Home-Cured Hams and Sausage?

I'm curious if anyone cures whole hams, prosciutto, or sausages at home?

I've got a basment, but it does get a little humid. I also have an old chicken coop -- but it gets very hot in the summer.

Any way I can start making my own cured meats?

(Not sure where this post should go. Feel free to move it.)

Moving to Recipe Requests Forum.

Regards,
Chris

Humidity you want, humidity is your friend between 60-70%; heat you do not want--50-60 degrees is best.

Whole hams take months but sausages 2.5-4 weeks usually, depending on size, pancetta just 2 weeks.

Kevin! Home made Pancetta sounds like a project to me! Unless it is a lot of work. I bet you have done it though and it is extremly interesting.

This site should have all kinds of info on curing meats and sausage - Sausage making forum

I actually just cured and hung my own pancetta, but I have yet to eat it...... I was a little concerned by the mold growing on the outside, but I remember hearing about the different molds that add different flavors to country hams. I wiped off the mold and put it in the fridge.... very little grew back so I was giong to do that again and if it was not moldy I was going to try it real soon.

It smells great and I'm guessing it will taste great too.

I'm no expert, but I've heard wiping it with vinegar is the way to deal with mold on the outside.

Generally, all the fuzzy molds are bad as are most colored molds. Vinegar or a straight salt brine solution is what is often used to wipe off mold. Dry white mold is what one often sees on some dry-cured sausages and it is considered to be a good mold as it is not harmful and helps to prevent bad molds from starting.

Usually, what wrecks pancetta is dry air. Adequate humidity is important to slow the drying process. Pancetta should be firm but not hard. Check it everyday. Hardness indicates that it is drying out. Is should be wrapped and fridged at that point irrespective of how long it has hung. Since pancetta is not meant to be eaten raw fridging it early is okay. A little flavor development is lost but that beats having to pitch the whole belly.

Dale, it is not a lot of work at all. It's easy--wouldn't you say, Josh?

I have bellies in the fridge from recently slaughtered pigs. One is for pancetta as it is impossible to get locally. I hope to make duck prosciutto at the same time as it requires far less drying time than pork leg.

Let us know how your pancetta turns out, Josh.

Most of the mold I had was white and not fuzzy, guessing the good stuff, but I did get one small spot of some of the fuzzies.

Bacon and Pancetta..... the hardest part is finding fresh pork bellies. The second hardest part of making it would be getting the pink salt which isn't hard becuase you can order it off the internet. Once you've found all the ingredients the hardest part is waiting 7 days from the time you start curing to the end....... oh the wait!

I'll try a vinegar rub on the pancetta and then fry some up this weekend. The pancetta is not dried out and got a 2 week hang in. The only part that was dry was the very end of it so I just cut that part off.

Josh