Since everyone loves the Charcuterie Maple Cured Bacon recipe so much, I thought I would share my experience with this ham from the book.

I started the ham about a month ago and salt cured the meat in the vegetable crisper of my basement refrigerator. It just barely fit once I put a barbell weight on it per the recipe. This is how it looked in the crisper bin covered in salt.



I cured it for an extra week since it was still expressing liquid after 2 weeks. Then rinsed it, slathered the meat in lard, covered it with pepper and wrapped it in cheesecloth.

This is how it looked when I hung it in my basement. It will be aged there for 4 to 5 months. I have previously recorded the temperature in my basement (I store some wine in this area), and it remains between 55 and 65 degrees from October through April.



The ham is from the same Berkshire hog I used for my bacon. Because my Berkshire hog was raised until slaughter in Baraboo, I believe the proper name for this ham is Prosciutto di Baraboo.

That's really cool! I don't know that I've ever had that kind of ham. I can't wait to see the pics and hear your opinion on the product when it's done!

Freaking cool Man! Can't wait to hear how this one turns out.

I'll try to keep a running visual update as the ham ages. This is after one week.



I happened to leave an empty box beneath the ham. It is a good thing, because there is a large grease stain on the box. I hadn't thought of how much it would drip.

Ya, you can see it on the bottom and running down the side. I was reading a bit about country hams back in the summer.

One of the articles talked about scraping mold off the outside as it cures. When it's done do you sort of discard the outer 1/2" or so?

Edit: I looked it up, and yeah they talk about scraping mold off as it cures. As for getting rid of the outside, only where it's green or unappealing, otherwise it's fine. The other thing I found was several references to hanging them in cloth sacks instead of using netting.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Shawn W,

Why only string and not netting?
Won't the string start to cut into the ham over time?

Matt,

Excellent point. I used material I had at home and hadn't thought about netting. The rope is starting to cut into the meat already.

I'll scavenge the netting off our Thanksgiving turkey and use that.

Thanks for making this useful suggestion.

Jim

bold work. i'm impressed. I've started researching air dried techniques pretty heavily since my goal is to start producing bresaola and coppa. What's your humidity? from what I've read its as important as temp, along with air speed. I haven't started yet, I'm hoping I'm over thinking things, but I'm concerned with humidity control.

Thank God we don't have basements in central Texas or I'd have another hobby!! That's all I need is ham envy!

j - I haven't measured humidity and don't really have a way to control it. The ham is hanging right next to the sump in a corner of the basement, which is probably the most humid place I've got. Things will get dryer there during the Winter.

Do you have any ideas to address this?

Jim

quote:

Do you have any ideas to address this?

My research has led me here:

http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/

he has some posts sorted under the category "equipment." one post describes in detail how he rigged a fridge with a thermostat and a humidifier and humidistat.

I just acquired a book that goes into some pretty extreme detail about drying meats. Seems like some humidity is important to prevent the meat from drying too fast and creating a dry shell that prevents the center from drying properly. The way its explained is that you can't have evaporation from the exterior be faster that diffusion from the interior.

I'm planning on starting with thinner meats and seeing if my conditions are appropriate. I'm hoping it'll be easier to do than what I've read and that I won't need to get into elaborate curing chambers.

I'm really interested to see how your ham does.

Thanks for the link. That guy is definitely more anal about this than I am. I'm just going with the simple instructions from Charcuterie. If it doesn't work, it is only time & money.

Here is a picture I took of the meat this morning.

Looking good!

I dug out my copy of charcuterie and read the recipe. Ruhlman makes it sound easy nor does he mention much about relative humidity, so you're probably on track. The coating of lard seems like its the key to preventing the ham from drying too fast.

Not sure how I missed this. Looking good Jim!

With dry-cured sausages humidity needs to be relatively high so as to avoid case hardening. With hams it usually depends on the producer, the cut of meat, and the results they are looking for. Some Spanish hams, e.g., are dried at very low humidity, some southeastern country ham producers go for humidity of 80% and higher; others smoke the ham first in order to speed drying then finish drying and flavor development over an extended aging period in moderate humidity.

I took this picture today. The ham has been hanging for 7 weeks now and is getting kind of fuzzy around the bottom There is no distinct smell, it just smells vaguely porkie. I did not notice any substantial loss of weight.

rah rah (I'm rooting for you and your ham).

What is some of that colouring on the right side of the ham? It looks a little off to me. Everything I've read says that non-white, or white and fuzzy = bad.

Have you tried wiping it with a vinegar solution every so often?

Justin,

I hadn't heard that. Check back next April, I plan on being a guinea pig.

Actually, in a close-up look, the discolored area appears to be where the lard coating was applied thinner than elsewhere. The meat underneath it is showing through.

Jim

Jim,

Just in case, here is a link to some search results that touch on using vinegar to wipe away any mold on your ham, what types of mold are good and bad, etc.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?act=Search&CODE=sho...sts&highlite=vinegar

quote:

Originally posted by JRPfeff:
...Actually, in a close-up look, the discolored area appears to be where the lard coating was applied thinner than elsewhere. The meat underneath it is showing through.

I wonder if it coincides with moisture coming out and sort of falling to the bottom (gravity works). ?

If that's true I wonder if flipping the ham vertically is a good idea. ? Is it dripping?

Generally, the point of this is partial dehydration so the lard coating, at first pass, seems counterproductive. I wonder if it actually helps the process by preventing a dry skin like J was talking about. ? (I don't know, just wondering)