The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Food & crafts => Food processing => Topic started by: Bluff on April 16, 2016, 11:50:10 am
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I have seen the threads on air dried ham but we would love to have a go at salami and chorizo. Previous efforts have been unsuccessful due to damp climate ( N Wales????) and too much fat in the meat. Ideally we would like to attend a course to learn rather than following a book. Has anyone attended a good course on the subject and does anyone gave instructions for building a home curing cabinet?
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We did the River Cottage 2 day course a couple of years ago and absolutely loved it. Run by Steven Lamb. Since then we have regularly done our own bacon and air dried ham. It is not a cheap course but the quality of the meal and tastings is very high so if you can afford it well worth it.
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There's a very helpful group on Facebook if you are an FB'er - Sausage Debauchery (!) And they also have a very informative website:
http://www.eatthepig.com/ (http://www.eatthepig.com/)
We have made both salami and chorizo - a good book is the Ruhlmann one on charcuterie. Weschenfelder sell casings, salts and spices and has basic instructions.
We made a curing cabinet out of an old fridge and have used it for a year. As we have enjoyed the experience we are now upgrading to a tall glass fronted fridge which OH will mod with temperature and humidity controllers.
I didn't do a course as such - just followed instructions and asked questions - quite a few on here and also on Sausage Debauchery's page. Go for it :excited:
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Thank you both. Just bought the river cottage curing book. Think we will give this another concerted effort!
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Chorizo is a must!
We made a hanging cupboard which is in the garage out of an old cupboard, with the panels kicked in (yes - that was my job :excited: ) and replaced with fly screening (cheap off eBay). I hang stuff off butchers hooks on the rails, and use the shelf for stacking my home made cheese too! Good luck!
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I'm in liquid sunshine South Wales UK I air dry my salami etc outside inside an adapted 310 litre food grade plastic barrel with a slack handful of holes and an access door on the side of it to allow me to reach inside & hang produce off the rail on meat hooks .
Your best friends in air drying are an accurate set of digital scales , a note book & pencil to record the weight losses of the treated food you put in your dryer & a calculator if you can't work out percentages using the metric system of grams & kilo grams .
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Thank you. Blue barrels seem to have a million uses. Well pigs are fattening so soon we can put the advice into practice
Can't wait!