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Post by smokey on Mar 11, 2015 20:22:03 GMT 10
I'm going to give this a try. I might need to use my butchers cool room for the first sixty days and then hang in my pantry over end of winter and spring. Still working out how I can pull this off in the sub tropics.
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Post by Bentley on Mar 12, 2015 6:41:47 GMT 10
They are fantastic! There is a place here in Culpeper called Calhoun's Country Hams, they are the finest. Most folks don't like the taste and texture...I love em!
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Post by smokey on Mar 12, 2015 8:19:13 GMT 10
I've never tasted it so have nothing to compare it with. A total of ten months hanging I assume it's a bit like prosscuto.
Lots of conflicting info on YouTube re hanging temps, some say 70-75F and some say 40F
Some skin on and some skin off.
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Post by Shayne on Mar 12, 2015 19:42:42 GMT 10
This has me interested......
I never knew a Ham would be able to go on for so long. Obviosly Nitrate will be the Key here and i am guessing, the ham would have to be boned over wise it would spoil.
Shayne
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Post by smokey on Mar 12, 2015 20:03:20 GMT 10
Nope, bone in and no nitrate.
Just a 4 to 1 salt sugar mix rubbed over good ( and up the hock end pockets) then wrapped in standard butchers paper and into a ham sock hock side down to cure for sixty days.
Then unwrap, brush off and into a new sock to hang for nine months.
Knowing me I probably will add nitrate but the above is how they apparently do it.
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Post by chrisg on Mar 12, 2015 20:24:51 GMT 10
 We shall await... Thing always gets me with these old world ways, who had the time, and the spare hams, to work it all out ? Obviously they did, some of the stuff from my region of birth kinda beggars the imagination sometimes, this for example: www.bathchronicle.co.uk/Bath-chap-menu/story-11337771-detail/story.htmlWhich not to derail the thread is mostly a link about a heritage food that I pretty much grew up on being killed by the bureaucracy. "We shall overcome " and if we don't there's always using a failed but presumably rather solid country style ham as a stand-in for a bit of Ecky thump Cheers |
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Post by Bentley on Mar 13, 2015 4:34:23 GMT 10
Bath, my very favorite city in England! Man, the Romans knew what they were doing!
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Post by chrisg on Mar 13, 2015 8:22:49 GMT 10
Drunk of the radioactive water have you Bent ? Indeed, a beautiful, beautiful city, it amazes me that more do not even know of it let alone been there. Cheers |
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Post by Bentley on Mar 13, 2015 11:17:05 GMT 10
This was 71 & 76...Wow have they found it to be radioactive...cool, now I have an excuse as to why I am the way I am!
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Post by chrisg on Mar 13, 2015 13:20:01 GMT 10
It's always been known to be radioactive, they used to make a big deal of it, were still doing so when I went there on a school excursion in about 1964. Nowadays or indeed when you were there the virtues of water that makes a geiger tick had somewhat come into question The West Country of the UK has many artisan foods that are peculiar to the region, bathchap being but one of them. Others include Dorset Blue cheese, superior to Stilton but does not travel well, Dorset Knob biscuits and of course the ones that have gone global, clotted cream, cheddar, pigs trotters etc Cheers |
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Post by Bentley on Mar 14, 2015 9:00:25 GMT 10
Had no idea it was so, very interesting! Sorry for the hijack Mic!
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Post by smokey on Mar 14, 2015 9:17:55 GMT 10
Doesn't matter here, the toppic was fairly open. It's only the recipe section that should stay relatively to the point.
Anyhoo, I'm thinking American country ham is similar in texture to proscuito?
Proscuito is only salt and is not smoked, Where US country ham has salt, sugar, paprika, peppers ect and is sometimes cold smoked.
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Post by Bentley on Mar 15, 2015 1:11:25 GMT 10
I have eaten a little Proscuito...It would be quite similar. All I have had has been very thinly sliced. Most of my Country Ham eating is more ham steak like. As I think about, they are identical! If you are doing it right. do not be afraid of the mold that grows on the outside, it is supposed to. That is why we always soak ours to remove it, not very long, just enough to loosen it up so it can be scrubbed!
I hope you will take pictures as you go along, maybe every couple of weeks if possible!
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