Curing and smoking pork

[Tilt]

Slightly off topic but moderately related to beer and the ethos of making food from scratch.... I'm wondering if anyone can offer any advice (or links) on how to go about curing and smoking pork hocks, bacon and hams.

We've just got hold of a pig which I'm keen to put to good use and to give my kids a taste of decent home cured bacon without all the water and other rubbish most commercial pork products have in them. 

Has anyone had experience in doing this themselves or know good info sources?

I'm particularly interested in:

 - what preserving products to use (salts, herbs, spices, wood species for smoking etc)

 - where to get hold of them in NZ

 - what to watch out for to prevent botulinum toxin and other such nastiness

 - how to ensure the correct storage conditions

Cheers All

 

[Reviled]

Hmm, I found an awesome pdf a couple of years back about how to make your own bacon from pork belly. It seemed pretty basic, a shitload of rock salt, smoke the crap out of it and bobs your uncle... I may be able to find the link in my work inbox, ill have a look :) 

 

You shouldnt have to worry too much about botulinum with bacon as the smoking process generally sorts this out, and you dont have to cure it for very long with the salt from memory, so it should be ok. I understood that botulinum was more prevalent with non smoked meats such as beef jerky, and even still ive never had a problem when making jerkey.

 

Just in case you werent aware, if you have the cash you can also buy really nice naturally cured bacon with no additives and stuff like that, its pretty expensive, but we always buy it as once you taste it, you cant go back to the sodium nitrate stuff..

[Mike Neilson]

Had some nice home cured bacon for breakfast this morning and I have 2 rashes in the fridge for breakfast.How do you make it? Fuck knows!!

 

I too have just stumbled on a whole eating pig to do what ever I like with, its happening in the next week and Im getting it whole, but obviously gutted and shaved and maybe the toe nails trimmed?

 

I have a couple of uncles who are butchers and who made the bacon, so I will let you know how I get on, as for now I have nothing to offer im a true green pea in this field 

[Tilt]

I'm wet behind the ears on this too - but looking forward to knowing more.  Keen to know how your uncles do their bacon if you find out over the next little while.

[Tilt]

Thanks Rev - I'd be keen to see that pdf if you can find it.  It all seems pretty basic as long as you've got the right ingredients - but good to know from those who've done it to save making stupid mistakes.

[studio1]

2 words: Bradley Smoker :-)

http://www.fishing.net.nz/asp_forums/christmas-ham-in-a-bradley_top...

http://bradleysmoker.co.nz/

[Tilt]

That ham looks fantastic!  I'm drooling on the keyboard looking at those pics. 

[Haish]

There is plenty of info online, try here. A good book to read is Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn. Youtube also has some helpful videos.

 

For preserving salts Dunninghams in Penrose is good but you'll have to buy heaps more than you need, otherwise there is a seller in trademe that repackages a couple of their products. Honeydew cure (ready to use) and Prague salt (needs mixing with sugar and other spices) are both good for making bacon. For smoking I've had good results with manuka, oak, peach and pohutukawa. Cold smoking works best!

[studio1]

what are you using to cold smoke H?

[Haish]

Cold smoke generator and the casing of my old hot water cylinder. I get about 2-3 hours smoke out of one hopper full of sawdust and woodchips.

[Tilt]

Thanks for the specific info Haish.  I'll check out TMe for the salts.  I've got some manuka and applewood I could chip down for this.  I was thinking of using the fish smoker on the BBQ...but now you've also got me thinking about a cold smoking chamber - I've got an old defunct dishwasher that could be put to use - now to think about a cold smoke generator....

[Barbara Joppa]

Good luck with the pig. We have done both dry cure and wet cure for our pigs. We had one great result making prosciutto and one failure (we think the outer fat and skin needs to be removed for the salt to penetrate sufficiently in a dry cure). We have not tried to smoke any of our meats yet as we do not have access to a smoker. 

I can recommend highly, the DVD "pig in a day" from River Cottage. Their web site is also full of good information.

 

Now I need to talk the partner into getting pigs again!

[Reviled]

"we do not have access to a smoker."

 

Come on Barbara, you have better ingenuity than that, surely you could knock something up? lol