INGREDIENTS

INSTRUCTIONS

Mix the pickling ingredients. In theory thicker joints, such as ham,
should have a stronger brine - make the brine up in 90% of the
quantity of water. Thinner joints, such as bacon and bath chaps,
which are the jowls of the pig, should have the mixture in 120% of
the water.
Put the meat into the brine, making sure that there are no air
pockets, put a scrubbed board on top and a big stone on top of that
to weight the meat down - DON'T use an iron weight- and leave in the
brine for 4 days per pound of each big joint. Thus each joint should
be weighed before being put in, and each removed at its appointed
date. Bacon and small joints should only be left in for two days per
pound.
After 4 or 5 days, turn the joints round in the brine, and after
every so often. If, in hot weather, the brine becomes ropey (viscous
when you put your hand in), remove meat, scrub in clean water and put
it into fresh brine.
When the meat is taken out of the brine, wash it in fresh water,
hang it up for a week in a cool dry place to dry, then, if you want,
smoke it. It can be eaten "green" ie not smoked at all. It should
keep indefinitely, but use small joints and bacon sides before hams.
Hams improve with maturing. Bacon is best eaten within a few months.
Cured hams and shoulders should be carefully wrapped in greaseproof
paper and then sewn up in muslin bags and hung in a fairly cool dry
place, preferably at a constant temperature. If you paint the outside
of the muslin bag with a thick paste of lime and water, so much the
better. Like this they will keep for a year or two and improve all
the time in flavour until they are delectable. Light turns bacon
rancid, so keep it in the dark. Keep flies off all cured meat.
Recipe from "The Complete Book of Self Sufficiency" John Seymour
Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V4 #4 by "Rfm" <Robert-Miles@usa.net> on
Feb 01, 99

A Message from our Provider:

“Forgiveness is not automatic”