Dry Curing Pork and Sausage Making

We decided on a cure for our home reared, free range, rare breed pork meat. For five nights in a row we brought out the slabs of pork and rubbed the juniper berry, black pepper, bay leaf and brown sugar salt cure into it. Three pigs equals a lot of salt rubbing, but it also means an awful lot of bacon rashers for breakfast! Luckily, I'm happy to report, its all worth it. Its all so definitely worth it. The flavour of the cure, the texture of the pork, the sheer deliciousness of it all, and it all feels so good because our pigs lived exceedingly happy lives foraging free range in our woodland. Hard work that I would not have perceived beforehand, but yes, we will do it again.

The dry salt cures, slicing the bacon, and choosing the hams for baking, and two for air curing, was only the start of it! We also managed to make ourselves sausages. Not satisfied with plain sausage, we decided to try a variety of mixes ... we did batches of each ... white pepper, rosemary and garlic, lemon and oregano, apple and cranberry, apricot and pine nut. The butcher ground the meat for us and we added the flavourings to each batch. Not doing things by halves, we also decided to use 'natural hog casings' (yes, pig intestine, well you may as well not waste it) ... it comes in 90 meter lengths (don't think about that too much!) and, not altogether surprisingly, has an odd odour!

The sausage making machine is a silver beauty, cast iron, she weighs an absolute ton and is manually operated. Dan loves her, I'm jelous! Being 8 stone I failed to reach the criteria necessary to operate the machine plunger, so I had the glamorous task of placing the casings onto the nozzle, and putting in the twist between each sausage. Six hours later, we had 20 kilos of sausage and a man with a very tired arm (avoiding obvious joke).

The bible we worked from was of course The River Cottage Cook Book, by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. I've since been recommended another charcuterie book which may end up in my Christmas stocking, with any luck ... its called Charcuterie & French Pork Cookery, by Jane Grigson. Next time we are hoping to make our own air cured sausages.

If I had to give anyone advice setting out on the pork processing adventure for the first time ... it would be, if at all possible, to start early in the day. We started making sausages at 9pm after the children went to bed, and finished up at 3am. Its not something we would do with children around though, as keeping a high level of hygiene in an active kitchen with young kids about, and raw meat covering the table, would be challenging. The job also requires a lot of energy, attention, and production line co-operation ... its tiring, its fun and hugely rewarding.

Comments

[Henriette]

Sounds so yummi :-D
We make our own veal/young beef sausages as well
- due to the fact that my stephdad is allergic to pork meat.( pork fat and casings are fine)
Last time we used lamb casings- they were really hard to fill compaired to the pork ones- but made lovely small sausages.

My 13 yo daughter is really good at helping -our machine works a bit different than yours- so a kid can use it - but normally she makes the sausages.

It is true that it is NOT a work to do late at night :-D

[Wild Rose]

How wonderful. I would love to try your sausages and hams, they sound delicious.

It seems to be impossible to buy sausage, ham or bacon here that has not been smoked as they seem to smoke everything. How I miss beautiful ham, gammon and sausage!

Marie x

[lyssa]

How will the meats that you are making now be stored? Everything looks fantastic, by the way.

[Moonwaves]

It does sound like hard work. But the kind of work that's really, really worth it!

[Rebecca (living sustainably in rural Ireland)]

Hi Lyssa, The meat is being kept in the freezer. The hams will keep for 3 months. The bacon will keep a little longer, but I think it will all be eaten before that time!
We also have two hams which are air curing. They are hanging up in our wood shed, I'll post photos of them soon and a little more info.

Hi Maire ... I hate smoked meat too. However I am partial to a bit of smoked salmon now and then!

[Maddy]

I applaud you, bravo. You’re an inspiration to all of us and I hope you enjoy every bite of those delicious looking sausages and the bountiful bacon.

[C4G]

I really admire what you do for yourselves there. It is something I wish I had the money to do. I enjoy reading your adventures in your self-sustainable environment. Keep posting!

[Barbara C.]

...and did you blow up the "bladder" for a "ball". I read the first chapter of "Little House in the Big Woods" to my gd and it was all about the pig (yikes) slaughter.
Barbara C.

[Angora]

That is a fab job.....well done the both of you. Great achievement. Whens the party?
I love the idea of the sausages with whatever you want to put in it, not what some supermarket has decided is good for you. What will you do next?