[kitchen cottage]

I got given quarter of a pig (it was dead!) which isn't very good eating so I've decided to have a go at air curing.  I have "acquired" a "hamstand" (a hatstand to go in my cool porch that I can hang my hams on out of dogs way!) and having looked at LOADS of recipes..... have the shoulder in salt with a brick on it.
 
The seasoning says juniper berries and garlic as part of the ingredients.... first question is.... Do i crush the berries?
 
Second question is the recipe said a concrete block should be laid on the meat..... I don't think the shelves in my fridge would take that so I've got a 5 1/2 kilo bricks, which is the same weight as the meat?  Should that be okay?  Its been curing since Sunday and a good bit of liquid is still coming out.
 
Final question is.... bone in or bone out?  The recipes go both ways.  I am now temped to bone this.
 
Final final question.... how long does it take?  Hugh Furry Whitstable says 4-5 months... the other recipes says a year.
 
Help!!

[suziequeue]

There os LOADS of good advice about curing ham on this forum KC.


I'm a bit confused by your thread (but maybe that's just me......)


If you are dry curing your pork - why have you got it in a tub of brine? Sounds like you are wet curing it to me. We wet cured a bone-in leg last year and we didn't crush the berries (although that sounds like a good idea to just crush them ever so slightly to let the juices out). We left the leg in the brine for about three or four weeks I think. I wouldn't do bone-in again as it was impossible to slice on the slicer and what I want to do in future is slice the ham, vac pac it and put it in the freezer.


Dry curing - I think you just put it in a huge sack of salt for a bit then wrap it up and let it dry out somewhere cool and dog/fly free.

[kitchen cottage]

its just in salt, but I'm pouring the liquid that comes off of the meat away.... to ensure its not brine    I'm surprised by how much liquid comes off.  I thought that was the purpose of the weight, to push the liquid out?
 
Deffo dry curing (I definitely THINK )

[Greenerlife]

I may be misunderstanding you, but why have you got it in the fridge?  Once it is in salt and weighted down I just put it in the garage (or cool place) the salt will do its work.  I do crush juniper, because I love it, but don't think you have to.  When it comes to boning or not, I always have boned it because its easier to slice when its done and also less prone to go wrong in the middle which, of course, you can't check on!  If you do bone it out, just make sure you get the salt right inside over every possible area, or it will go bad.  Good luck - worth the effort!

[kitchen cottage]

Its in the fridge cos thats in the recipe I'm following..... but equally my outbuildings are all timber and not cool in summer.  I could put it in a bowl in my porch but am fairly confident that at some point I would have a trail of salt leading to a cat or dog and a joint of meat.  i think I will bone it out tonight....

[Eve]

Don't worry about keeping it in the fridge, if there's sufficient salt on the meat it'll be fine. Have a look at someone's meat cage on an earlier posting for protection ideas.
Bricks or breeze blocks need to be wrapped in something to keep the meat clean. The weights need to be heavy, heavier than tins of tomatoes for example (tins roll off the meat anyway). We use an old drill wrapped in tea towels and then clingfilm as it's heavy for its size, or pieces of a cast iron bath wrapped in the same way.
Don't temper with the bone anymore - for boned out, the bone needs to be removed before you start curing. Don't take the bone out now or once it's been cured as you would leave a big gap filled with bacteria.
Don't worry about the recipe. If the pork is of good enough quality, it will have loads of flavour after just curing with salt.
Leave for 4 months until the first try, but you can leave it for 6 or 8 months or even longer if you like. The meat will develop flavour as it ages. We start using the ham from when it's been air drying for 6 months.
 
 
 
 

[suziequeue]

So let me gett his straight:


You cure the pork in salt for about four months and then air dry it for about six months?

[kitchen cottage]

eek!
 
Before I read this I paniced and boned it    Its only been in salt a week and I packed the hole with the salt mix.
 
On my recipe it stays in for 3 weeks so I thought it had enough time to cure too...
 
Next bit is...... my recipe says that you clean it (I gather wine vinegar is used here) and then cover in paprika before hanging.  Here people put fat on?  Do I do that and when?
 
Confuzzled..... .but very pleased with how the meat looked when I boned it

[Greenerlife]

So let me gett his straight:


You cure the pork in salt for about four months and then air dry it for about six months?

NOOOOO!       The cure usually takes 15/16 days, but according to weight.  If you did it for four months it would be cured alright, but taste like erm....salt!  then you air dry it for at least six months.


kitchen Cottage - you need to make sure you have rubbed the salt in the cavity, but don't pack it in, or the finished product will be overly salty.  have you sewn it back 'together'?

[kitchen cottage]

No not in salt for 4 months!  salt for 3 weeks to 4 weeks and then hang for 4 months.
 
I meant that the air drying phase is variously put at 4 months (hugh furry whitstable) to a year (italian proscuitto)
 
so now I have DON'T pack where the bone is.
 
I think I'll compromise on that and pack it for a couple of days and then sew it up.
 
*sighes*
 
Bluddy hell this is very variable!

[Eve]

We've never sown it together again and never heard of anyone doing that. I definitely wouldn't bother, and the moisture will be able to escape a bit more easily with a bit of ventilation 
Keep the meat in salt for a day per lb of its weight, so a whole large leg does indeed take about two weeks. After the two weeks, rinse it off, dry it off with tea towels, put on rubber gloves to keep the bacteria from your fingers from going where they shouldn't, and spread pork fat all over the exposed meat inc where the bone was (the skin doesn't need pork fat). The fat prevents the outer layer of the meat from drying out (if it dries out, the moisture inside can't escape anymore and the meat rots inside). Then either put cracked pepper all over the fat to keep the bugs off or put the meat in a pillow case of muslin. We do both the pepper and the pillow case - an old habit.
What do you mean by salt mix? Salt with herbs or spices? Don't bother with saltpetre or other so called 'curing salts' if that's what you mean, you don't need it (you really won't kill yourself with air dried ham!) and it's not exactly healthy stuff.
Vinegar is only used to clean off the wrong mould (white or dark dry mould is fine, fluffy stuff is wrong).
Paprika on air dried ham?? Yuck, noooo!!!
Don't worry about temperatures, if the meat had enough salt on it, it'll be fine. Do worry about light as it breaks down the fat. We keep our hams up in a windowless loft, they just hang from a clothing rail.
Yes, there are many different recipes and ways of doing things. Generally, you try different ways in the first year or two and then end up doing what suits your family / kitchen / taste best afterwards 
Which recipe are you following?
 
 
 
 
 
 

[kitchen cottage]

thank you.  That was really helpful.  I followed a "google" recipe.  I've salted it too long but I am going to hang it tonight anyway and see how it goes.