Lomo is made from the solid muscle that forms the eye of a pork loin. It starts by cutting the ‘eye’ from a loin of pork.
After removing the ‘tail’ of the pork loin, the loin was dry-cured in a vacuum bag with Spanish smoked paprika, black pepper and garlic for a couple of weeks:
The cured Lomo was rinsed and then dried overnight in the fridge…
Continue reading Lomo embuchadoOriginally posted in 2009:
This ham is ‘in the spirit’ of a traditional Suffolk Black Ham, but made using a simplified curing process.
The famous Suffolk Black Ham made by Emmett’s of Peasenhall is still available to buy, both online and from their shop. They’ve been making ham for over 150 years.
There are other black hams, including the famous Bradenham from Wiltshire, Shropshire Black Ham, and a less well-known one from Derbyshire.
Continue reading Black HamAbout a year ago I replied to a comment on Pauline’s Ham and said: “…I have done this cure with a lot less liquid by using a vacuum bag and just putting 100 – 200 ml of brine cure in with the meat (after injecting, of course).” It was my intention, at that time, to write further about this with an explanation and more detail.
Contrary to popular belief, the reason’s not that I’m tight-fisted! There are also some technical reasons why it’s a good idea. They’re not related to injection-curing; it’s the immersion part of the cure that’s the potential cause for concern.
Continue reading Pauline’s Ham in a BagThis is a rolled pancetta – pancetta arrotolata – from a recipe by my mate Larbo who now lives in the US.
It’s unusual as it’s flavoured with orange zest and fennel – not the traditional flavours you expect in pancetta.
The meat was dry-cured for 12 days, rolled and tied, and has been hanging in my air-drying fridge for 27 days.
Allowing for the removal of the skin when it was rolled, it’s lost 22% of its original weight – in supermarket terms it’s been made with 127gms of meat per 100gms pancetta.
Here’s Laurence’s recipe:
Continue reading Pancetta di Larbo
This Pancetta cuts right back on the spices letting the meat shine through.
If you make it, try to get a very thick piece of belly pork from the butcher; the one I used wasn’t really thick enough because the shrinkage is quite considerable. It looks thicker in the photo than it actually is. What looks like green/black mould is actually beneficial white mould on top of the powdered black pepper that I used because I was too lazy to grind the coarse black pepper that I included in the recipe!
Continue reading Pancetta di ThurlastonMany local farm suppliers are only too happy to sell you half a pig, usually rare breed; Gloucester Old Spot and the like. They generally weigh around 55-60lbs for the whole side before boning and making it into whatever pieces you require.
For curing, I wanted a side from a much larger pig, a ‘baconer’; a side of this will weigh between 80-100lbs. I got one from Don Hutton at Warwick Bridge Farm, Littlethorpe weighing 93lbs which has given me 75lbs of usable meat (60lbs excluding hocks, trotters, liver, heart and cheek). By the time it’s converted into ham, bacon, sausage, faggots etc I’ll have about 70lbs of edible products. This photo of a piece of loin being dry-cured for back bacon shows the size of it.
I’ve made all the usual things like bacon, ham and sausage and decided that my first venture into air drying meat would be pancetta. This Italian streaky bacon is made by dry curing bacon with a load of spices added to the cure, and then hanging it up to dry for a month or so – apart from the spices, that’s how we made bacon a few years ago!
Firstly, take a nice chunk of belly pork:
Continue reading Jason’s Pancetta
The Gascon salted pork called Ventrèche is bacon that at its most traditional seems to be cured with just salt as a curing agent. However, commercially produced varieties seem to contain nitrite curing salts.
Internet searches indicate that it’s salted or cured, rolled or flat, smoked or unsmoked, salt-pork or bacon, with or without nitrite/nitrate curing salts, used fresh or hung to dry, with or without garlic! There seems a concensus that it’s got a layer of black pepper over the meat though. Well, that’s nice and clear then!
Continue reading Ventrèche – Bacon by another name
Whilst there are already quite a few cure calculators for bacon on this site, none allow you to choose your own levels of salt, sugar etc. This one enables you to do just that whilst still curing to either EU or US commercial standards.
It has not been possible to present this calculator in the style of the rest of the site but it is fully functioning and accurate. It can be used for any type of dry curing project, not just for bacon.
Links at both the top and bottom of the page will return you to the main site when finished.
PLEASE NOTE: The Eu curing rules have changed. The calculator reflects this. If you use the calculator regularly, please clear your browser cache to ensure that the new rules are applied.
Back in 2010, when I posted the bacon tutorial online, I used a recipe with fairly low levels of salt. Many people liked it and it remains popular.
Continue reading Mild Bacon
The suppliers listed were selling these items at the date of writing. The items they stock may change over time, so it’s always worth checking to see if they’ve extended the range of goods offered.
Continue reading Equipment and Supplies – UK
