First Ham time! - Virginia Dry Cured (Final finished product pics!!)

Started by ExpatCanadian, November 15, 2012, 03:27:54 AM

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ExpatCanadian

I really should wait until I have a pic or 2, but I am too excited...  and nobody I know including Mrs. Expat (although she does a good job of pretending  :-*) will understand like you folks! I've been wanting to dry cure a whole pork leg to make a Virginia Style or Country ham for AGES now.  My main hold back has been time, and a slight apprehension about finding a decent quality whole leg that meets the fairly strict requirements for being suitable for dry curing. For reference, my starting point has been this page from the Virginia Cooperative Extension: http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/458/458-223/458-223.html

My local butcher, is very good...  and I'll happily buy most products from them. But to be honest, other than throwing in a couple sausages for free when I spend a lot of money with them, I get no deals...  and a whole leg charged at full retail from them would run me at least £80-100....  and it would just be any old leg... good quality of course, but not specifically selected for ham making, and I need to get this right.

But..  yesterday I had a flash of inspiration  :o :o When I'm after a special ham...  there is only one place I buy from:

http://www.dukeshillham.co.uk/

They select and prepare 100's of legs per week for their own products...  and I thought, I wonder if they would sell me one of their legs, already expertly selected and prepared, but uncured? Well, to cut to the chase, I just got off the phone with them, and the answer was YES!!!!! ..........AND they are only charging me what I assume is a close to cost price...  since they obviously buy in huge volumes, I am paying £30.00 for what they've said will be a 6.5-7kg (14.5-15.5lb) "ham".

So...  the leg arrives tomorrow! Pics to follow, I plan to update this thread, but this is a long term project (possibly 4-6 months or more) so updates may be a bit sporadic.

.....until tomorrow!

Habanero Smoker

Thanks for the link. I'm going to give it a good read. I have twice failed to cure an "authentic" Country Ham. Both times I thought I was successful, when I cut into it, I had bone sour.



     I
         don't
                   inhale.
  ::)

ExpatCanadian

Quote from: Habanero Smoker on November 15, 2012, 03:32:20 AM
Thanks for the link. I'm going to give it a good read. I have twice failed to cure an "authentic" Country Ham. Both times I thought I was successful, when I cut into it, I had bone sour.

Yeah, I read your post about that...  it's a big worry of mine too, must be heartbreaking!  :-[ I don't intend to inject on this first attempt as I want it to be a completely dry cured product...  so we'll see if this hubris bites me in the @$$. However, if it happens to someone as experienced as yourself, what hope do I have  ???

Habanero Smoker

Give it a try, you will be successful. I'm sure it is something I am doing on my end.

That article did give me a few more ideas, and I now believe the main cause of my bone sour is the commercial hams I get. The hock end is cut like figure 2b. I may go to a slaughterhouse and order a ham from them, and make sure the hock end is like figure 2a. 

After reading the whole article, I will probably not use their recipe. I saw that they use saltpeter (potassium nitrate). I'm still wanting to make a Country Ham without nitrates or nitrites.



     I
         don't
                   inhale.
  ::)

ExpatCanadian

Thanks for the encouragement.  I'm sitting at work right now waiting for the call from my wife to tell me the leg has arrived.  I've got everything ready, including a specially made bucket-in-bucket arrangement to do the initial salt cure in. I need it to fit in my curing fridge, which I'll have set at around 40F for the first while. I was planning to press with a weight, but I'm going to sacrifice that for being able to keep it cold... better chance (I'm hoping) to avoid spoilage.

I'm actually going for the nitrate cure as per the article. I bought a packet of Saltpetre a couple years back but have never used it, so thought might as well. The info I sent you does state that a salt-only cure IS still acceptable, so I wouldn't worry about it. I do agree that the starting raw material is probably one of the most if not THE most critical factor to success... lets hope buying direct from this ham company takes care of that for me!

My cure container:





Drainage holes drilled in bottom:

Habanero Smoker

I will be monitoring this post. With your knowledge, setup and equipment you will definitely have some good Country ham in the future.



     I
         don't
                   inhale.
  ::)

ExpatCanadian

Ok, here we go! Ham arrived on schedule... I'll let the pics speak for themselves.

One beautiful hunk of pig... 8kg...





640g diamond crystal + 160g brown sugar + a mere 10g saltpetre! Divided in 2.... 1/2 now then other 1/2 in 7 days...

