Charcuterie
OK that really belongs on my wife's blog, but I made the sausage in it. Regardless of what is said it does end up on the table.
I have mentioned that I dry cure ham. This ham was frozen at the begining of October. Due to a freezer mishap, it died, the Saturday prior to Thanksgiving it got above 0, but only to about 15 so it sat for several more weeks. Just before New Years it went into the fridge, having been defrosted and covered in salt. Instructions can be found in Ruhlman and Polcyn's book Charcuterie.
One other thing, after the first do it with the best fresh ham you can afford. I've did it the first time with factory pork, which was tasty but had to be cooked to be chewed. The second time and these two as well came from Dietrich's, a butcher well worth the two hour drive. See some real meat.
That is the mise, salt cured ham, lard, corse ground black pepper, cheese cloth and string.
Smear the non skin part of the ham, to include the ends with a thin layer of lard, a pint will do. Do let the lard reach room temperature as it is easier, I smear a little on the fat as well personally.
Cover throrougly with the black pepper, I do not grind my own for this. Insects don't like it and mice don't seem to like it either.
Wrap ham in cheese cloth, so it can breath as it will be hanging for months if not well over a year.
Hang in basement until the basement gets too warm, above 60. Then transfer to wine cooler or refridgerator. Watch the humidty as well, it may need to go in the fridge with a pan of 5% brine in the bottom. The brine is to keep things from growing in the water. If the ham gets the fuzzys or anything but white mold wipe it with brine, here check the book for the proper brine.
And that?
That is the new meat grinder, 1000 Watt moter with a capacity of about 180 pounds of meat an hour. We will talk about that at the next lesson, but I've already done 10 lbs of sausage with it. It is to a KA grinder attachment, what a good KA is to a Black and Decker hand mixer.
Nice... I have a dream of doing a whole ham but have not yet worked up to it. One day, one day soon.
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Well, my wife had recently given me Charcuterie and I found a whole fresh ham for 79 cents/lb at the super-market. My thought was that even if it didn't work I was out $20. It did work, not very tender but 14 pounds - net of dry cured ham at about $1.50/pound.
I now do it with 'slow food' pork.
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I'm with Jeff-I do have two hams in the freezer from a free range Old Spot raised about 15 miles from my house. Once I get the fridge setup going, I'll give it a try.
thanks for the pics and instructions, very useful.
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Wow - I haven't made it to curing my own hams yet. Where do you get your pork from?
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The pork comes from Dietrich's in Pa. There is a link in the sources sidebar of the main page here.
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How did you go about picking a grinder? I've been thinking of upgrading. I'm using a Kitchen Aid right now. I think I'd like to have more than 2 plates. This months Fine cooking reviewed a few grinders. The stand alone grinders they liked were a Maverick Deleuxe ($90) and a Waring Pro ($170).
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On the recommendation of Chef LeBlanc of the CIA, I use Northern Industrial (check the web) for my tools. They are low in price and the equipment is solid. I also have their 5 lb stuffer.
This is their least expensive motorized, at about $150 including shipping and tax. I also bought a spare blade.
This is the sort of thing you would find in a professional but not industrial scale kitchen.
Comes with 3 plates, 3 stuffer tubes, which I don't use and an attachment for making something I've never heard of. Still investigating that one.
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I got my 5 pound stuffer from LEM. I like it a lot. Their cheapest grinder is a 575 watt for $100. The next one is $250. I'll give Northern Industrial a look. Thanks.
By the way, what does the mystery attachment make? You've got me curious...
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I can't find the instruction manual which is the only place it is named. I would assume it has something to do with stuffing dough with ground meat.
Northern Industrial is selling to professionals. I discovered a long time ago that real kitchen supply houses are cheap. I can get the same grinder at a merchant catering to the upscale home crowd at twice the price.
Years ago I found out that a professional 8 burner stove with double oven or 'full' oven (home ovens are not 'full' sized) from Garland, the top of the line, was about 25% of an 8 burner from Wolf and the burners put out more BTU. Of course there are no bells and whistles at all, it uses pilot lights. $2400 vs $9000+.
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