Where to get meat for curing?

[andrewgale]

I have recently decided I would like to try and dry cure some ham, but I have no idea where to get the meat to start with. Im asuming you cant use your usual shop bought meat as is is already cured (to some effect) and my local butcher isnt being to helpful. Id be greatful of any advice you could share with me.

[aris]

The fresher, the better. That tends to exclude supermarkets.

[Oddley]

Welcome to the forum andrewgale.

I wouldn't be surprised if your butcher knows very little about dry curing. But all the information you could want has already been posted on the forum.

If you have any specific questions please post them and somebody will answer you.

To get you started. Fresh meat should have had no curing already done to it. So a nice fresh pork leg will produce with some curing agents and time a good ham.

[othmar]

I have recently decided I would like to try and dry cure some ham, but I have no idea where to get the meat to start with. Im asuming you cant use your usual shop bought meat as is is already cured (to some effect) and my local butcher isnt being to helpful. Id be greatful of any advice you could share with me.

If your local butcher is not very helpful in your quest to get a leg of fresh pork, then try to find a another one. I would try to find a pork processing place or even a slaughterhouse that processes their own pork. Many "local butchers" are not butchers in the real sense but rather meat retailers. Meaning they have never learned how to process and cure meat or even how to make sausages.
If you are new to this way of making your own food then it can be a bit hard, but once you established your sources you are in "business".
Good luck and welcome here in the forum. Feel free to ask questions and for help that is what we are here for.

Sicerely
Othmar

[sausagemaker]

Aris wrote

The fresher, the better. That tends to exclude supermarkets.

Whilst I am not a fan of the supermarket I think you will find because of the speed & amount that they shift it will be a lot fresher than your average butcher & the quality will be as good if not better.
The hoops you have to jump through to supply the supermarkets are more stringent than supplying Joe bloggs the butcher.

regards
Sausagemaker

[aris]

I'm sure you can get fresh supplies from a supermarket, but you never really know what you're going to get. At least with the butcher, you an ask him how fresh the item is. With my butcher I know he can reliably tell me when the animal was slaugtered - something you can't really get in the supermarket.

That's not to say I don't shop at the supermarket. Tesco are doing bonless skinless shoulder with a good amount of fat perfect for sausages for �1.22 per lb.

[Platypus]

Ignoring the ethical/animal welfare issues for the moment, I would agree that supermarket value meats are fine for things like sausages (where they will be quite heavily seasoned) but would always go for a top quality leg of extensivly reared old breed "baconer" when making ham, especially if it is a Parma style and will be eaten raw.

[Platypus]

Ooops, forgot to answer the original question!

Try the River Cottage forum on http://forum.rivercottage.net/index.php there are lots of people there who will help you find a supplier near to you, some of the forum members even keep thier own pigs and often offer whole/half pigs etc at very reasonable prices.

[othmar]

I have to agree with sausagemaker. The meat in the super stores is very fresh. Today I slaughterd 15 bulls, by tomorrow morning 10 of them will be on the way to the super store, boned out and pre-packed and on saturday they will be in the meat counter. 4 of the bulls will go to local butchers in five days as medium aged and one I will keep for myself and he will be aged for 20 days and then will be processed into top aged steaks for two local steak houses.
While the costumer in the super store will pay $4.98 per lb. steaks. The local butcher costumer will pay double that amout and the steak house costumer will pay almost four times that for the same steak cut.
While the butchers and steak house costumers are perfectly happy to pay that price the super strore costumer would think of it as "outrageous".
This brings me to the point. You get what you pay for it, and that goes for sausages too, and super store costumers want it cheap and cheap they get it, but do make a price like that the sausage meat has to be "stretched". The meat has to be fresh, storing meat for even the appropriate time is to expensive in terms of electric, labour, and all other costs that have to be calculated.
Somethinhg in this dicusion has flown right over my head. What do you mean with the meat being "spiced"? Super stores do not spice meat unless they make pre-spiced steaks and other ready to cook meat products.
If you want top quality meat that also answes the "ethical" question, what ever that means, then your best choice is to find a farmer that raises pigs the "natural" or "organic" way, buy these pigs and have have them costume slaughterd. You will pay a big price for it but the quality can not be beaten.
You see it all boils down to one single fact which is, "What are you wiling to pay?"

Regards
Othmar

[Twoscoops]

Hi Othmar,

Sounds like your superstore has a good beef supplier! The trouble is that, as you have said, supermarket meat is slaughtered, butchered and sweating in a plastic box 36 hours after the beast was breathing � that is fresh, but does it do the beast justice? I don�t think it does, and I reckon you think the same judging by the fact that you will be ageing it for yourself.

Back to the original post: If your local butcher isn�t interested then find another one who is. You may have to go a little further but you will eventually find a butcher who cares about where his meat comes from, will take pride and delight in using his (or her!) butchering skills in preparing unusual or traditional cuts for you, will age meat longer if you ask them to and will also take an interest in what you are doing. I buy a fair bit of meat direct from farmers, but on the few occasions I do go into my local butcher�s shop he is always pleased to hear about the curing and cooking that I do, to the extent that he will usually bung me something for nothing, such as pork back fat for salami or a few bones for stock. Low cost to him but high value to me.

[othmar]

Hi Twoscoops,

Exactly my point. As a costumer you have a choice, sometimes you have to make the rounds a bit but at the end you will find what you want.

Regards
Othmar