Berkshire Cured Bacon, Hock, and Ham w/Picture links


 
J

Josh Z.

TVWBB Pro
As many of you may know from other discussion about Buying a whole hog I bought a berkshire hog and am now busy making goodies from the beautiful beast.

My favorite is bacon! The bellies are thicker than I had dreamt of and I couldn't be happier. I made just regular cured, garlic and blackpepper, garlic/blackpepper/juniper, and maple cured.

Bacon

I put a small peice in front of the thicker slabs. The small peice is about as thick as I could get from a commercial hog. This is the smallest peice I got from the farmer and I put it next to the thicker and average peices from my pig

Side by Side Bacon

Te ham was cured for 14 days and injected in the thicker parts to aid in full curing. It was smoked using apple wood.

Cured Smoked Hock

Ham and Hock ready to smoke

Final Ham Result

I have other pictures in the album and I hope you enjoy them. I'd be happy to answer any questions if you have any. My webshot page

Josh
 
WOW! Everything you did looks so good.
Any chance that farmer sells processed bellies?? That bacon looks amazing and SO much better than anything I have seen.
Jamie
 
Jamie,

Thanks for the kind words. I'm pretty sure you would need to buy a whole hog since this is a homesteader who just grows a few hogs to sell a couple times a year. Believe me.... if you ever have the space, money, and desire going for the whole hog is great.

I can't wait to taste the jowel bacon that I made. The chaceturie book made jowel bacon sound soo good. That is actually one of the things that made me want to get the whole hog so I could score some jowel.

There was nothing wrong looking with the bellies you got. They actually looked better than the ones that I find in the store, but I will have to agree they don't look better than the farmers grown berkshire.

Keep on curing (and telling me about it
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)

Josh
 
Josh-
Hav eyou happened to ever see this thread:
Charcuterie on eGullet

If not, you had better cancel all appointments, as it will keep you busy with cured meat ****
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Jamie

BTW-> How much processing do they do on whol ehog. I mean, does it come as all primals, or do you get cut chops, etc?
Just how much freezer space does it take?
 
Jamie,

I have seen that thread, but have not read it in its intirety.

The way it worked for me was the farmer grew the pig, then sent it to a processor/sausage company.

They called me asked what I wanted done with it. I got it in big cuts (bellies, hams, jowels,hocks, picnics, butts, tenderloins, ribs) as well as getting the loin cut into chops. Then he took the trimmings and made sausage from them. I got something like 15 pounds of sausage that I just took as bulk breakfast sausage.

Well we bought a new 14.7 cubic foot freezer and the cuts took up about 1/4 of it and then there was a ham and neckbones that took up another section. It really didn't take up as much room as I would think, but you would need more room than the average freezer/refrigerator section.

Josh
 
Josh,

Do you have a thread on that ham? It looks fantastic. What kind of cure did you use?

No comment on that bacon - I'm still trying to comprehend it.

Jim
 
Jim,

I can tell you all about the ham on this thread if you'd like. I'll post here in a few or if you'd like I could detail it elsewhere what's your pleasure.

What do you mean by trying to comprehend it? I'm confused myself now
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Josh
 
I was just Joshing
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about the bacon. I thought the bellies I bought were meaty, but your hog redefines the term!

Tell me about your ham here. That may be next on my list. I'll call the butcher at The Pig.
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Jim
 
Ah, I wasn't sure about the bacon comment... I thought I might have not made sense, but now I get it
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As far as the ham goes it is a simple brine:

1 gallon water
1/2 cups kosher salt
2 packed cups brown sugar
1/2 (8tsp) ounces of pink salt (curing salt)

It took double the recipe to cover the 20 pound ham. I learned from my last ham cure to soak it a bit longer. This time it soaked for 14 days and I injected the cure along the bone and in to the larger parts of the ham. The author recommends 1/2 day per pound of ham. I'd recommend trying a smaller ham than 20 pounds for your first cure. 12-15 would be a good range if you can find one although my smallest has been 17, but on the same note I haven't had a perfect cure yet.

I then used 4 good size chunks of apple and put the ham on at 225 and let the smoker run from 225-250 degrees until the ham reached 155 degress.

I'm going to try the brine Kevin recommended to me in another thread next time and I'm awaiting a glaze recipe also, although the in that thread is sounding good too.

Ham recipe ideas from Kevin

Here is a nice pictorial that was recommended to me from another user on his ham experience.

