A couple of weeks back we purchased a pig from a nearby farmer. Lately we've been especially busy with meat processing endeavors: bacon/guanciale, ham, pate, sausage, blood sausage, rendering lard, three recipes of trotters/ears/snouts, headcheese, pork rinds, and bone broth.
For one project, we brined and smoked cured several hams for our own eating. We used just sugar, salt and water and left it out in the mudroom, turning them over every few days. No nitrates. The hams were big, about 15 pounds, so they cured for 2 weeks.
Here is a picture of our first ham after roasting in the oven for several hours. In another project not pictured we made head cheese by boiling the pigs head and then scraping the skull clean, cut up the parts add spices and shape the pig face parts into a cake and letting set for a couple days in the refrigerator! It's great!
Here is a picture of our first ham after roasting in the oven for several hours. In another project not pictured we made head cheese by boiling the pigs head and then scraping the skull clean, cut up the parts add spices and shape the pig face parts into a cake and letting set for a couple days in the refrigerator! It's great!
Here is our pile of bacon after it came out of the smoker! Delicious!
Bacon involves a simple brine - two cups sugar and two cups salt dissolved in a gallon of water with a big piece of belly meat/fat...bacon to be! Brine in a cold room, stirring and flipping a couple times. After one week remove, rinse, pat dry and smoke according to taste - we smoked all day with wild hickory bark soaked in apple juice. Watch out for fires in the smoker!
Bacon involves a simple brine - two cups sugar and two cups salt dissolved in a gallon of water with a big piece of belly meat/fat...bacon to be! Brine in a cold room, stirring and flipping a couple times. After one week remove, rinse, pat dry and smoke according to taste - we smoked all day with wild hickory bark soaked in apple juice. Watch out for fires in the smoker!
