Curing your own meat

Duck Prosciutto is good to go:

Duck breasts out of the curing chamber:
duck_prosciutto_uncut.jpg

(I started cutting into them before I remembered to take pics - hence the incision marks)

One breast sliced:
duck_prosciutto_1breast_sliced.jpg


A "baggy" of some of the duck prosciutto slices that I will be giving to a friend to sample:
duck_prosciutto_baggy.jpg


One of my cats enjoying the leftover scraps :)
cat_enjoying_duck_prosciutto.jpg
 
FrenchTart said:
Duck Prosciutto is good to go:
Click to expand...
Looks good!

Got myself a nice piece of pork belly from Turner & George at the weekend, which is now curing. Next time I'll put the belly in the sealed bag before adding and rubbing in the curing salt and seasoning, as I did it on a plate this time and there was salt & seasoning left on the plate and my hands. I hope there was enough of the 1.75g of curing salt on the belly!
 
molinari said:
Looks good!

Got myself a nice piece of pork belly from Turner & George at the weekend, which is now curing. Next time I'll put the belly in the sealed bag before adding and rubbing in the curing salt and seasoning, as I did it on a plate this time and there was salt & seasoning left on the plate and my hands. I hope there was enough of the 1.75g of curing salt on the belly!
Click to expand...

I'm sure it'll be fine. It's hard not to lose some of it when you're applying the cure to be honest :)

Looking forward to seeing the results. At the moment all my pork belly curing has been done with rather cheap cuts. I keep meaning to order in some of the rare breed pork from T&G to try out.
 
Today I minced some pork and added ridiculous amounts of various types of chillies to make nduja. They're cold smoking at the moment along with more regular bacon (and a small batch of maple cured bacon).

I've also just discovered salmon candy so I might have to give that a try sometime...
 
molinari said:
You've got a right little meat industry going on FT :).
That Salmon candy sounds awesome. If only I had the time, space and dedication!
Click to expand...

Yeah..I'm a bit obsessed at the moment :p I'm sure in a month or two I'll get bored.

I tend to have an hour or two to kill after work most days so I usually do this in that time. I think soon I will be back to having less spare time though so I won't be able to devote quite so much to this :/
 
That pastrami looks awesome. What was the method you used (assuming you haven't already posted it)? :)

edit: my capicola are pretty much done but I've not really got round to trying them out. I'm feeling a bit ill at the moment so the idea of peeling back all the mould and such isn't really doing it for me.
 
Last edited:
Will get a cheapo fridge in the new year. Can't having you lot having all the fun! Gonna get a food dehydrator too for beef jerky/dried mango. Too expensive buying from packs.
 
I'm in the process of making my first pancetta. I've done prosecution in the past more luck than judgement but was edible.

I've got my belly in cure for a week then 3 weeks air drying in a temperature controlled fridge. I'm planning to smoke half of it, which I appreciate is not traditional, just for the comparison. I'll probably use it for lardons mostly but will eat a few slices.

Next step is a humidistat and fan then I'll have another go at chorizo. My first batch a few years ago had a strong tang from the starter so I may try a cure only technique.
 
Sounds great. I still have lots of stuff sitting around. I keep meaning to cut open some of the capicola. Perhaps I'll try that this week.
 
My fear with such things is knowing when something is done...ie cured enough?!

I did some Gradvalax a few years back which was delicious but I had no real idea how to tell when it was ready to eat.

Any tips?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom