OK here we go folks.
1. Pieces of ham need to be dried to the touch before cure is applied.
2. Cure should be carefully applied from each side of the meat
3. Put the layer of cure on the bottom of your cure box,
4. Put the pieces of meet next to each other, fat side down but not to tight. You need to keep natural shape of meat.
5. If you cure big chunks of meat, turn them every second day in the cure box. If you will have layers of meat, make sure that the top one goes down to the bottom and the bottom layer up.
5. Big chunks of meat should be cured 10 to 12 days, small ones ( as on attached photos ) 5 to 7 days. Curing temperature 6 to 8 Celsius
(43 to 46 Fahrenheit).
5. Best way to check the curing stage is to make a small cut in the middle and visually check the colour.
6. After curing, soak the meat in water of about 15 Celsius
(59 Fahrenheit). 1 hour for each day of curing. 10 days curing = 10 hours in the water. You may change the water in the middle of the process. I do 1.5 hour for 1 day of curing, this you will need to judge yourself depending from you taste.
7. After this place the meat in the cold place 6-8 Celsius
(43-46 Fahrenheit) for 2-3 days. This time is needed to dry and mature the meat, but also to equalize the concentration of salt in meat.
8. Last stage is cold smoking, you know how
9. Final stage is to slice it to very thin pieces and put on the frsh bread with butter.
In case of problems with swallowing, help it with some fine plum vodka "Slivovica"
Cure mix:
( CW please recalculate for US cures please )
1,0 kg non iodized salt
0,18 kg peklosol
0,06 kg sugar
You can add 0.01 kg Sodium erythorbate E316 ( antioxidant ) for nicer colour.
My pleasure Siara. Here are the U.S. equivalents.
35 oz. (2.2 lbs. = 1000 gr.) salt
6.35 oz. (180 gr.) peklosol
2.11 oz. (60 gr.) sugar
1/3 oz. (10 gr.) sodium erythorbate (ascorbic acid)
White sugar can be replace with brown or maple sugar.
