Hi, new here

[CFC]

Hi all.
Just received a nice little pressie of the mincer attachment for my Kenwood Chef so was gagging to try it out.
Local butcher sold me some casings and I took a bit of pork belly out of the freezer to give it a go.
So today we had pork, onion and red pepper sausages for dinner. I didn't have breadcrumbs handy so I minced in a couple of slices of fresh bread with the pork.

All a bit of a mess, there's a learning curve here for sure. What I've learnt so far is

Take the skin off the pork next time unless I want to spend ages fishing out sinew and rind out of the grinding plates LOL
Leave more casing between the sausages for turning than you think I will need, when I cut between the sausages I had sausage meat peeking out the ends as the casings popped back
There's a lot of washing up involved
It's easy to embarass my husband as I demonstrated the casings going over the tube

So they didn't look great, but they did taste pretty nice.

My OH is from Sweden and his parents used to buy a pig and make their own Xmas ham. I'd really like to make a ham so I need to have a poke around the forum and find a good recipe. I'd like to do a wet cured one.

I'm fascinated by the thought of making my own bacon but the instructions seem quite confusing to me, so even though you might think it's really simple, once I start I shall doubtless post loads of 'well duh' queries

[wheels]

Welcome to the forum. It sounds like you've made a good start.

There's a beginner's guide to making sausage here:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=11029

Phil

[NCPaul]

Welcome to the forum. The meat does need to be well trimmed for that type of grinder. Try letting the sausages rest on a rack overnight in the fridge uncovered for the links to set before cutting them apart.

[CFC]

Ah perhaps that was what it was, I made them then we scoffed them! I'll try resting them overnight next time, thanks for the input.
I have a half a small pig sat in the freezer. Mostly collar joints I think of about 1.2kg. Could someone point me to a good non injection ham recipe, I'm having difficulty finding a recipe in the forums? A nice easy one to start with please!!

[wheels]

I have two here:

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=697

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=608

You could make either with just water if you don't want to use cider/porter.

HTH

Phil

[CFC]

Cheers for that Wheels.
OK some questions as I am very very nervous, not wanting to give us food poisoning for Xmas. Sorry I know these are all nub questions but I'm a nub, what do you expect?

first question question - I have an ordinary set of electronic baking scales and the cure one required is 5.5 grams for my size of meat. The saltpetre is .39 grams. There is no way my scales could measure that small, even if I swapped the cure 1 for cure 2. What do other people do?
Second question. The meat I will be using has been frozen already (was part of a quarter pig). Is this an issue?
Third question - is the meat supposed to be FULLY submerged in the brine all the time of curing? This is cured in the fridge, correct?
Fourth question - how long is the meat supposed to dry out for afterwards, and is this also ok done in the fridge?

Finally - food safety. Is there anything that would tip me off that the ham had gone wrong somewhere and there was a real risk in eating it?

[onewheeler]

Re your first question, invest in some "drug dealers'" scales e.g. Ebay 131323397688

They'll be a good investment for about £6. I did a series of detailed checks on one a few years ago and they are far better than one could reasonably expect for the price.

28 p of UK copper coinage (14 2 ps or 28 1 ps) wrapped in a piece of cling-film weighs very close to 100 g and should be used as a check / calibration weight.

Alternatively make up a large quantity of your cure (with the salt and any spices) so you only need to measure (say) 50 g or whatever your current scales can resolve reasonably accurately. Mix well and take out what you need.

Martin/

[wheels]

Cheers for that Wheels.
... I have an ordinary set of electronic baking scales and the cure one required is 5.5 grams for my size of meat. The saltpetre is .39 grams. There is no way my scales could measure that small, even if I swapped the cure 1 for cure 2. What do other people do?

I would recommend the use of Cure #2 instead of the Cure #1 and saltpetre.

Phil

[CFC]

Thanks for your answers guys.

Any input on the other questions? Sorry to be such a bore!

[wheels]

Sorry, previously frozen meat can be used - but fresh is preferable.

It is cured in the fridge.

HTH

[CFC]

and now I have another question!

I've just looked at the River Cottage website and there is a recipe for ham there without any curing salt at all in it - a recipe for cider cured ham.

Is there no consensus on how to cure ham safely and correctly? I'm getting more confused by the minute!

[wheels]

I prefer my ham with cure. They don't. I'm sure that mine is safe and assume that their's is also.

They have a very poor record for cure recipes; we don't. Their forum (Now defunct) used to be full of people complaining that their ham/bacon was too salty to the extent that it was almost inedible.

I believe that their recent offerings may be better but am not willing to risk good meat to find out.

Phil

[CFC]

Cheers Wheels.

A question about sausage casings. I bought some a couple of weeks ago and put what I didn't use in the fridge in a bag. Will they still be ok or do they have a 'shelf life' on them? I bought them from the butchers so they didnt' come with any dating info.

[wheels]

If they're stored in plenty of salt, they'll keep ages. I've had them long enough to sing happy birthday to them!

If they've been soaked, but not used, re-salt them, but use them for the next batch you make.

HTH

[CFC]

Cheers wheels, they aren't soaked and I can feel the salt on them so i guess they will be fine. Bit of moneysaving is always good