Homemade Sausage Making

Pretty cool video. I thought you guys might like to check it out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1x5Qn68MYo

Amazing Video, and very interesting.

I would love to get to the point where I have sufficient experience to try dry curing Ham. I'll get there.

I finally got around to making my first culatello. After 3 weeks of equilibrium cure I wrapped each ham in two sheets of pasted hog casings and fitted them into a cotton stockinette. The traditional method of course is to case them in a pig's bladder, but I was unable to find one. Beef bungs are too small, so I had to compromise. Each ham weighs a 3.7kg (over 8lbs) and while not from a berk or manga, I was very happy with the quality of the pork legs that I cut these out of. The legs were not in cryovac bags, but fresh and with excellent colour. Tomorrow I will spray them with a surface starter and the wait begins!

Nice looking Chris

I have yet to start mine so I will be following, I do have six fiocchetto di culatello style hams down and more to go as the weeks go by

Robert, for sure keep us posted on the fiocchetto and culatello. Certainly more practical info is needed here. I cut out only one fiocchetto, picture below. Hope it all turns out!

BTW I was at Churchill's in Parksville about 10 days ago just when they were unpacking a box of your British bacon! Now I know where to go when mine runs out!

redzed wrote:Robert, for sure keep us posted on the fiocchetto and culatello. Certainly more practical info is needed here. I cut out only one fiocchetto, picture below. Hope it all turns out!

I will be seeing what this week brings, been informed I have to showcase another Charcuterie station at a function on saturday night --

I have been boning my pork legs out Culatello style for so long and had no idea I was doing it.

Have three Prosciutto started right now, average size between 10kg - 12kg

BTW I was at Churchill's in Parksville about 10 days ago just when they were unpacking a box of your British bacon! Now I know where to go when mine runs out!

Next time I send an order I will try and remember to put a package of the traditional Ayrshire Middleback in for you

BriCan wrote:Next time I send an order I will try and remember to put a package of the traditional Ayrshire Middleback in for you

Thanks Robert, that would be a treat!

It seems that I too have joined the ranks Culatello (three of them down in cure)

BriCan-
Do you think that curing vac sealed speeds up the curing process or is any different than just a baggie or container?

Bob K wrote:BriCan-
Do you think that curing vac sealed speeds up the curing process or is any different than just a baggie or container?

This is a EQ cure (equilibrium cure) can be done in a ziplock bag if one likes

Curing is not a speed process, so no -- does not speed up

I am using a walk-in-cooler which has fruit and veg so I do not want to have cross contamination either way <--->

Ziplock bags I find messy (just me, no put down on people using them), containers I tend to use only for doing sides of bacon

Some will remember me from a couple or so years back I did a piece on Schinken , redzed emailed me asking if I would like to come back and give whatever support/information on the English fair.

My background is well trenched within the Butchery trade having learned from the old folks in the very early sixties in England -- well over fifty years in the trade (still learning)

It slays me to see Brican tagged as a Beginner on this site - ya, I know its because the number of his posts

Shuswap wrote:It slays me to see Brican tagged as a Beginner on this site - ya, I know its because the number of his posts

That is a good observation Phil, but hopefully that "beginner" designation will change. I appreciate having him here and would rather learn from a pro that actually makes stuff, rather than someone who just writes about it, without any evidence that they even own a grinder. I see too much of the "blind leading the blind out there".

Your culatello looks great Brican, did you manage to find pork bladders to case it in?

redzed wrote: Your culatello looks great Brican, did you manage to find pork bladders to case it in?

Thanks redzed, hope it finishes as good -- first time out on these

As for casing; not got a source for pigs bladders this round (although I am still looking), this round will be using beef caps

On a side note if I may; order to parksville next week

Not sure if it helps you CA guys but Butcher & Packer in the US carries them.
http://www.butcher-packer.com/index.php ... cts_id=970

After six months of drying my two culatella have lost 38% of weight. The section that did not have a fat cover felt quite hard so I cut one in half. And as suspected, there is some case hardening on the exposed part. The rest of it looks good and I was happy that I tied both well enough in that there were no holes where the hams were boned and rolled. Both hams have now been vac packed and went into the fridge for a couple of months. By then the dry parts should reabsorb some of the remaining moisture and the case hardening dissipate. Well, let's hope.