Discussion
I was a bit wary of posting about this until I was confident it hadn't gone completely wrong, but I've been salting a ham for the last few weeks. Today I unpacked it to hang it up to dry, and it looks the part and doesn't smell
I'll post a pic in a mo
Watch this space (for 6 months or so
)
I'll post a pic in a mo
Watch this space (for 6 months or so
)mechsympathy said:
I was a bit wary of posting about this until I was confident it hadn't gone completely wrong, but I've been salting a ham for the last few weeks. Today I unpacked it to hang it up to dry, and it looks the part and doesn't smell
I'll post a pic in a mo
Watch this space (for 6 months or so)
Nice one!I'll post a pic in a mo
Watch this space (for 6 months or so
)I fancy trying this myself.
Shaw Tarse said:
Anna_S said:
Cotty said:
Interesting. Looking forward to pics. Never tried anything like that as it would be too big for one person.
Surely not 
Ham looks great but how do you eat it, like parma ham few slices at a time? How long can you keep it?
Not tasted it yet as it's still curing.
Basically: Clean the leg with malt vinegar. Then lay a good inch of fine table salt in a wine case, put the leg in and cover it completely by another inch in more salt. Put a board on top and a large (1.5-2 times the weight of the leg) weight on top. Leave it somewhere cool and dry for 3 days per kilo. Take it out, wash the salt off, dry it and wipe it with malt vinegar to stop mold and then hang it somewhere cool and drafty*. After a day wrap it loosely in muslin and leave it for 4-6 months. Ideally you want it cooler than 10 degrees for the first couple of months but after that it should be fine. If it's too warm the outside goes hard so the inside stops drying.
Ideally you want to start in October so you have a full cool winter to cure it.
Basically: Clean the leg with malt vinegar. Then lay a good inch of fine table salt in a wine case, put the leg in and cover it completely by another inch in more salt. Put a board on top and a large (1.5-2 times the weight of the leg) weight on top. Leave it somewhere cool and dry for 3 days per kilo. Take it out, wash the salt off, dry it and wipe it with malt vinegar to stop mold and then hang it somewhere cool and drafty*. After a day wrap it loosely in muslin and leave it for 4-6 months. Ideally you want it cooler than 10 degrees for the first couple of months but after that it should be fine. If it's too warm the outside goes hard so the inside stops drying.
Ideally you want to start in October so you have a full cool winter to cure it.
*This is the stage I'm at, and I've never done it before so don't blame me if it all goes wrong...
Cotty said:
Respect for the effort that must have taken and the patience. I am assuming you used a large box, but I can't imagine how much salt that must have taken.
It wasn't that much work tbh. It took about 14kg of salt as the box was a little big. Apparently you can get fine salt for water softeners but I just went to Tescomechsympathy said:
It took about 14kg of salt as the box was a little big.
When I used to race karts I used to put 5kg of lead on my kart to bring me up to race weight. That was heavy, I can't imagine how much volume of salt you must have used 
.What the hell do you do with 14kg's of salt after you took the ham out?
Cotty said:
What the hell do you do with 14kg's of salt after you took the ham out?
If you're in my neck of the woods you store it and wait to use it on the drive in winter! I've always wanted to try this. I looked at buying a whole ham, serrano/jamon iberico etc, but it was going to be £350-£450. That's a lot of money for a ham. I'd rather source something closer to home and try it myself.
How did you go about getting the leg? Local farmer or maybe a butcher that was recommended to you? I've heard you can do it both on and off the bone. On the bone is more difficult, but I think it would bring better flavour.
What a fantastic project.
Hope you'll keep us updated. Chuffer said:
Cotty said:
What the hell do you do with 14kg's of salt after you took the ham out?
If you're in my neck of the woods you store it and wait to use it on the drive in winter! Chuffer said:
I've always wanted to try this. I looked at buying a whole ham, serrano/jamon iberico etc, but it was going to be £350-£450. That's a lot of money for a ham. I'd rather source something closer to home and try it myself.
How did you go about getting the leg? Local farmer or maybe a butcher that was recommended to you? I've heard you can do it both on and off the bone. On the bone is more difficult, but I think it would bring better flavour.
Precisely. How did you go about getting the leg? Local farmer or maybe a butcher that was recommended to you? I've heard you can do it both on and off the bone. On the bone is more difficult, but I think it would bring better flavour.
Cutting a long story short a friend of mine had bought a pig on a farm to split with another mate and about the same time the pig was slaughtered he split up with his GF so he had to move out and no longer had access to a freezer. I got the head and trotters and half the ham if it works. We discussed just making an English style ham as it's getting warmer so the dry cure is risky but neither of us like the easy option
ETA Here's the link to what started the idea off: http://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&a... I still don't have a chest freezer.
Edited by mechsympathy on Tuesday 21st April 09:01
), but will potentially expose uncured meat to the air.Gassing Station | Food, Drink & Restaurants | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff