Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with curing

A Preemptive SIET.

youarenothere — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 10:14:31 -0800

Will I kill myself making duck prosciutto in a Philadelphia July? I've just received my copy of Ruhlman's Charcuterie and I'd love for my first project to be duck prosciutto/ham. While I have no basement to speak of, I do have a closet that I use for ferments that require a "cool, dark place." Will it be cool/dark enough for curing a couple of duck breasts, however? Ruhlman suggests an ideal temperature of 50 to 60 degrees; my apartment has no air conditioning to speak of, but the closet doesn't approach the temperature in the rest of the house. I've done a number of fermentation projects and am not adverse to cutting off mold or the like, but this will be my first meat cure and I'd like to be safe in the midst of this hot and humid Philadelphia summer.

Extra Credit: What's this I hear about curing in the refrigerator?

Why is ham pork and not not pork?

Foam Pants — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 23:12:15 -0800

Why is ham a pork thing? Are other meats preserved in this way around the world? I was baking a ham today and was asking myself, why ham? You have country hams, you got city hams... ham, ham ham! *wacks ham in the nose with football* Why don't we have Hillshire Farms lamb ham? Or beef ham? I don't mean that turkey stuff that tastes like ham, I mean actual legs of animals salted, smoked, and hung up like traditional country ham. Is there something about the hog that makes it ideal for preserving in this way? Would you consider dried beef, salt cod, corned beef, etc. to be ham like?

The other white meat.

zardoz — Mon, 31 Jul 2006 17:45:16 -0800

I have a question about bacon. And sausage. I currently live in Japan, and the bacon here is...well...different. Try to fry it like American bacon and it just sort of scorches--it's more like regular ham in that respect. The sausage here too is strange, like hot dogs but not as good (if that's even possible). But it's not just Japan... Once I hopped to Vancouver and the sausage there was a little weird--yellowish with an almost gamey taste. The bacon was strange as well (and it was different from the "Canadian bacon" Americans get on pizza.) Years ago in the States, I made some Jimmy Dean sausage links for a British friend, who had to muster the courage to eat them, saying they looked shriveled up and dry (but changed his mind completely upon trying one).

So why all this disparity with pork products? It's all from the same animal, so what is the difference in the curing process? Anyone eat any really weird pork in a foreign country?

Quick-curing firewood

terrapin — Tue, 25 Jan 2005 13:09:59 -0800

Our next door neighbor offered to split the cost of a cord of wood with us, and we agreed. However, it ends up our neighbor bought wood that is not quite cured yet. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might speed up the curing process? Is this even possible?