The Saga of the Ham Part 2

For those who have been following along, you will know that I am in the process of trying to make my first ham. I started about 2 weeks ago (see part 1).

When I last saw the pork it looked like so:
 

I pulled it out of the refrigerator. The changes so far are subtle. The meat is firmer, darker, and a little shriveled.

The next step was to a rub the pork with the cure/salt mix. I used exactly the same amounts as last time. Last time the pork was able to easily hold the entire batch of mix. This time however, the pork was drier and firmer. As a result about 1/3 was left over.

I wrapped the pork up like last time and place back in the refrigerator.

See you back in a couple of weeks…

The Saga of the Ham, Part 1

If you read my earlier post on my love of pork, then you know I am interested in making a ham. Not any ham but something in the neighborhood of Parma perfection.

The first part of any saga like this is research. I’ve found a number of places on line with some helpful advice. If you are interested in making ham, you should check them out.
http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/how/cure_smoke/virginia_ham.pdf
http://www.foodandwine.net/recipes/recip009.htm
http://forum.rivercottage.net/viewtopic.php?t=13379
http://www.culinary-yours.com/ham.html
http://www.channel4.com/life/microsites/C/come_dine/7philham.html
http://www.rootsweb.com/~tnweakle/Hog_Killing.htm

Given this research, I have a good feel for the ingredients and the basic process. Now I need to settle on the cut of meat, the recipe and the specific technique.

I am a beginner here, so I am a little nervous that I will completely screw this up, so a smaller cut of meat is intriguing. On the recipe side, I would like to do a Parma style ham. The basic ingredient here is salt though you can add other ingredients to spice it up a bit.

OK so I had 1 pound of left over tenderloin. I decided I needed a curing agent other than salt. I went to Bass Pro Shop and picked up Lem’s brand cure. Nothing more than Prague #1 or Instacure #1 for those in the know. I think for ham you should really use Prague #2, but I couldn’t get that anywhere quickly. This is an experiment so #1 it is.

 

I mixed 1/2 tsp of the cure with 1 tbsp salt, 1/2 tsp garlic powder, 1 tsp ground pepper and 1 tsp ground corriander. This was double the cure the package called for but I think it is typically used with ground meat…

I rubbed every last bit of the rub over the meat making sure to miss no part of the pork. For the last step I wrapped it up in celophane and placed in the fridge. I’ll check back in 2 weeks.
 

Bratwurst

I’m on a homemade charcuterie kick lately. Today’s project was bratwurst. This time I used a pre-packaged mix. Bass Pro Shop carries meat curing supplies. I picked up a bratwurst spice mix there for this first experiment. Next time I’ll do the whole thing from scratch.

The brats came out great.  Add spicy sweet mustard and the kraut stuffed peppers on top and you have one awesome brat. This is definitely a “do over”.

Ingredients:
5 lbs pork butt
Hog casings
1 package bratwurst spice mix

Directions:
1. Rinse and soak the casings.
 

2. Cut meat into 2 inch cubes.
 

3. Coarsely grind the meat.
 

4. Mix in the spice mixture.
 

5. Rinse casings and thread onto tube.

6. Stuff the casings. Don’t over stuff. You need enough room to twist into links.
 

7. Cut into links. Mix a bottle of beer with enough water to cover the brats. Bring the beer and brat mixture to a simmer. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
 

8. Fire up the grill with hickory wood for extra flavor. Cook the brats for about 5-10 minutes per side until nice and reddish brown.
 

9. Prepare the brats on a bun with mustard, peppers, and kraut. Enjoy.

Pork Roulade

It is funny how some of the easiest meals to fix become the fanciest looking and sometimes best tasting. Last night I just wanted to do something easy to get rid of some left overs. Pork tenderloin, some slices of prosciutto, some aged Gouda, and various vegetables.

The dish came out very nice, the flavors worked better than expected and the crispy prosciutto stole the show.

 The only hard part here for beginners is the slicing of the meat. Take the tenderloin and cut a slit in it lengthwise. The cut should go deep, leaving about 1/4 inch thickness uncut. Now open the pork like a book. With the knife as parallel to the board as possible cut one side of the pork. Essentially you are spiralling around, always leaving 1/4 inch against the board. Keep unfolding until you get to the end of the one side. Then continue with the other. It sounds hard, but with practice you can do the whole process in about a minute.

 

Ingredients:
1 small pork tenderloin
about 2 cups of sorrel leaves (arugula or spinach will work)
1/4 cup diced onion
1/4 cup grated aged Gouda (or other hard cheese)
6-8 paper thin slices of prosciutto
Pepper to taste

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut the tenderloin into a 1/4 inch sheet. 
 

2. Layer the sorrel, onions, and cheese on top of the sheet.
 

3. Roll the pork tightly. Season with ground pepper.

4. Wrap in prosciutto and place in an oven safe dish.

5. Place in oven and cook at 375F for 45 minutes.

6. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes. Cutting too soon will cause the juice to run everywhere, leaving the pork dry.

7. Slice and serve immediately. Served here with turnip root and greens as well as fried potato wedges.

Ribs in a Bag

 

Ribs are another food that I have tried a number of ways. I’ve done them on the grill, in the smoker, boiled and then roasted, braised, and any other way you can name. If you want falling off the bone ribs with a ton of flavor, you will not find a recipe that beats this one. It is not traditional, but it works great.

Ingredients:
Meat
2 racks of pork loin ribs (or baby back) cut in half

Rub
1 cup light brown sugar
½ cup kosher salt
1 tbsp chili powder
1 tsp jalapeño flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp rubbed thyme
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp cracked black pepper
¼ tsp cayenne powder

Braising Liquid

1 cup Bourbon

1 cup water

2 cloves minced garlic

3 tbsp honey

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Directions:
1. Combine rub ingredients in a bowl. Rub all over ribs. Put ribs in a plastic bag and refrigerate overnight (at least 4 hours, but preferably 12 or more)
 

2. Cut a piece of heavy duty foil about 3 feet long with shiny side up.

3. Place a ½ rack on the foil

 

4. First fold the foil lengthwise, then close up the side by folding over. Be sure to seal tightly but be very careful not to puncture the foil. A hole will ruin the process. Be sure to leave the end open.
 

 

5. Repeat steps 2-4 for the remaining racks.

6. Preheat oven to 250F

7. Combine braising liquid ingredients. Microwave the ingredients for 1 minute.

8. Divide liquid between bags. Fold end over 2-3 times to seal the bags. Double check all the way around to make sure seams are tight.

 

9. Place bags on cookie sheets and place in the middle of the oven. Cook for 2.5 hours.

10. Remove ribs from oven and allow to cool to touch.

11. Pour liquid from each bag into a large sauce pot (be careful this can be hot).

 

 

12. Bring sauce to a boil and reduce by at least half.

13. Brush sauce all over ribs. Turn on broiler and broil until starting to crisp all over (about 1-2 minutes). Continue reducing sauce.

  

14. Remove ribs, cut into 2 rib portions. Toss in sauce and serve.