Dizzy pig ham recipe

I haven't tried this exact recipe, but the process is the same.

Let me know if there is anything I can help you with.

Jim I'm happy to know that you are available to talk cured meats with. I need someone to verify that I'm not crazy.

Josh
 
You are SO not crazy! Like fresh sausage-making at home, charcuterie is akin to barbecuing at home--there is simply no comparison with store-bought as you can play (and play and play) and tweak (and tweak and tweak) to your liking--and have lots of fun in the process. And your meats look terrific. You're on a roll, buddy...
 
Kevin,

Thank you for the kind words and your help in getting some of these projects off the launch pad. You just hit one of my next adventures on the head. I have the set up to make sausgage all I really need to do is set some time aside and buy the casings and I'm sure I will have a great, succesful, and tasty time. I've just been busy playing and tweaking my other goodies.

While BBQ is fun I find charcuterie offers a greater satisfaction when I come up with something good. I guess the the more unusual something is the more I enjoy it... oh yeah and it is always about the BACON (unless of course life deals you brisket in the case its pastrami)!!!!!

Josh
 
Originally posted by Josh Z.:
Kevin,

Thank you for the kind words and your help in getting some of these projects off the launch pad. You just hit one of my next adventures on the head. I have the set up to make sausgage all I really need to do is set some time aside and buy the casings and I'm sure I will have a great, succesful, and tasty time. I've just been busy playing and tweaking my other goodies.

Josh
Click to expand...

I made my first batch of sausage a month or so ago, with about 20lbs of butt. Was a fun experience though the Kitchen Aid sausage stuffer attachement can be hair-pulling-wall-punching frustrating! If you need any guidance, feel free to ask, be happy to help ya along. It sure is nice being able to pull vac sealed packs of honemade sausage out of the freezer!

Also, let me highly recommend Len Poli's Chaurice recipe. It was the favorite by far of the four sausages I made (jerk, chorizo, kielbasa, chaurice) from his site. It is also one hell of a site!
Len Poli's Sausage Site
Jamie
 
Jamie,

Thanks for the site. Any tips on how to make the kitchen aid less of a hair pulling experience? I have precious little of that comodity to deal with.

I'm hoping to get some sausage made this summer. It is the one cooking project that has been put on the back burner.

Thanks,
Josh
 
To be honest I wouldn't jump in and get the Grizzly unless you KNOW you plan on making a lot of sausage (mainly due to $60 sunk cost vs. $9 for KA Sausgae Stuffer).

I made 4 batches of 5lbs each. First three I ground (using Kitchen Aid Grinder attachment which works fine) the night before and put in Ziploc bags and they went in the fridge. You want to have the chunks of meat near frozen when you grind. The last batch wasn't frozen so I held off and ground it the next day, the same day I stuffed all the batches. The batch that was ground and stuff the same day stuffed in a matter of minutes. The 3 batches that sat in fridge overnight were a PAIN to stuff. My guess it was the temperature of the ground sausage; the colder it is the easier everything is. And by cold, I mean almost frozen...
Jamie
 
Granted the stuffer kevin recommended looks great, but for the time being I will be taking Jamies advice since I got the grinder for free with the kitchen aid and bought the stuffer years ago and haven't used it.

It would seem that Jamie has confirmed what I have read about sausage making in the fact that I've read is neccesary to have ice cold ingrediants and meat in order to have the most success.

That website looks darn good as a matter of fact I'm going to go look around it right now!

Thanks,
Josh
 
Also, don't even attempt to make sausage without a second person for help when using the KA Stuffer. It would be virtually impossible to feed the stuffer as well as hold the casing.
Jamie
 
It's been a while since I stuffed sausage and you folks are more experienced than I am. Since I never had any help, and since the stuffer on the Kitchen Aid is so high, I set a sheet pan on top of a stockpot or other high support which helped a lot.

Also, if you keep the casings *wet* (not damp, but wet) it helps it slide on and off the tube better.
 
Guess I shouldn't have said "impossible"
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When I was stuffing sausage, the meat kept squeezing up past the meat plunger you use to push it down the feeder tube. So getting the meat to feed through in was quite a hassle. I also had no problem with the casing sliding off, but to make sure they get stuffed properly I found it best to hold the casing back on the tube till it is filled properly.

Just can't imagine wanting to do this with one hand on a length of sausage on the feeder tube, while with another hand stuffing meat into the feeder tube and plunging it down. Yikes!
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Jamie
 
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