[Musky]

Hi, I have just purchased a used commercial meat slicer from eBay and am wanting to try and make the most of it.

Firstly, we are going to try and cure our own ham - does this have to be done in a brine solution or can it be done dry like bacon? Secondly. how long can we reasonably expect ham to keep before we have to cook and slice it?

We also would like to know the best way to store the meat so we can use it over a period of time rather than all at once for obvious reasons.

Has anybody tried vac-packing or freezing or a combination of both? We tried freezing cooked sliced ham once before and it lost all colour and texture when defrosted and it just wasn't very appealing.

Thanks in advance

[MAK]

Hope this helps- We put our boned hams (immersed in brine) in a large camping fridge at about 3-4 degrees C - for 10 days.We then string each bonned ham and cook ( boil/simmer).
Once cool we slice all the ham ( on our electric slicer) then wrap 4 slices or so in foil then freeze. We have not experienced any colour taste or texture change and have done this for 3 years. Cut the hams after they have been in the fridge a night and you will get great large slices with little to know waste when cutting.
 We did try cooking a ham then glazing with honey and mustard and a final roast off in the oven - We did follow some instructions but found it dried out too much of the ham and the taste was too overpowering of the good meat that we used.
buying a slicer is a great investment to make the produce look good and go further with little waste. We also slice up roasted meats and smoked duck breasts with the slicer.