Does Saltpetre REALLY expire? Somehow I think not....


Rubbing...




Shank end... Packed full of salt mix...


Into the bucket... then into the fridge...


Not much more to do now except wait!

Tenpoint5

Bacon is the Crack Cocaine of the Food World.

Be careful about calling yourself and EXPERT! An ex is a has-been, and a spurt is a drip under pressure!

Salmonsmoker

I've been curious and thinking about doing this for a long time Expat. Thanks for the re-reminder and the link to Virginia Tech!
Give a man a beer and he'll waste a day.
Teach him how to brew and he'll waste a lifetime.

Habanero Smoker

You got a nice ham to start with, and you can't get one much fresher than they one you have.



     I
         don't
                   inhale.
  ::)

Caribou

What a great start with great PICS
I'll be watching this one.
Carolyn

ExpatCanadian

Phew...  what a weekend... it was our little boy's first birthday party, and the 5th of 6 first birthday parties in the past 4 weeks. I'm just about partied out... but it was fun...

I had meant to get at least one more pic up of the ham progress so far, but really at this point it's not particularly exciting, it's just a leg covered in salt, sitting in a bucket...  but it has shrunk somewhat and there is quite a lot of effluent in the drainage bucket below the main one.  Anyway, I'll take another pic or 2 this coming Friday when I apply the second half of the cure mix.

Couple questions for anyone that's done this before:

1. If I go by weight of the leg, and count on 1.5 days per pound of meat (or roughly 3 days per kg), I get 24-26 days cure time.  However, if I go by cushion depth (referenced in the article posted in my first post) I get 7 days x 5.5" = 35.5 days!  Quite a difference...  anyone know what should take precedent?



2. When it comes time to hang and age the thing...  do you wrap in unwaxed butchers paper THEN netting...  or just the netting?


Habanero Smoker

Happy birthday to your son.

I can give you some advice, but remember I have failed at this.  ;D

1- I always went by thickness, and that is what Morton recommends in their "Home Meat Curing Guide"; they also stated 7 days per inch.

2- Once out of the cure, when you hang it you want it to air dry, so I wouldn't use butcher's wrap at this stage. If you not going to have any problem with insects, then just netting will do. If you believe you may have an insect problem, you may want to use heavy cheese cloth (not the cheap stuff you see in stores).

Are you going to cold smoke it. That will give it additional protection form most insects, and from some mold during the aging process.



     I
         don't
                   inhale.
  ::)

ExpatCanadian

Hab... you DO sleep right???  :o :o  It's 10am here...  makes it what, 5am where you are? I guess that's not THAT early... but why do I have this image in my head of you sitting up all night ready and waiting to offer advice when needed to your friends across the Atlantic and beyond!?

Anyway, thanks for the advice, I'll go for the 7 days per inch...  better safe than sorry, the worst it will be is too salty, but I'd rather that than the alternative.

I do plan on cold smoking...  in fact, that reminds me of another question I had forgot to ask...  the article says to smoke for 1-3 days using "cool," smoldering type [of fire] that produces dense smoke. Any idea how this translates to the Bradley?  I've got a cold-smoke setup, and the weather will be perfect for it in January over here...  but pretty sure I'm not going to be using 72 - 216 bisquettes!!!

As for wrapping it...  I won't have to worry about insects...  at least I don't think so. I've got a roll of butchers "stockingette" that should be perfect for aging it in:

http://www.weschenfelder.co.uk/Muslin_Cloth2FStockinette


Habanero Smoker

Quote from: ExpatCanadian on November 19, 2012, 02:20:06 AM
Hab... you DO sleep right???  :o :o  It's 10am here...  makes it what, 5am where you are? I guess that's not THAT early... but why do I have this image in my head of you sitting up all night ready and waiting to offer advice when needed to your friends across the Atlantic and beyond!?

;D  ;D  ;D  ;D

For some reason I can not sleep past 4 AM eastern time. It's to early to eat breakfast and there is nothing on but infomercial.

That muslin will be perfect. That is very close to what I call heavy cheese cloth.

When I smoke hams in my Bradley I use 8 hours of smoke, and find that to be enough. The Bradley is such a compact area, and the bisquettes provide a lot of smoke flavor I feel that is all you need. Some use 12 hours of smoke for their hams using the Bradley.



     I
         don't
                   inhale.
  ::)