So glad we found these bags!

[Gina]

We have been toying with making parma hams & other cured meat goods for some time and stumbled across these bags when looking at recipes. So glad we did.

We have made several different cured meat products now. Lombo & Coppa. And we have also attempted some Parma Hams (procuitto).

So far the results have been excellent and we keenly await our Parma’s which have a few months yet to go.

Here is a snap of one of our latest Coppas – YUM!!!

And one of one of the Parmas. We did have to cut them in half to fit in the commercial bag size but thought that it was probably good to get more meat surface contact anyway. I did previously ask the forum if anyone else has had any experience with full pork legs (skin covered) but got no answer so we decided to trail blaze.

As you can see we have entered the world of dry curing with gusto. We have 4 more Parmas on our rack since this was taken (and a few less Coppas).

[Ron Pratt]

Gina – Welcome to the forum. Your pictures look amazing and the final picture is proof positive that you have jumped in with both feet. With so many already in process I have to ask do you plan to freeze some when done or gift some or sell some or just sit back and enjoy the fruits of your labor? Thanks for sharing your pictures as they are encouraging to others! Ron

[Gina]

Ron, so far the ones deemed ready have not lasted all that long! With Christmas coming up we are hoping that we will have enough Coppa to cover all needs 😉 After that we’ll probably freeze some and gift some…… taking it as it comes.

The reason for so much is basically that we purchased 2 whole pigs (in halves). It’s a bit cheaper per kilo and we have the facilities to make and store bacon, sausages and pork mince. The aim was always to try making some parmas but the rest was just an added bonus! The first batch of Coppa turned out so well that we dedicated most of the second pig to cured meats instead of sausages and bacon.

[Dave]

Your salumi looks absolutely amazing!

I am totally jealous of your refrigeration space. I need more.

The hams with the skin on look great too. I doubt your’s will be ready before I attempt some skin-on preparations, but have you noticed any differences thus far? Are you weighing them at regular intervals? What is your salt ratio?

I ordered a boneless green ham from a local organic, free-range farmer, but I don’t want to mess up a 9-12 month project.

Thanks for your input.

Dave

[Gina]

Only difference so far has been less bonding on the skin which we suspected might happen. Drying seems pretty fast though but we do have a cool room so we have very good air circulation. They look good but we did have to repack one half ham as the chamber vac sealer we have is JUST big enough and we had a bit or wrinkling and not a great seal on one bag. Others have been fine.

I’ll post the recipe and technique we used for the 2 different batches when I can get to them.

[Dave]

You mentioned a cool room with good air circulation. Are you drying at higher than refrigeration temps? More traditional temps of 55 or so with lots of humidity?

I so miss having a traditional midwestern basement living in the deep south.

[Gina]

We are in South Western Australia and today’s temp is 34 degrees C so cool room is an essential for doing any meat prep (plus the flies are a tragedy right now too :sick: ). It cycles between 2 and 5 degrees so equivalent to refrigeration temps but with not a lot of humidity. Not that we have measured the humidity though. Would be less than or equivalent to normal refrigerator I’d say.

Unfortunately we have no flexibility to increase the temperatures to what is generally recommended for curing, without changing the refrigeration unit and then we would not be able to hang carcasses to set etc. This was one of our main concerns when researching meat curing as inevitably it talks about hanging the hams at room (ish) temps – well ours would be 28 degrees C + on a good day.

Finding that the dry bags allowed dry curing at refrigerator temps has made all the difference.

Oh and we started weighing but were pretty tardy with that…. oops 🙂 It’s so easy to SEE the drying taking place that we were never really concerned about it although we had intended to measure final yields. To be honest they looked so good that much sampling took place before we realized that we should have reweighed and now since those great early results we have not worried.

[Author]

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