Prosciutto duh Pomona
Last October we drove to Dietrich's Meats where I had ordered another whole fresh ham. You've met some of his cousins here. Nobody would call that the other white meat, except for all that white stuff, fat.
As per instructions in the secret manual for do it yourself charcuterists, I poped the ham in the deep freeze for several weeks. This is as good as cooking it well done for killing off the probably non-existant trichanosis.
Just after Thanksgiving I took the 18 lb fresh ham, salted it well, and put a weight on top of it and parked it in the garage refrigerator for 18 days (Well it ended as 21). Periodically I would drain the liquid, check the salt and rotate the ham.
Taking it out of the fridge I coated the whole thing in lard, purchased at Dietrich's, and then covered the lard with a lot of pepper. Seems the insects don't like that.
There it is about to get wrapped in cheesecloth, and hung in my cold enough basement until the basement isn't cold enough any more. I was hoping for later in the summer, but the cold storage box isn't mice proof, and the mice proof box isn't up against the north basement wall low to the floor. So today was the day.
And that is the same ham almost 6 months later.
The first slice, the color couldn't be better. I didn't weigh it but I would guess about 12 lbs again, plus a very tasty bone.
That is what it looked like after getting cut up into useful sized pieces. Plus we saved a small piece to do something with for dinner tonight.
And we are meeting a bunch of foodie friends over the weekend, so I've got a nice one pound piece in the fridge waiting for them.
Impressive!
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Simply beautiful....
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Wow, very impressive indeed. Any idea of the humidity in your basement?
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About 70%, I've a thermometer/humidity meter siting on top of the cure box. With a probe inside the box as well.
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That's such a beautiful, dark red color in the finished ham. What did you end up doing for dinner?
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Green beans sauted with dry cured ham. A picture of the plate will be up later today at my wife's menu site: http://menu.vldyson.com
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Oh wow! The color is fantastic!
Mmmm ~ all this meat reminds me of an old truism:
Vegetarian ~ Native America for lousy hunter.
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I can't wait to try a piece.
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The reception Thursday should be interesting. Is there a menu yet?
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See... that right there is why I nominated you for an award.
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And you can see it is finally up with five awardees.
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That just looks awesome!
We don't have a basement and have a detached "garage" which is California-speak for pool (as in billiards) room/storage facility. Still trying to think of a good curing place. Most likely looking at fridge curing until winter.
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A fridge may be a little two cold and dry. A wine cooler should be ideal. Charcuterie doesn't give alot of information. Ruhlman seems to hang things at room temperature, which is warmer than I'm comfortable with.
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You're like...my go-to charcuterie guy now.
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As I've said someplace, I've been doing pate for years. Then I don't remember if my wife gave me Charcuterie or if I took a course on either pate or sausage making, I've done both, at the CIA. In anycase we don't but a lot of sausage anymore, or proscuitto, or pancetta or ...
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Beautiful! I hope to start doing my own home curing this summer--thanks for the inspiration!
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The one pound piece that I mentioned taking to a foodie event? It got sampled by Michael Ruhlman, a post will go up soon.
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It looks terrific! Yet judging from the color and density it looks like it needed another 6 months.
I don't blame you for taking it down too early. If i were in your situation, I'd do the same thing.
Do another one, better yet, do two (preferably with skin). Hang them and try to forget about them. It might help to look at pictures of really old hams that have hung for 18-24 months. That's what I do to steel myself to the task of waiting.
We are all pilgrims in this.
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I know I'm taking them down too early but I simply don't know what range of temperture I dare risk. I'm watching my basement temperature and may actually build a small room with a wine cellar cooler attached. Or hang two this fall and and just let one hang for a year. It still is only 64 in my basement.
The lack of skin is simply what I could get.
Thanks for looking, it does taste good and since this one was good pork, it even does well uncooked.
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