[Sudanpan]

We are attempting our first air-dried hams this year 
The tunnel-boned hams were packed into the salt for 26 days - I then took the hams out, rinsed off the salt with water and then wiped the hams down with vinegar. The hams were then wrapped (twice) in stockingette (like the stuff used to slip over a whole side of beef/pork when hung in a buchers) and have been hung up in our lean-to but of the barn.
I've just noticed a couple of areas of what looks like mould on the outside of the material - should I be rinsing this off? Or should I unwrap the hams and give them another rinse off with vinegar and then rewrap? Or should I just stop panicking?    We did have a spell of warm and very humid/damp weather last week - now it is just blowing a  hooley! 
Thanks in advance
Tish

[Pheasant pharmer]

We are also about embark on our first cured hams, so will be watching this discussion thread with interest.

It feels like we are about to enter a huge unknown 

Good luck with yours - hopefully those who know will be able to reassure you soon!

[Greenerlife]

Blimey!  Those hams must be massive if you packed them in salt for that long!  Yum!

The same thing freaked me out the first ham I did so you are not alone!  I took the stockingette off and checked the ham itself for any soft spots, then revinegared it and washed the stockingette and rehung it.  It was delicious.  I suspect that stuff leaches out of the ham into its covering whichis less resistant to mould growth than the salted ham.

hope all is well with your hams.

[Eve]

There's supposed to be mould on the outside, so if it's not smelly don't worry about it. We don't rinse ours with vinegar but cover every bit of exposed meat (so not the skin side) in the pig's rendered fat and put peppercorns all over it to stop bugs having an interest, then hang them in a pillowcase in the loft. I suppose the pillowcase would stop any bugs anyway, but you never know.
I'll try and upload a photograph of hams drying in a medieaval meat house - all with dark mould on them (and for sale for a fortune  ).

Still not sure what that stockinette is, though, I'll check with the butcher next time 

 

[Sudanpan]

Blimey!  Those hams must be massive if you packed them in salt for that long!  Yum!

The hams were 17lbs - I was working on the basis of 1.5 days were lb....... hope they aren't going to be inedible after all this!
Have decided to let them be.
Here are some piccies
 

[Greenerlife]

They look good - and ham shaped too!  (That's something I am yet to achieve - somehow during the sewing up and pressing mine always end up an odd shape). I follow HFW's instructions which are 3-4 days per kilo, which is about the same as you have done, so sure they will be fine - just keep checking them - but no early tasting )

[tizaala]

Eve,

Stockinette is that tubular roll of soft pollishing cloth that comes on a roll , you can get it from Halfords for polishing your car, or any good hardware shop will stock it for cleaning cloth,  I use it for straining the whey from the curds for our goat cheese, and also for soaking oats for one of our horses , very versatile stuff,  Just cut it off to the length you need. For hams tie off one end to make a bag, insert ham , twist the bag and double it over, then do it again till you have three or four layers of cloth over the ham.

[Eve]

Thanks, Tizzala, now I know what it is! 
We've been putting our hams in cheap white cotton pillow cases   

 

[ZacB]

So how are the hams going?

Ours (the first) is hanging in our garage at present waiting for the weight to drop, as per instructions. We have had a sneaky peak & taste, yum yum. Ours had developed some blue mould in places, just wiped off with vinegar as previously mentioned.

Looking at photo's, noticed skin on. We stripped ours off & made some pork scratchings. Did we do wrong? Re removing skin not making scratchings 

Like the idea of using the polishing cloth for wrapping in.

[The Mobile Butcher]

The mould on the Hams it fine - please don't panic its what is supposed to happen.

 I hope you all enjoy your cured hams once tasted you will never go back to "shop" ham again.

kind regards

( Pheasant pharmer - bet your mouth is watering  )

[Sudanpan]

Hams are still up in the eaves of the barn... haven't quite plucked up the courage to take them down to see if it's worked or just been a very expensive method of growing mouldy ham!

We have planned to try them a couple of weeks before our current weaners head for the 'sty in the sky' which will then inform our orders for the cutting room. This will be towards the end of May.

I promise to post the results with piccies - good or bad!

Tish 

[MAK]

How long do they air dry for? I think that I read 40 weeks or more.
What about ambient temperature?
- I reckon the temperature in our hangar conservatively ranged between -20 to plus 35 ( range about 55 degrees) over last years drying period, Our  barn would be cooler in the heat but still very cold in winter - and our cellar temperature ranged maybe just 10-15 degrees.
ALL areas experienced sub zero for about 2 weeks ( frozen pipes).

So - I am not sure where best to hang a ham to air dry other than in a spare bedroom.

[tizaala]

Cellar sounds perfect, is it ventilated but able to keep flies out?

[HappyHippy]

I've not done air drying myself yet, but from reading my books the view on mould is if it's white that's fine, but if it's green or hairy it's not good  The books also suggest taking a sterile skewer and pushing it into the ham, pulling it back out again (filling the hole with a bit of lard to stop germs getting in) and smell it - if it's minging it's not a good sign, if there's no smell then all's good 
HTH
Karen 

[MAK]

We have terrible problem with flies. I have 4 Red Top fly traps hanging outside and we are using an oversized cheese safe ( with fine mesh to keep flies out) to air dry 6 salami.
I think the cellar sounds best if I put some fly screens over the windows that are high up on the wall but ground level outside. Our spuds, apples and butternut squash did OK in there until Le Grand Froid when the cellar ( and water meter) froze solid. It was an unusually long and VERY cold period freezing underground pipes to most places around here so maybe it will not be so bad next winter when we have hams ready to cure.

Half of me thinks that I should buy a whole air dried ham first for 2 reasons.
1. I am not sure if we can carve and store a whole ham over the eating period - an how much ham will we have to eat ?!?
2. We moved here to live the rural life that is all around us. Old lifestyles and crafts are widely practised - such as hunting,mushroom picking, keeping birds and animals, preserving fruit and veg and Drying hams. If we bought one of a local seller, who have so much character and love of their hams, then it goes some way to preserving his craft and lifestyle. Like a donnation to a threatened cause.

Since there are no charity shops here and no collection tins at the supermarket then buying a ham ( expensive) seems a good gesture to one of these old men. Soft or what?