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 ...