Sunday, July 17, 2016

Ham and Bacon

I took the remaining ham of our Berkshire pig and removed the bone.


Looks like I got a good soup bone out of the deal.   Notice the skin is still on the ham.  I put the boneless ham into an equilibrium cure of about 3% salt, 1.5% brown sugar, 0.25% pink salt, some smoked paprika and white pepper.  All of it went into a plastic bag and rolled around for a couple of weeks - I turned it every day.

I then took the ham and bagged it up in a proper mesh bag.  I sprayed it with Bactoferm 600 to get some good mold growing to keep bad mold at bay.  I purchased a new curing chamber, aka beverage refrigerator for this project.  I equipped it with a temperature control set at 52 degrees, and add my humidity pan to keep it at 75% humidity.

Now I have to wait until November, sigh.  But it is looking pretty good so far.


I love Berkshire bacon.  The ratio of muscle to fat is just incredible.  It is so easy to do, and the cold smoking with applewood really makes it shine.  I tried making it without pink salt and the color was just too off, so I put the pink salt back into the recipe and ...






Wally

 Wallace at Stirling Bridge aka Wally, Footboy,  Booboo, Mister Blondie, Bubby, Knucklehead, Goofball, Salt to Poppy's Pepper. Age 12, b...