U.S.S. Prosciutto, Maiden Voyage

[mneeley490]

Month 10, time for an update:
As I checked on the progress this week I noticed a couple small patches of greenish-gray mold on the outside of the leg.

So I decided to clean off the old lard and wipe the entire thing down thoroughly with white vinegar, including the inside of the curing chamber.

There were a couple of small, mushy spots in the meat on the bottom. Didn't know what to make of it, so I cut those out as well. No off odors, however, so I take that as a good sign.

Then a new, thinner coat of peppered lard, and back into the curing chamber. Didn't think to weigh it, but based on feel, I'm sure I have several more months to go.

 

[Maple]

Thank you for starting this thread mneeley490. Built a curing chamber last fall to do exactly what you are doing. Still making modifications to the chamber and have experimented curing a couple of small cuts of meat. Later this year I want to start Prosciutto. Thanks for blazing the Prosciutto trail, looking forward to more of your posts.

 

[JohnsMyName]

Same here, way cool, and thanks for posting.

 

[mneeley490]

Well it's been a long 16 months, but it's finally over.
When I started, the green weight was 8,790 grams. At 30% reduction, that would put the ending point at 6,153 grams. However, I did have to cut a bit away midway through and that threw my calculations off. Also, I was just too lazy to keep going downstairs to the den/meat room to keep weighing it until now. I have a good friend up from Phoenix this week. He just participated in the STP (Seattle, WA to Portland, OR) bike ride this weekend, and he's been bugging me for updates on this since it began.
So today it weighed in at 5,730 grams; roughly 35% weight loss from the original green weight, but of course I carved a little out, so somewhere in between 30% and 35%. Time to watch umpteen videos on YouTube about what to do next. All the pros in Italy have a knife shaped like a long scoop to cut along the bone (along with decades of experience), and completely debone the thing in a matter of a few minutes. Looks easy, uh-huh, except I have neither the scoopy knife nor the experience, but here goes.

Most of the lard gone, and now to start trimming down to the good stuff.

What a hack job, but there were no off odors anywhere to be found

The pros cut all the way around the bone, a few inches down from the shank end and sort of use that as a handle. I thought I'd try the same and just cut down along both ends of the bone and I'd have two perfect chunks, right? Wrong. There is a knee in there, and I guessed wrong about which way it would be bent. A hack job, but still not bad for a first time, I hope.

After a little more trimming, the two pieces were smaller than my goal, but still not bad. Prosciutto is sliced so thin that there should still be quite a bit for my friends and I to enjoy. Wrapped tightly in plastic and I will break out the big slicer some time this week when we get back together.

About this time I was busy tonight with wrapping up the deboning project and getting dinner on the table (Marinated chicken breasts on the Weber.) But I managed to thin slice some of the scrappy meat off the bone with my knife. I had maybe 3-4 oz. on a plate and brought it to my wife for us to try while I got the chicken off the grill. When I came back in, this is all that was left. Evidently, it was good enough.

Actually, the few pieces I tried were good. Some were a little saltier than others (perhaps closer to the outer edge?) But all in all, it was a rousing success; especially since this was not a special breed of pig or anything. Just your run of the mill Costco pork. Next time, I might try to source something better and see how that turns out, but that won't be anytime soon. I missed the room in my curing chamber for anything else while that was in there.

 

[richorn]

Well it's been a long 16 months, but it's finally over.
View attachment 370982

Holy cow what a project! Kudos on keeping the gang apprised.

 

[mneeley490]

A couple of other notes:
While salt was present, it wasn't overly salty. (I've had worse commercial products.) And I was happy to find that it had penetrated all the way through, down to the bone, and that I never had any issues with bone sour.
I will endeavor to get some good pics of it sliced, once we get that far. Probably next weekend when my friends and I get together. (But I may pull out that bone again in the mean time and shave off some more for me. ;) )

 

[myownidaho]

Congratulations! Looks perfect!

 

[ab canuck]

Wow That is a project and exercise in patience for sure, Looks good!! Like for sure. Congrats as well.

 

[mneeley490]

Sliced up some last night. Consensus was very good. Color is a bit off in these pics. It was actually much pinker than it looks here; more like the last pic above.

 

[ab canuck]

That does look really good...

 

[mneeley490]

Just wanted to include a couple more pics, this time in natural sunlight so the pinkness shows better.

 

[chopsaw]

That looks fantastic .

 

[bmudd14474]

That looks awesome. Great Job.