Do you make your own Prosciutto?

[Chef4life]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Hi there!

Mr. Fullback, I would also be interested in his ingredients and process...feel free to email me if you can. I would be more than willing to share my bulletproof salami recipe...

Chef4life

[Acoma]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Chef, share now....no secrets!

[Chef4life]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Hahaha,

I WILL share, in time, but I am in need of a friendly exchange with our friend Fullback. If he doesn't come round here anymore, I will share with thte rest of you

Chef

[Acoma]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

I see......Fullback, speakup.

[gjbingham]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

I wish I had a cellar to hang a ham in. Maybe that's the next project wine and meat curing cellar.

[sarah h]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

The summer before last, I bought a pork belly - not a real hot seller in current times in an urban area & the butcher shop where I found it was pretty skeptical of my plans for it - and made my own bacon. It was actually not bad ... for a first effort (IMHO).

It cured for a week in the fridge (salt and various ingredients), then I cold-smoked it, or thereabouts, to the best of my ability, for some hours. I was not really set up to be able to do a great job of the smoking but it's something I may try again some day, if I can get my hands on a better pork belly and refine my smoking technique a bit.

I hear Tamworth hogs are really good for bacon, especially if they've been allowed to roam free and indulge in a diet of acorn mast. It's likely not just any old pig that makes for good proscuitto either.

[gjbingham]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

There's no doubt about the any old pig comment Sarah. They spend a lot of time developing those pigs in Spain for ham, Italy - I have no idea....
I applaud your efforts. I thought I was doing well just making my own sausage. A ham? Maybe someday!
All I know is that prosciutto e melone (cured raw ham wrapped around cantaloupe melon chunks) is one of my favorite appetizers. Sweet and salty, and way too expensive in a restaraunt.

[Frances]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Thats the second time someone mentioned homemade sausage... how about some recipes then? And if that salami one doesn't appear here some time I'll be severely disapointed.

Bacon? mmmmm, also cool. My Grandma used to make her own bacon. No idea how though, but smoking apparently works quite well in our ovens.

[gjbingham]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Frances,
I just order spice packages and casings on line. Then I follow the directions. Great recipe, huh?

[Frances]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Yep, I'm impressed.

[Inishta]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Frances............I know you've got enough on with the baking (and of course FB forum) but sausage is a passion of mine...........especially salami..........

You will find a mountain of info here

sausagemaking.org :: Index

Enjoy

[gjbingham]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Me too Inishta, especially salami. Thanks for the link. I'll read up on it later. Bookmarked for a must read.

[Frances]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Cool Inishta!

My trick is to try to spend so much time cooking (and building and posting), that I have no time left for housework (which I hate...)

And as the children get bigger and leave me with more free time, I'll need to expand my cooking repetiore. So Salami is cool

[Focus]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

That is why you do this process in the winter. Nice and cold in the basement room. Once the curing begins and you had it hung for awhile it can warm up a little.
fb66

Fullback, where do you / this guy live? I'm moving to Cape Cod soon where I'm pretty sure it'll be plenty cold enough to hang this stuff in the garage - actually I'm a little worried it'll just freeze for 6 months and not cure/dry properly... such is my risk.

Also, you mention other, smaller cuts. What specifically is your friend thinking about? Would a standard pork loin work, or is there not enough fat/marbling?

Focus

[olen1009]

Re: Do you make your own Prosciutto?

Hey there...

There are Italian cured pork loins called Lombone, Lombetto, Lonza, Lonzino. The last two are cured and spiced similarly to prosciutto.

The problem with making homemade prosciutto is that it takes at least 8 months to complete the cure...and that is short compared to the 30 months that the best hams require.

Curing loins takes only about 45 to 60 days and can be accomplished in a refrigerator. And you can avoid the smoking by using liquid smoke.

The problem with all cured meats is that some short-cuts are OK, but others will kill you. Don't let that stop you, but do get a good text on it and don't alter the proportions of cure to meat, or make other drastic changes (temp, cure times, etc) that could result in an incomplete cure. Changes to spices to alter the taste or hotness, a bit, should not be a problem.

Great Sausage Recipes and Meat Curing, by Rytek Kurtas is the best book I can find. Not filled with pretty color pics, so it is not a good "coffee-table" book, but it is very thorough. The only recipe I want, which is not in the book, is a recipe for pork roll, a/k/a "Taylor Ham". This is found mostly in the northeast US and is something like, but not like (at the same time) Thuringer.

Don't let the threat of poisoning stop you from trying this. Everything I have made so far has been delicious. Start with something as simple as fresh pork sausage (which is not cured) and proceed to pepperoni and salami.

By the way, the most reasonable prices I have found for spices, cures, casings, etc, is Butcher and Packer Supply, which you can find "on the web".

Good Luck!