Schinkenspec w/ Qview

alelover said:

Very cool. Nice step by step. Can't wait to see the finish.

What does your curing salt consist of?

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Well stuck here at work with blacks in the tank cooking and not much to do except watch the clock get closer to midnight so will post the following.

Here is the follow up to the Schinken.

As you see boning out the legs is a somewhat simple task if one takes there time. After boning out the meat it is then salted with salt and cure then placed in a plastic container elevated on tray/wire [cake] rack so that the meat will not sit in the liquid that is drawn off during the curing process. If the meat sits in the liquid that is drawn off it can and will get tough and hard.

Place the plastic container in the fridge uncovered and leave for seven (7) days. It is wise to check each or every second day to make sure that the meat is not sitting ing the liquid, if a large amount starts forming just drain off.

On the fifth (5) day it is time to make the brine that we will place the meat in after it has been cured.

Brine for Schinken:

12 Lt water

12g whole peppercorns

6 large bay leaves

2 medium onions [approx 575g when peeled]

60g sugar

10g whole cloves

25g garlic [crushed/diced]

60g whole juniper berries

Place water and spices into a large pot, bring to a boil then simmer for two (2) hours.

Allow to cool overnight.

The following day strain the liquid into a clean container using a very fine strainer.

Add 675g curing salt to the liquid and mix well

After seven (7) days take the container out of the fridge and place by the sink. Take the meat which is now cured and place it in the sink one piece at a time and run lukewarm water over it scrubbing the meat lightly with your hands to get rid of the excess salt. When all pieces of meat have been washed wash out the plastic container, once this has been done place the pieces of meat you have just washed back into the plastic container. Cover the meat with cold water [if you cannot cover with cold water place meat in a clean container in which you can] and leave for twelve (12) hours.

We used to soak for one (1) hour but I found that there was too much salt left in the product hence the twelve (12) hours.

After the soaking period take out of the water and hang, let dry for at least an hour {it’s to get rid of the excess water]

After the drying period replace into the container that you used to soak the meat, cover the meat with the brine that you made and place uncovered in the fridge making sure there are no exposed pieces of meat, Leave for seven (7) days. If the pieces are really large, leave in brine for nine (9) days.

After seven (7) days take out of fridge and rinse with tepid water, then hang to dry for one (1) to two (2) days in a cool well ventilated place.

Cold smoke for two (2) to four (4) days, I normally do four (4) days. 

I usually give the product two (2) days of smoke at eight (8) hours a smoke we crack open the doors of the smokehouse overnight as we do not want the product to sweat. After the second (2) day we open the smokehouse doors to ventilate as well as to give the meat some well deserved rest. The third (3) day re-smoke for eight hours then open up the doors and give the meat another day of rest [fourth (4) day], the day after the fourth (4) day give the Schinken its final smoke [eight (8) hours.

We now transfer the smoked Shinken to the drying room which is well ventilated with a steady flow of air; the temperature is between 10 and 15 degrees C. with relative humidity at around 65%



This is part of my drying room

After a given amount of time [there is no exact time frame as each place, time of year, weather conditions and probably a host of other things will and do come into affect] upon feeling [it’s a personal thing, you have to get to know your meat]. I go by feel; once the meat starts to firm up it is time to transfer it to the fridge.

The advantage of transferring to a fridge is twofold;

1. The lower the temperature is the slower the drying faze when it is hot.

2. There is always higher humidity which in 99.9% of the time will prevent case hardening.



I leave under these conditions until the product feels dry and firm to my touch and yes; if the product was to be weighed it will have lost the required amount of weight.

The task is easy but time consuming and at the end of the day you will have something that you are proud off.

There are people who do a lot better than I do [I know that for a fact] but each one of us can achieve great things if we put a little bit of ourselves into what we do.

Hope I have not board you, what you see is a little insight of me as I do things the traditional way. 







Hope this is of some help

DanMcG said:

That was great Robert. thanks for taking the time to write the tutorial

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Glad to have done it, I do hope that it helps someone. There is other stuff but I need to feel my way around, by the way the cold smoked tastes better than the hot smoke so now need to build a cold smoker at my place