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

[ExpatCanadian]

Well, we're on day 4 and I decided the ham was looking a little bare.  I was planning to wait 7 days before re-salting, but my gut feeling was it could use an interim shot of the cure. I halved my remaining cure and packed it into all crevises and over as much of the surface as it would stick to.  Also drained off the effluent.  I weighed it as well...  and here is where I have to admit a slight error of judgement.  When I got the ham it was labelled as 8kg.  I took that at it's word and didn't weigh it myself.  So...  weighing it today I can't be 100% sure of the actual weight loss.  The other issue of course is that I based my cure amounts on 8kg....  so if the actual weight is much different, my cure amounts will be out too.  Anyway...  hindsight 20:20 etc etc  ::)

Pics:

Looking a little bare...


The salty goo in the drainage bucket (no I didn't taste it...  just an educated guess  ;D)


Another slight issue...  the only thing I have that will weigh more than 5kg semi-accurately is my luggage scale. Note to self...  get proper scale!!


8.3 KG.... the bucket is 494g. so that leaves 7.8kg roughly, or 200g weight loss. This doesn't account for any cure mix left in the meat, but this is why I think maybe the original weight wasn't correct. There was more than 200ml of liquid effluent.... assuming it's the density of water which of course it isn't with all that salt...  but ok for a very rough idea. Basically means I've lost maybe 250g or just over 1/2 pound of weight so far in 4 days.


Roughly half the remaining cure:


Rubbed again...  left it shank side down this time.

[JZ]

Looks like your having fun and learning something at the same time. Great pics too. :)

[Habanero Smoker]

I never weighed mine during the curing stages, so I couldn't tell you whether or not that weight loss is about average.

Everything looks interesting.

[SiFumar]

That looks interesting...will be following for sure.

[ExpatCanadian]

Well, it's nearly time to apply the rest of the salt/saltpetre/sugar cure mix tonight...  the final 1/4 of what I started with. I'll be doing that as soon as get home from work this evening.  I've been watching it fairly closely over the past couple days and in spite of my best efforts, the exposed meat ends up bare.  I guess that's because the salt is doing it's job and drawing out moisture and it dissolves into it and runs off.  It just seems to not take very long.  I did some research on how often you're meant to reapply, and it seems to vary.  I found a nice concise legal reference for the requirements for Country and Dry Cured hams in terms of cure + salt equalisation times and salt content of the finished product:

http://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/9/319.106

Perhaps I'm just overthinking this being my first time  ::)

[ExpatCanadian]

Pics:

A bit bare again:


Adding the rest of the cure mix:




Back in the bucket... until December 19...

[Habanero Smoker]

Thanks for the link. Cornell is not only great for it's law school, but it is the University that oversee the State's Cooperative Extension. So it is a great source for anything agricultural and pertaining to food.

[Keymaster]

I'm watchin this one too, for some reason I am seeing maiking a ham in my future :)

[ExpatCanadian]

Need some advice... although I've applied the prescribed amount of cure mix, it just feels kind of weird to just let it sit now for the rest of the curing period...  there isn't much salt left on the surface. There is still some salty slush in the folds, but I wonder if I should just keep a light rub of salt on the surface anyway (no more nitrite, just salt) for the remaining time before I give it a wash and hang it up for the cure equalisation phase? Or... should I just leave well enough alone and trust that enough cure mixture has been applied and its doing its job?

Here's what the ham currently looks like. It's texture is very firm now....

[viper125]

If your following the recipe id say wait. Im always eager too. But sometimes the best move is no move.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

[Habanero Smoker]

I lost track of your curing time. How much longer do you have to cure?

When I cured mine, it was generally at a lower temperature, so the ham had at least a slight layer of slushy salt on it. Since you have it in a controlled environment, and you use the proper amount of salt, cure, sugar etc, you should be alright to leave it as is. If you have long curing time left, it wouldn't hurt to dust it with some salt.

[ExpatCanadian]

Based on the cushion thickness of 5.5", I calculated 38.5 days based on 7 days per inch.  This brings me to Christmas eve, but since I'll be in Vancouver by then, I'll be truncating this time by 5 days, to the 19th December. So..  basically, it's got 20 days left in the cure before I wash and start the equalisation.  I plan to hang it up outside the fridge in an unheated conservatory for the 2 1/2 weeks I'm away...  then when I get back do the cold smoke before aging.

I'm at a loss....  so hard to know what's going on inside that hunk of pig!!  I guess I could give it a light rub of pure salt...  but at the same time, I don't want the end product to be too salty!

[Habanero Smoker]

I know what you mean about not knowing what is going on inside. I would just hold off from adding any salt at this time.

Have you done a search on this issue. I'll check my books and also do a search, to see if I can find any additional information.

[ExpatCanadian]

Yeah...  I've searched and am still searching.  Most of the ham dry-curing processes I've read are about as specific as an uzi....  ie. they pretty much say (1) Get leg (2) Apply salt (3) Wait (4) Wait (5) Smoke if you want (6) Age (7) Eat   ;D

The source I'm using at least gave some guidelines for the cure mix per 100lb of meat, which I've followed to the letter.

I'll leave it for now. What's the worst that can happen  :D

[Habanero Smoker]

I wasn't too successful finding out if the salt and/or cure must cover the ham at all times; either. I'm finding the same, in that the information I found is vague. I found directions stating to keep it in the salt and/or cure for the length of curing time, but does that mean there must be visible salt and cure; I don't know.

You will have better chance of finding an answer if you post your question on a site where members may be more experience in curing country hams can provide help.

I just became aware of the below forum. I was on it earlier, but it now seems to be down.
http://www.wedlinydomowe.pl/en/

This is another forum that may be helpful.
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/