Thought I would share some pics of my first time making speck. This started out as a full prosciutto and for following reason, ended up as speck.I took the hip bone out of the ham, pressed as much blood out as I could and salted the leg for 14days, cleaned the salt off and lightly resalted and waited another 14 days. I was getting a bit paranoid about whether I got enough salt in towards the bone or not. This was my first prosciutto and I did not want to ruin it. So anyway, I caved in and separated the inside and outside muscles and pulled the leg bone out. Turns out I had got enough in, so that was good but now that my prosciutto was no longer, I ground up some pepper and juniper berries and spread it all over the pieces I had. These sat for another week until I finally cold smoked them using two trays of pellets. Let them hang for 5 days, then put them in UMAI bags in the fridge. I did not weigh them as they already had lost alot of moisture anyway. After 5 weeks, I could not take any more and unwrapped one of the bags and sliced some tasters off. I am pleased to say that it came out great. The salt is maybe a bit higher than I would like but the smoke is great and the small amount of Juniper berries gave it a nice pop. So, next year I will try a whole leg prosciutto and will bone one leg to prepare as I did here.
Thanks for looking
Thanks for looking
