6 replies to this topic

[susie]

This method gives a dry ham, called Bayonne Ham...much like the Parma Ham of Italy. Sliced paper thin to serve, eaten as is with bread and sweet butter or fried, it's slightly salty and chewy.

This is a 12 kilo porkbutt...entire, with skin on....which I rubbed all over with coarse local salt...



Now it gets covered completely with the salt. The leg part didn't fit in the basin, so I rigged up a styrofoam extention...



The ham sit in the salt for two days per kilo...this one will stay until the sixth of March...then it gets hung in an airy place to dry for a few months.

[susie]

For bacon, I get a side of pork and trim off the ribs...but leave the skin on...and rub it with coarse salt and then completely cover it and leave it in the salt for 18 hours. Some people leave it in for longer, but it does get really salty after 24 hours.



The I sprinkle the bacon VERY liberally with ground black pepper...all over, skin and meat side, making sure that the pepper is in every nook and cranny.



Then hang it up for at least a month in an airy place. I hang it in he stairwell. If a bit of mould begins to form, simply wipe it off with a vinegared cloth and reapply the pepper.



And Voila! Perfect and delicious bacon!

[cleanheart]

WOW Susie, I want to make bacon. Can I do that living in a warm place like Alabama?

[Stephanie]

That is amazing!

A couple of questions..

Do you cover the hanging meat with anything?? Or is the pepper the covering?

Also, after you start slicing it? Do you re-pepper the exposed area?

Very interesting, thanks!

[PureCajunSunshine]

That is amazing!

A couple of questions..

Do you cover the hanging meat with anything?? Or is the pepper the covering?

Also, after you start slicing it? Do you re-pepper the exposed area?

Very interesting, thanks!

I would, 'cause the pepper is known for protecting meat against flies (and their maggots) and other insects. It's an old trick I like to use in the deer woods...

Edited by PureCajunSunshine, 12 February 2009 - 10:12 AM.

[PureCajunSunshine]

This method gives a dry ham, called Bayonne Ham...much like the Parma Ham of Italy. Sliced paper thin to serve, eaten as is with bread and sweet butter or fried, it's slightly salty and chewy.

This is a 12 kilo porkbutt...entire, with skin on....which I rubbed all over with coarse local salt...

Would this work if it didn't have the skin on, as long as it is kept liberally coated with pepper in the drying process? I'd imagine that it would be LOTS saltier too?

[susie]

We broke into that ham.

To be honest, I wasn't sure of myself...it looked more green around the edges that the ones I see in shops (although there was one in a teensy closet-sized shop in Salamanca that still had the hoof on and it was green)...I was afraid that the house wasn't airy enough to do it properly.

And it took a few knives before I hit on the idea of using Kalani's razor sharp scout penknife to carve the paper thin slices.

It is SO GOOD! Even the green rindy part, which tastes mostly of pepper. It's not as salty or tangy as the shop ones, either. Lani went to fetch a crusty baguette, sweet butter was at the ready, and we did it!

Next year I am going to be brave and smoke one for a time before hanging it.