Ham #3 - Prosciutto style dry cured

pjplovedog · February 28, 2014, 01:21:43 PM

WOW!!! That's amazing...so do tell, how does it taste????? How did you eat it? Details please! :)

Habanero Smoker · February 28, 2014, 01:28:47 PM

That came out really good. The below link may be helpful.
Storing Country Hams/Prosciutto Type Hams

ExpatCanadian · February 28, 2014, 01:44:16 PM

Thanks Hab for that link... I'll probably end up carving it into reasonable chunks now then vac-sealing & freezing...

As for the taste, I managed to slice a thin sliver off for a taste test, and it's really sweet... not too salty, and very moist still. Not as dry as is thought it might be.

I'm going to take the small piece to my local butcher for slicing this weekend, as I don't have a slicer that can do it right, then I'll have some nice slices to eat and use in recipes.... that will be the true test!

Waltz · February 28, 2014, 02:49:16 PM

You did a fine job Expat. Mine is still hanging. It has not been drying for quite a year yet and I told myself I would leave it that long. If it turns out as well as yours I will be happy. I was thinking of cutting useable sized pieces from mine and sealing the cut surface again with sugna and leaving it hanging until I needed another piece. The link Habs posted kind of suggests doing that too. I remember you had some trouble with mould earlier on, is there no taste of that in the cut ham? Mine has some mould but it looks to be just on the surface, I am hoping so anyway.

Saber 4 · February 28, 2014, 05:08:25 PM

That looks awesome, well worth the work and the wait.

NorthShoreMN · February 28, 2014, 05:17:38 PM

Great work. Very nice ham

ExpatCanadian · March 01, 2014, 12:43:36 AM

Quote from: Waltz on February 28, 2014, 02:49:16 PM
You did a fine job Expat. Mine is still hanging. It has not been drying for quite a year yet and I told myself I would leave it that long. If it turns out as well as yours I will be happy. I was thinking of cutting useable sized pieces from mine and sealing the cut surface again with sugna and leaving it hanging until I needed another piece. The link Habs posted kind of suggests doing that too. I remember you had some trouble with mould earlier on, is there no taste of that in the cut ham? Mine has some mould but it looks to be just on the surface, I am hoping so anyway.

Actually, now you mention it I think I'll do the same as you suggest. I thought I was out of lard, so I went into my freezer to get a slab of fat to render today and under it all was a bunch of muffin tin sized frozen portions of lard that I rendered last April! So... I'm now going to make up some sugno and reseal the larger piece and keep it hanging. To be honest, my first impression is that I'd like it to be a little drier than it is... so we'll see.

I haven't had a really proper taste yet, but I doubt there will be any mold taste. It is primarily on the sugno, and the meat immediately under that will probably get trimmed anyway. I'm going to scrape the moldy sugno off now and reapply fresh stuff and let the big piece hang for the rest of the year I think.

Home rendered leaf lard. Normally use it for pastry, but it will serve it's purpose on my ham.

ragweed · March 01, 2014, 03:48:52 AM

Wow! That ham looks wonderful. But boy, I couldn't wait that long. I'll bet if one would look up "patience" in the dictionary, there would be a picture of you there!

ExpatCanadian · March 02, 2014, 01:45:31 AM

Couple more pics...

Scraping off the old moldy sugna. I also gave the skin a wash with a vinegar solution to clean off the powdery mold:

Mixing up the new stuff. Went with approximately a 2:1 ratio of flour to lard. Wanted a very thick pasty mix. Added some salt too... as some online recipes seem to have this. No pepper this time, as really don't think it's necessary for hanging in my kitchen.

Application... very messy!

Back hanging in it's home again for another 10-12 months!

ExpatCanadian · March 02, 2014, 01:51:20 AM

By the way the following little video is interesting... I don't speak Italian, but it's fairly clear what she's up to. At one point she references the mix contains "Sugna, Farina and Sale"... Lard, Flour and Salt... so I guess I've done something right. No idea of proportions, and her's is way thicker and smoother on application than mine, that's for sure!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IX_KtdsdCW0

ExpatCanadian · February 11, 2015, 11:06:27 AM

Hey everyone! Here is the final post in this topic... 2 years on from the start of this project. I have to say the results have been amazing. But it won't be me enjoying the bulk of my work... late last year my wife and I decided to move back to Canada. So... it's bye bye ham. My sister actually works for CFIA in Vancouver, and I've asked her who I can bribe to let me bring the ham in. Sadly, she's honest, and if you want to believe her, so is every single other CFIA inspector she knows ::) ;). But it's not all bad, I'm leaving it with a good friend, a guy from Luxembourg who very much appreciates a good air dried ham. They do mean Luxembourg style version that he has shared with me on numerous occasions over the years, usually accompanied by some nice ice-cold buffalo grass vodka. I don't honestly think mine measures up to that... but it's pretty damn good. And the extra brilliant part is that his wife is vegetarian! So he gets it all to himself! So without further delay, here are the pics of the final product. I was the photographer and I left the cutting to my friend:

The proud new owner!

Careful now... nice and thin please 8)

The end result!

seemore · February 11, 2015, 04:31:28 PM

You did very good WOW its been a long time coming Hope you tried it
Seemore

iceman · February 11, 2015, 05:56:41 PM

Fantastic job! You have a very lucky friend indeed! :)

wyogoob · June 14, 2015, 08:13:54 PM

Nice job. Very informative thread. Thank you.