Being my own butcher

Sorry folks, I got distracted by garden stuff and forgot to update you on being my own butcher! I don't mean actually killing anything (for the squeemish....and the general euphemism for this is "processing") - I just mean turning big hunks of lovely pork into meal size portions.

First - here are my lovely hunks of pork - shoulder and loin/belly



So out come my trusty books - Hugh's meat book, and my John Seymour and my Carla Emery - for a quick crash course in pork anatomy!

A quick cut to the loin section and already we have something that looks familiar! Then it's off with the ribs, and slicing loin chops/steaks.




Mmmmmm ribs! And the belly bit went straight into a dry cure for bacon


I cut the shoulder into a roasting joint for slow cooking overnight in the oven, and the rest I diced to use in casseroles and tagines.

Then it was the leg of pork. Oh My - 10.5kg (!!) of roast and hammy lovelyness-to-be. But 2 people don't need a 10.5kg ham or roast - and besides, I don't have a pot big enough, so it's time to get he serious kitchen tools out - a hacksaw!! (with a new cleaned blade, or course)


et voila! It already looks more manageable. 1 ham down, a ham and 3 roasts to go! You can see one roasing joing on the black tray.



Once I'd cut and bagged 3 roasts I was left with my 2 hams - and into Hugh's West Country Cider Cure (ooooh aaar) they went the next day. Cider cured roast leg ham is on the menu this Christmas.

LOVELY.


And the best bit? All this pork came from the piggies we were looking after for King Valley Free Range - tasty heritage breeds that have lifed a happy piggie life with room to run around, dig around, wallow, eat apples, acorns and chesnuts, and do all those things piggies like to do.

Making bacon and gammon - part 2

Today it was time to take the bacon out of the cure. All it needed was a good rinse, and then pat dry with towel. The maple syrup cured bacon then got wrapped in greaseproof paper and into the freezer. The same for one of the standard cure pieces. The other piece I soaked for a few hours (to make it a bit less salty), and then it was dried, into greaseproof paper and into the fridge. We'll be eating this piece over the next week or so.

Yep, it's that easy - why don't you try making your own bacon?


It was also time for the gammon and hock to come out of the cider cure. Don't they look YUMMY? They will soak in clean water for about 24 hours, and then it will be time for part 3.

Making Gammon (part 1)

After yesterday's bacon, it was time to do the gammon today (once I'd dealt with the 7.5kg of tomatoes I picked at lunchtime). I'd made the brine yesterday - a cider brine with apple juice, water, cider, juniper berries, peppercorns, cloves, water , salt and brown sugar. It had been in the bottom of the fridge getting nice and chilled, along with the gammon and a hock I'd decided to cure as well.
Doesn't that gammon look lovely??? Mmmmmmmmmmmmm


Another very simple process - put the brine in a non-reactive container (non-metal) - I've used a 9litre food grade plastic container with a lid. Make sure it's not too full to start with, as the ham will take up a bit of volume (I had a brine flood last time I did this!). As you can see from the pick below the gammon / hock float in the brine, and they need to be submerged. To achieve this I use a ziplock bag filled with rice. You can use a chopping board - mine doesn't fit the container.


Once the weight is in place, put the lid on, and return to the fridge. Easy!

Because I'm planning to cook it pretty soon after curing I'm going for the minimum cure time of 3 days per kg (so 6 days in total). If I was going to keep it longer before cooking then it could go for up to 4 days per kg. Stay tuned for part 2 next week

Bacon and Ham

This is what my bacon looked like after 5 days in the salt/sugar cure. One thing I did learn is that it needs soaking before cooking - otherwise all you taste is salt!! But after a few hours soaking it's lovely. Next time I'm going to try smoking some - but need to build a smoker...Jerry, get on with that will you?!!

My cider cured ham is also out of its brine bath too - and looking lovely! Now it's hanging in muslin under the verandah for 24-48 hours to air dry a bit. The dogs can smell it but can't reach it - torture!!