Pork Update

Our two pigs, bless their souls, are now mostly confined to the freezer and after many good meals with the Christmas Crowds the estimated 200Kgs of meat is depleted to the extent that we have been able to decommission our smaller freezer and cope with only our larger 400Lt unit.

We do, however, have 2 meat products that are preserved by alternative means that freezing.

The first, which we started consuming over Christmas was our attempt at Salami and chorizo. Both of which have turned out to be very successful. It seems that whatever the cultures we used were, they have done their job. Both sausages are very dry and firm and could be described as "Authentically tasty". After couple of months hanging in the fridge they don't seem to be any worse for wear either.

Our other experiment in Dry curing is our enormous 14Kg "prosciuttio" ham. After a couple of months lying in salt under a substantial wieght, it was removed, rinsed, wrapped in a double layer of muslin and hung to dry in the basement in mid January. It will remain there until the outside temperature is rises above freezing when it will be moved outside into a windy spot. I think it should be ready after about another 4 months of hanging. What we are going to do with 14Kg of dry cured ham is another matter. I am quite sure however, that it will be put to use in Jamie Oliver's excellent "Beef fillet wrapped in porchini mushrooms and prosciutto ham" which, I am sure some of you readers will remember being served in various locations around the UK, including a castle in Morpeth......

I think the pictures speak for themselves. Again, the vast majority of our pig endeavors have been under the guidance of Hugh Fearnly Whittingstall through his excellent "River Cottage Cookbook" and "River Cottage Meat Cookbook".