would get more of the salt solution right to the centre, which seemed to work. HTH - Tamsaddle
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THE expert on this forum (IMO) is Hilary's Mum. She put this recipe up a year or two ago and I messaged her for some additional information. Below is a composite of those messages.
Her wet cure recipe is as follows and is delicious - no saltpetre:
to every litre of water
340 grammes salt
60 grammes sugar (brown for pref)
then
about 20 juniper berries
same cloves
about 40 peppercorns (My cure is usually in 6 litre lots)
Bring to boil and simmer for a few minutes. If any scum appears skim it off. Allow to cool then chill.
In a non metal container leave ham making sure its covered by the water. I have a large fridge for this. I tend to leave it for around 2 weeks but I do whole boned out legs. During this time I check the water temperature daily and try to turn the ham over twice a day. I use freezer packs to weigh down the meat so it remains covered. Its necessary to keep the meat at 4 deg. c
When its had enough time in the salt I soak for 24 hours. No idea why I just do.
Then leave the meat to dry in the fridge allowing as much air to circulate as pos for around 2 days.
When you have rested your cured ham for 2 days, then simmer for 20 mins. per kilo. (very aprox) Test with a knife to make sure it is cooked through. I tend to leave it in the water to cool before removing. Then let it rest and shove on the glaze.
For the glaze remove the skin, and any excess fat. Cover the fat with a mix of dry mustard and honey, score into diamond shapes and put a clove in each diamond if you want.
Put this in a preheated oven as hot as pos. for about 10 minutes, just to finish off the glaze.
Let it cool before slicing really thin.
You will find that each person has a slightly different take on this recipe its very basic, change it to suit you and your tastes.
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Suziequeue - I think there is a typo in your reply. I am absolutely sure it is 140, not 340, grammes of salt per litre. This amount of salt would be horrible. Tamsaddle
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I have checked my messages and Hilary's Mum's recipe. I note in my messages to her that I double checked the quantities of salt and it is 340g per litre.
It really turns out delicious and I didn't find it too salty.
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I thought that I had already posted my thanks for the above recipe. We did 3 gammons - boiled one and roasted off 2 as above. Sliced and frozen but I must ration myself so I don't eat it all before I have the chance to share with family and friends.
Thanks Suziequeue
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I will keep posting this recipe whenever anybody posts about a recipe.
Firstly because it's very good and secondly because I miss Hilary's Mum on this forum. She was so amazing and I loved her profile pic of her pig on the sofa or bed or somewhere :-(
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Sorry to keep labouring the same point, but in the post called "Making a Gammon" started on 13 April 2010, there is a reply from Hilarysmum dated 10 May 2010, which I have just checked again, which says there that it is 140g salt/litre. I guess that is where I saw it first and why I thought this was the amount she was recommending. Whatever - my brine with 160g salt/litre worked a treat, and I definitely preferred the taste to the very much saltier HFW brine recipe. Tamsaddle
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That's interesting Tamsaddle because that's where I would have got the recipe from...... have just checked and the 340g comes from HM's recipe to me in my messages so that's where the typo must be......... but I made it with 340g last year and it was delicious!!!!!
Since then I've always just cut and pasted the recipe from my message box!!!!!
Apologies!
Cripes - now I'm giving everybody high blood pressure!
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I've just sent her a PM asking whether she could clarify what the amount is meant to be !! Tamsaddle
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Lillian uses 370 grams of salt in 2 liters of water now i Will get shot for telling :o :farmer:
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Oh thanks Tamsaddle :-))
God - how embarrassing.
I know HM hasn't been on the forum at all recently and Dan tried IMing her to no avail recently
Fingers crossed you'll get a reply.
I feel so embarrassed
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No reply from HM yet, but she does seem to have vanished off the radar recently. Such a pity, her stories and advice were absolutely priceless, I wonder what she is up to now? Please dont be embarrassed Suziequeue, at the moment I am not at all sure which of the two salt concentrations was the original correct one, but it is interesting that Lillian uses 185 g per litre, closer to the lower figure. Tamsaddle
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Well I think the original one on the forum from Hilary's Mum was 140g as you pointed out. Then I IM'd her and the recipe she sent back was 340gm. When I checked again just before making the cure up, I put 340gm and that did not raise any comment....... And I would have used 340gm in the recipe. Turned out fine.
This year (we only have wearers every other year) I will do two - one with 140gm and one with 340gm.... And get the family to do a taste test at Christmas
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Good idea - best way to decide which of the two is tastier !! Tamsaddle