Information on Air-Cured Meats - How To

[deluxestogie]

Dry Curing Virginia-Style Ham: 8 page pdf from Virginia Tech: https://pubs.ext.vt.edu/content/dam/pubs_ext_vt_edu/458/458-223/458-223_pdf.pdf

Delightful article from the BBC on air-cured meats: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180406-how-cured-meats-protect-us-from-food-poisoning
It answers the question about applying salt to the exterior.

Bob

 

[BigBonner]

Old ham
I used to make my own , I used hams , shoulders and midlands . After we killed hogs , I would trim up everything and salt them down on a table in my meat house . I would kill when the weather was cold enough around the middle of November up until Christmas . I would leave the meat in salt and brown sugar for about 4 weeks . Wash , apply red and black pepper mixed in with borax . I would wrap them in paper and up in a brown paper bag with a wire run through the hock or a corner of a midland to hang for aging . 1 Year aging is good , 2 years is great but much longer they go down hill . You will see mold form on the outside and that only means that it was good on the inside . Just trim off all the mold and hard dry parts .

Hogs had to be scalded and all hair removed .

To cook a old ham
Soak for two days in water .
Boil in large pan of water covered .
Cook until inside temperature hits 160 degrees
Now the best part , When you get to 160 put some large towels in your sink , bottom and around the side . Put that kettle in the sink and cover with more towels .
This is called putting it to bed . I always cooked and had the hams to finish around 10 pm and I would leave it covered in the sink over night . The next morning it would still b good and hot and we would have ham and eggs for breakfast .

Here is a good video , Not like I do mine but it is different as they hang and cur with a smaller amount of salt .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwu6K4crHc

 

[greenmonster714]

Well this is an interesting thread. Putting the ham to bed makes perfect sense. Flavors would have plenty of heat to blend by morning. I love ham and eggs. I bet that was a great breakfast. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

 

[alPol05]

Old ham
Now the best part , When you get to 160 put some large towels in your sink , bottom and around the side . Put that kettle in the sink and cover with more towels .
This is called putting it to bed . I always cooked and had the hams to finish around 10 pm and I would leave it covered in the sink over night . The next morning it would still b good and hot and we would have ham and eggs for breakfast .

Here is a good video , Not like I do mine but it is different as they hang and cur with a smaller amount of salt .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcwu6K4crHc

This sounds so good! I can picture that ham now. I think prosciutto is made in a similar way.(?)

As to "putting it to bed" - my mother, way back in Poland, used to cook all types of grains that way. For example, we eat quite a bit of buckwheat. She boiled it for 5 min. or so and after that put it in a real bed, covered with pillows and blankets. By the dinner, it was ready to eat, hot with a nice flavor. I do the same and really like buckwheat. I introduced that to my grandson and he loves it and now always assists me with putting pots in bed to finish cooking.

Wiktor

 

[BigBonner]

IF you cooked the ham too long it may fall apart , but cooked just right the bone will almost slide out . I leave bone in as I slice up to the bone . If it does fall apart the long stringy pieces will still be tender .
After you remove from water , I always mix up butter and brown sugar to pour over it and lay some pineapples on top ad bake for a little while to warm it up .
You can slice old ham to fry at breakfast and cook your eggs in that grease . Add a couple of slices to green beans when you cook those to .The water that you cook the ham in , you can peel some potatoes and boil them in it
Of course that is how we cook in my family and we have had no complaints .

Some of my kin from Indiana will not touch old ham . You have to have a taste for old ham and it will still be salty when cooked . You will need to keep water a it will make you a little thirsty .

Makes me want to go out and buy a cliffy farm or Harper ham . These are mass produce as old hams and are injected wit salt to fast cure them . They are not as good as what I do myself .

 

[Levi Gross]

My wife works in the deli of our hometown IGA and I purchased a salt cured ham. I love the stuff. She won’t touch it because of the mold. It reminds me of the salt pork dinners my family would have as a kid. Nothing better than home cured meats.

 

[BigBonner]

WE would keep the skin off of salted midlands and hams , leaving some fat on that skin . I would skin the bacons after salt curing and run a wire through one corner and hang the skin in my stripping room . The reason we did that was to keep our hands from getting so sticky and would help keep your hands from cracking . You would find a piece hanging in every tobacco stripping room , you could use the same piece for years . We would rub our hand on it every now and then .

Another use we had for that old salty skin with fat meat on it was for cuts . If we stepped on a nail or was stuck by a thorn we would tape a small piece on that place and it would get better pretty much over night .
I have had thorns or splinters down deep and could not dig them out . I would tape a piece of that meat on top of the puncture and most of the time the next morning when you pull that meat off , the splinter or thorn would be stuck to the meat . The meat would draw thorns right out .
It would take the soreness out , draw out any infection and soften the your skin . This was what my mother would do and I learned this from her .

 

[satisfied smoker]

@BigBonner.
We use almost the same method, but we use a wooden box that is filled with ?hay? (long dry grass)
And indeed leave it alone for some hours or even a day, depending on whats in it.
I have a question: you kill the animal, and you clean the animal, oke, but how long do you let it hang?
We let it sometimes "rot" for 24 hours, to tender it up, so the meat can have a "noble dieing" time.
Small game is usually just hang in the sun
Thanks in advance