New Lamb Proscuitto and Cured Pork Shoulders in cure-and in curing chamber

Life has been good at SE 20th ave lately, and I haven't had much time for blogging... but that doesn't mean I haven't had time to make some good new charcuterie.

As you all know, I started another lamb proscuitto a month or so back, and now it's in the curing chamber... I'm going to let this one sit in there until Thanksgiving, then some of my friends are going to be VERY happy.

I decided to try something different  and after giving the leg a good hour long soak, I coated the thing in a mix of 2 types of powdered mexican pepper, along with an ethiopian spice called Berbere... has lots of good stuff in it and this is going to be awesome... super spicy, with intense flavor.

Here's a pic of it hanging in the Mancave for a few days ( to give it a chance to shed a bunch of water quickly before putting it in the curing chamber ( temp is about 58-60F, with an RH of about 65-85&.. window is open and it's rained every day in may )

Then i did the same with the 2 pork shoulders in Netting that have been curing for the past month... long soaks, followed by coating with spices and wrapping in twine.

You can see from this pic that the month spent in the cure is going to really make this one good.

Heree's what they look like.  I used a "ham bag" to put them in after coating in spice, then tied them up with butchers twine to let them hang.   Each one is about 3lbs and will end up at about 2lbs by the time they're done curing ( around mid july  or so ).

And finally.. this blog is supposed to be about more than just meat... I wanted to let you all know that my garden is doing great and I'm looking forward to pickling LOTS of stuff this year.   I was going to use a commercial kitchen to do my stuff and be able to legally sell them, but I think I may go "underground" again this year.   Stay tuned.. there will be lots of good stuff available at the end of the summer.

I'm ready to pickle some beets.. stay tuned for that one.

I'm also going to start talking a bit about wine.. I LOVE Oregon Pinot Noir, especially from small artisanal producers and I'm going to start sharing some of my finds.  I may need guest bloggers to help with this, as my palate descriptors are "good" and "yuck".

Here's a pic of me and the Ball and Chain the weekend before Memorial Day at a pickup party at Solena Cellars .  Great wine, and a very cool winery.  I highly recommend you visit.

Cured Pork Shoulder - from store to cure

I happened to stop at Sheridan Meats in Portland a few weeks ago, and while chatting up the butcher who was cutting my lamb leg off a nice lamb carcass, noticed that they were having a sale on boneless pork shoulders, wrapped up in netting.

These are mainly prepared for hours long braising or smoking he said, but I decided to grab two and give them a shot at curing.  They sort of look like they'd make good stuff.

I bought two of them ( each about 3.25 lbs ), and brought them home to meet my curing chamber.

I'm using my standar curing mix  with the following addition

2tbsp cayenne pepper

2tbsp smoked spanish paprika

2tbsp hot hungarian paprika

2 tbsp fennel seed

2tbsp chili de arbol

I gave it a good rubdown, reaching far inside the meat to make sure everything was well coated.

Then it's into ziploc bags for 2 weeks, turning over every few days

Of course, family emergency cuts into our life and we leave for the East Coast for 10 days.

Here's a shot of the shoulder on May 17th, after 18 days in the cure. 

Notice the beautiul coloring.   I'm estimating that weight loss was about 1/4 of a pound by the amount of brine in the bag.

I rerubbed with the cure, coating throroughly and placed them back in the bag.

I noticed last night that there is additional brine and they're really firming up.

I'll be taking them out of the cure this weekend ( 5/22 or 23) and then hanging them for 4-6 weeks.

Since I have two of them, I'll experiment.  One will go directly into the curing chamber with only a good rinsing off.

The Second will get a complete soak with change of water for 2-4 hours, then a reapplication of the hot spices.

Let's see how they turn out!!!