Parma Ham

It's been 5 months since the boned ham started the curing process.... and nearly 4 months since it came out of the cure to start the air-drying process. It looks good, it smells good, would it taste good or would we die of botulism?! It was time to find out. The ham has lost over 30% of its weight in the drying process - on first impressions, the process has worked....
and my goodness, it does taste good!Our first attempt at making our own ham has been a resounding success. But that's an awful lot of ham to get through. Any takers?!

And more pig stuff

Busy day today, processing more of the meat from the 'cochon'. We had a 12kg ham...
...which we have started off in a serrano ham cure ...
...a second ham which has been tunnel-boned and now in a parma ham cure, the bacon/belly pork is also in a cure, the cheeks and jowel/chaps are in a 'guanciale' cure (no, I've no idea what that is either!), the head meat has been transformed into brawn...
... and the dog has very much enjoyed an ear!
We have had spare ribs for dinner this evening and very tasty they were too!

Porky products

We popped up to Patrick's to collect the half pig from his chiller cabinet this morning and weren't surprised to see a good sprinkling of snow on the high mountains after yesterday's rain and cold temperatures.....albeit a month later than the first snows last yearThe Gascon half pig weighed 44 kgsAndy sharpened his butchering knives...
...and within a couple of hours we had various cuts and joints safely stashed away in the freezer. We prepared some belly with a homemade cure which will give us bacon/poitrine salée in a week or two......made pork, apple, leek and rosemary sausages..... and some saucissonTomorrow, we will deal with the hams.

Reclaiming space and porky pig

We were awoken at 08h00 this morning by the delivery of our new fridge/freezer. Since we started work on the ground floor, the old under-counter fridge and separate freezer have been cluttering up the 'living' area so I had been looking forward to the arrival of the new f/f with anticipation. And even more so seeing as we are taking delivery of half of a Gascon pig's carcass which will need butchering and then freezing tomorrow. The old freezer is now settled in the upper barn and will soon be filled with porky products! I collected the offal this afternoon and Andy has already made a lovely big terrine of paté using the liver and heart.

Today is also our neighbour, Claudine's birthday, so we made her a scrummy chocolate and ginger cake this morning and were invited round for cake and Champagne late afternoon.... which was jolly nice!

We have had torrential rain and low temperatures today which means snow on the mountains. We will have to wait until tomorrow to see just how much! Winter is on its way.