after reading this thread, i'm keen to cure a bit of pork.
whats the best way to do a simple cured pork shoulder for ham in time for xmas? i may do some cured belly bacon as well.
i have a 4 bed house, no fermidor, a GF that like a red hot house and no spare fridges.
I'd suggest curing something you're going to cook (as an alternative to one you cure and age to the point of it being edible 'raw') and as it's for xmas going for xmasy-spices and sweetness levels.
So I'd probably go for an equilibrium cure of 2.5% salt, 2.5% brown sugar, 0.25% cinnamon. The percentages are in grams and based on the weight of the meat - i.e. 100g of pork = 100 * 2.5% = 2.5g of salt. Mix the dry ingredients, add the pork to a large freezer bag and then add the cure mix. Distribute evenly and leave in the fridge. Turn over every couple of days. For a large piece of pork I'd give it a good two weeks curing time and don't worry if you end up giving it more. The nice thing about an EQ cure is that you don't need to worry about leaving it too long - it will reach 'equilibrium' and will happily stay that way for weeks extra.
Once you want to cook it, take it out of the cure and rinse it. Then cook it at a low ~100C temp for a few hours. Take out an glaze with maple syrup then stick it back in the oven at ~170C for 5 minutes. That should do it really.
Given how far we are from xmas you could do one of these now and then cook it towards the end of Oct as an experiment. Potentially you could repeat it in Nov and then in Dec have it pretty nailed down
If you wanted to do something that was 'raw' you could instead cure a pork loin or tenderloin (lomo). Lomo will take a week or two to cure then a few weeks to dry enough. A larger loin piece would probably be done just in time for xmas if you started it now. However, I wouldn't really recommend either of these for xmas. Lomo/tenderloin will complete in time easily and is nice but I think you'd enjoy the cooked ham more. I certainly would for xmas anyhow
Cheers for the info. I have seen a few vudeos of people doing just single breasts and they dont seem to dry out on the non skin side. What timeframe do you think it would take to do a singular breast
Yeah, they'll be fine on the non-skin side unless you're in particularly dry conditions. As I said, I was just a bit paranoid at the time really

If it does start to dry out you can always cover up that side.
I'd give it about 1.5 weeks to equilibrium cure. The non-skin side will be done well before that but the skin and fat reduces the rate of absorption massively. With EQ curing it's better to give it extra time rather than too little.
After that, weigh and hang as above. I'd check it after a week and weigh it again. Repeat every 4 days after that. It has been a while but iirc 2-3 weeks is about right?