Home cured meats

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Wish me luck!

I've purchased a very large whole fresh ham and a whole pork loin. My project for the holidays is to make a home cured ham and home cured Canadian bacon.

Here are my two road maps.

www.dizzypigbbq.com/recipesHam.html


www.dizzypigbbq.com/recipesBacon.html

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Update: The Canadian Bacon is fantastic! I have a lot of it for $1.59 a pound. It's much better quality than you can purchase at the supermarket. The amount of effort involved is minimal. It's a little bit of prep work, gathering ingredients, and then waiting for the curing solution to do it's magic.

The fresh ham is still in the curing solution for two more days. Then I'll put it in the smoker and will let you know how that goes.

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

The ham came out fantastic. Amazing results for little effort.

[iamjumbo]

build yourself a smokehouse. there's a couple within a mile of me. the first time i saw smoke coming out of the barn i thought it was on fire, but, smoke was coming out of it for a week. you could do a year's supply in one of those

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Jumbo - My smokehouse is an inexpensive Masterbuilt electric smoker. Just plug it in to an electrical outlet and add a few wood chips hourly. Works great and the results are fantastic. Looks like a small refrigerator. Here is a link is.gd/jVMm2

[iamjumbo]

Jan 2, 2011 2:48:31 GMT DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) said:

Jumbo - My smokehouse is an inexpensive Masterbuilt electric smoker. Just plug it in to an electrical outlet and add a few wood chips hourly. Works great and the results are fantastic. Looks like a small refrigerator. Here is a link is.gd/jVMm2

that's cool, but it wouldn't work for a whole steer or hog

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

That's true Jumbo. Those are huge and would require a large smokehouse.

My experience with this project was that both turned out great. The Canadian Bacon was much easier because it was considerably smaller. It was easier to find a sealable plastic bag to contain the curing liquid. It took up less space in the refrigerator while curing.

Both the ham and Canadian bacon gave us equivalent quality meat. I think the bacon will become a regular at our house. The ham maybe an annual Christmas project.

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Based on phenomenal success with my home cured ham and Canadian bacon, I'm on to my next project which is home cured Pastrami. Wish me luck.

[june]

Jan 19, 2011 2:11:25 GMT DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) said:

Based on phenomenal success with my home cured ham and Canadian bacon, I'm on to my next project which is home cured Pastrami. Wish me luck.

Good luck and let us know the results!

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

My Pastrami came out great. I used this recipe www.lakestockton.com/read.php?56,80436

To replicate the classic NYC Jewish Delicatessen experience you would need an electric slicer to cut the brisket across the grain and extremely thin. I didn't have that but otherwise perfect.

We do have an outstanding Jewish delicatessen in Houston near my office. They sell Pastrami for $15.95 per pound. The brisket I bought to make it cost about $2.50 per pound. There is some shrinkage but making your own Pastrami is easy and saves a bundle of $$$$.

[pumpkinette]

Jan 25, 2011 1:25:02 GMT DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) said:

My Pastrami came out great. I used this recipe www.lakestockton.com/read.php?56,80436

To replicate the classic NYC Jewish Delicatessen experience you would need an electric slicer to cut the brisket across the grain and extremely thin. I didn't have that but otherwise perfect.

We do have an outstanding Jewish delicatessen in Houston near my office. They sell Pastrami for $15.95 per pound. The brisket I bought to make it cost about $2.50 per pound. There is some shrinkage but making your own Pastrami is easy and saves a bundle of $$$$.

Dear BushAdmirer, what's the name of this deli, please? I lived in Houston for 33 years and am always looking for Jewish delicatessens. Did you ever go to Alfred's in Houston? They were my favorite restaurant in the world. I hate that they closed...

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

Jan 25, 2011 17:36:15 GMT pumpkinette said:

Jan 25, 2011 1:25:02 GMT DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) said:

My Pastrami came out great. I used this recipe www.lakestockton.com/read.php?56,80436

To replicate the classic NYC Jewish Delicatessen experience you would need an electric slicer to cut the brisket across the grain and extremely thin. I didn't have that but otherwise perfect.

We do have an outstanding Jewish delicatessen in Houston near my office. They sell Pastrami for $15.95 per pound. The brisket I bought to make it cost about $2.50 per pound. There is some shrinkage but making your own Pastrami is easy and saves a bundle of $$$$.

Dear BushAdmirer, what's the name of this deli, please? I lived in Houston for 33 years and am always looking for Jewish delicatessens. Did you ever go to Alfred's in Houston? They were my favorite restaurant in the world. I hate that they closed...

I did go to Alfred's and it was quite good.

The deli I was referring to is Leibman's on Memorial Drive near Dairy Ashford on the west side of Houston. They've been in business for a long time but fire destroyed their old location a few years ago. They rebuilt a stand-alone building that is a very upscale gourmet products store, a deli, cheese shop, etc. They make the best sandwiches I've found in Houston. It's more of a ladies lunch format than one of the NYC Jewish deli's.

[iamjumbo]

Jan 25, 2011 1:25:02 GMT DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) said:

My Pastrami came out great. I used this recipe www.lakestockton.com/read.php?56,80436

To replicate the classic NYC Jewish Delicatessen experience you would need an electric slicer to cut the brisket across the grain and extremely thin. I didn't have that but otherwise perfect.

We do have an outstanding Jewish delicatessen in Houston near my office. They sell Pastrami for $15.95 per pound. The brisket I bought to make it cost about $2.50 per pound. There is some shrinkage but making your own Pastrami is easy and saves a bundle of $$$$.

even if you figure that it takes you six days to make it, making eight pounds for the price of one pound already made is the only intelligent way to go. of course, anyone who would pay sixteen bucks a pound for anything has more money than sense

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

It does take six days to make but only about fifteen minutes of actual preparation and the rest of the time is just waiting for the curing process to complete. Making your own pastrami is easy and saves a lot of $$$$$.

[iamjumbo]

Feb 5, 2011 3:33:08 GMT DAS (formerly BushAdmirer) said:

It does take six days to make but only about fifteen minutes of actual preparation and the rest of the time is just waiting for the curing process to complete. Making your own pastrami is easy and saves a lot of $$$$$.

in the end, it's not just cheaper, but probably better anyway. i doubt packers take six days to cure it

[DAS (formerly BushAdmirer)]

In my continuing quest for the best home cured meats, I found a fascinating article detailing the differences between British Rasher, Canadian, and U.S. Bacon. I'm going to try the British version.

Here is a link
thepauperedchef.com/node/529