[nealeholl]

Hi,

Im really looking forward to making my first bit of ham from one of my pigs in a few weeks time. However I've got a slight advantage in that making traditional hams, bacon & sausage is my "day job"! I've got my own business  www.dukeshillham.co.uk doing just that.
I'd be fascinated to hear some honest (!) thoughts from contributors who have tried this themselves at home. Particularly whether you tried dry curing or "wet" - i.e. using brine. How did it taste? Are you still alive?

[Hilarysmum]

I cure bacon and gammon which I sell.    Personally think my dry bacon is pretty unbeatable.  (Had a lot of practice).  Ham I have difficulty with.  I can get a  consistent gammon, its the cooking part causes the difficulties.  I also find my ham, when it is successful, does not freeze well.  I have never tried air drying a ham, never quite got the confidence to risk wasting a whole beautiful leg.

[Crofter]

We put a whole pig each year into bacon and ham.  Last year we dry cured the bacon and will never do it any other way again.  Beautiful flavour and it kept, hanging in the pantry from xmas to this week.  I noticed a couple of spots of mould and it's getting warmer so we sliced it and froze it today.  The hams we dry cured for the first time last year and though they looked OK I was not sure the salt had penetrated enough so we froze them (cut into joints).  I think if I tunnel bone the hams this year I'll have the courage to air dry them.

Dave

[Pigtails]

We make our own bacon, ham and gammon, the secret in freezing is to slice it, vaccum pack it and then chill before freezing.
We will be selling our produce soon, first we need to find suitable premises.

We air dried our meat on a few occasions, the meat stayed dark pink and tasted like parma ham, it went down very well with our friends
and others who came to dinner.

  

[Hilarysmum]

Isnt it strange, I have no problem freezing bacon and gammon, its the cooked ham, which I sliced, chilled, vac. packed and was very disappointed with when thawed.

Anyone have a good recipe for cooking the ham when its out of the salt.