Ham #3 - Prosciutto style dry cured

[ExpatCanadian]

Now that I managed to get a successful ham cure under my belt, I wanted to take one to the next level and dry cure it for 10-12 months for a more Prosciutto style.  now, of course, it's going to be different, not the least reason of which is that I live in Hackney, London.  I'm also using the Virginia Ham dry cure recipe, which includes saltpeter and sugar, so goign astray before I even start.  But...  here we go.  I bought a thick oak plank before Christmas intending to turn it into a dry cure box, but so far I've just not found the time...  and something happened recently that has definately made this project less urgent.  I was walking down the street on a Sunday just after lunch, and wandered past a house that had just discarded a perfectly good wine crate!!  I says to myself...  I'm going to cure me some ham in that there crate and promptly grabbed it and took it home.

How could someone throw it away! Oh well, their loss...



Only problem is it doesn't fit in my fridge... some mods needed!


Cut a few inches off...


All back together... ready for some action


Ok...  sorry for the teaser, but I gotta go make dinner.  More to follow!

oh...  wait....  one last thing...

This is what's going in it!!!

[wkahler]

Hanging on to see what happens here good luck!!

[squirtthecat]

Italian recipe, English pig, French box.

Assembled by a Canadian..

Perfect!  ;D

[STLstyle]

Ha!

[ExpatCanadian]

Italian recipe, English pig, French box.

Assembled by a Canadian..

Perfect!  ;D

Could even take it a step further...  in fact the dry cure recipe I am using is for an American Country Ham! So it goes...  American recipe, Italian style, English pig, French box...  all brought together by a Canadian living in London!!

Anyway...  continuing on:

Here's the 9.1kg (20lb) bad boy as it arrived:


Unwrapped:


725 grams of Diamond Crystal kosher salt (roughly!):


180g of Dark brown muscovado sugar:


12g Saltpeter:


Fits like a glove...  sort of:


1/2 the cure mix:


All rubbed in...  packed into all the crevices...  just feels "right" doing this in a wood box.  The plastic bucket method worked great last time too, but this just feels better:


Trimmed the crate lid down a bit so it fits inside the box:


A VERY heavy stone cutting board. I've never understood stone cutting boards...  I mean, won't it dull your knife WAY quick?? I got this as a gift and have never cut anything on it...  but it's perfect for a weight!


My main issue was how to deal with effluent drainage from the box.  I obviously couldn't have it just leaking all over the fridge....  so I've put it on top of a roasting tin and propped it up so one corner is down.  It's working pretty good channeling the liquid into the corner and the roasting tin is catching it.  No mess so far:


24 Hours later...  took the lid off to see how my salt distribution was.  I scraped up all the bits that had fallen off and re-rubbed it over the exposed meat...  lid back on and into the fridge.  I'll leave it alone now until Wednesday when it will get 1/2 of the remaining cure mix... then the rest next Monday:


As usual, I'll update with progress as I go!  Enjoy!

[SmokinSignals]

Really really cool.  Love the wine box idea.

[ExpatCanadian]

Just did a mid-week re-salt with half my remaining cure mix. Seems that the moisture draining off has expanded the wood enough to seal up my drainage corner somewhat so it's not draining as good as it was. Corrected with a 1/4 inch hole drilled through the corner:



Re-salted... so far so good. The pine box is giving off a really nice smell combined with the salty meat! Also, hard to tell from the pic, but the ham is flattening out nicely from the pressing weight:

[Mark in Ottawa]

Looks great! That is going to be one tasty piece of charcuterie!

Thanks for posting all the pics too - you're giving me all sorts of great ideas my wife is gonna hate!  ;) ;D ;D ;D :o

Mark (in Ottawa)

[squirtthecat]

Very cool project.

The Global Ham Exchange!

[Tenpoint5]

This is looking better than the last one

[OU812]

Lookin gooood!!

Nice set up with the box

[Waltz]

Is it and its boneless mate nearly cured yet?

[iceman]

That is a cool project! Defiantly a must do!

[ExpatCanadian]

Is it and its boneless mate nearly cured yet?

Just uploading some pics to Photobucket, will post on the other thread.

As for this ham, it's now in the aging phase, so will hang for the next 10-12 months....  here are a couple of pics:

Out of the salt, a 1 hour soak in cold water prior to hanging it up for cure equalisation:


After hanging for a week to equalise the cure, and start the drying process....


"Sugna" - 1/2 freshly rendered leaf lard and 1/2 flour by volume. This is to protect the exposed meat from drying too quickly and forming an impermeable barrier and preventing the interior from drying.  Some add pepper to further repel insects, but bugs aren't too much of a problem here so I didn't bother.


Smeared on the leg!


Not much else to say at this point... I'll update again if anything significant happens, but it's now just a waiting game....

[Waltz]

Looking good. I put pepper and paprika as well as flour in the sugna on mine but the ham was still a bit too wet at the first application so it did not stick well and some of it fell off. I have re-applied and now drying for a year or so. As you say - not much happening. I am getting the urge to do another but it may be better to wait until I see how my first turns out. :) Good luck.