Pulled the loin out of the cure 2 days ago. All in all a 12 day cure. Bagged it and it's not hanging in my back fridge with a make shift hanger that I put together with some self tapping screws and a wooden dowel. Works nicely. http://cdn.smokingmeatforums.com/4/4a/900x900px-LL-4ad0aee6_20150204_193...

So I know one of the main differences between one of these country hams and procsuitto is spicing and that the country ham is smoked (right?). But other than this, are there any other differences? Like different methods of curing or drying? Different suggested temps or RH?

Steve,

Thanks for the confirmation and reassurance. I've got a couple things curing at the moment, so once I've got more room in the fridge, I'll be starting on of these.

Could you make something similar to this using a fresh ham from the market?

Cant you guys get pork butts? Just remove the Coppa muscle and use the rest for sausage. http://curedmeats.blogspot.com/2007/10/coppa-butchery-how-to-harvest-one.html [url=http://i1289.photobucket.com/albums/b512/bobkarchery/57206ec7-7c3e-4bc1-a4e2-a570db434312_zps2a2124a8.jpg]Image [/URL] I sure c...

That's what I was thinking they were. Aldi has them on sale right now for $1.99 a lb....maybe I'll have to pick a couple up and give this a go.

Devo,

Those really do look good. So for these, did you actually order a Coppa cut from the butcher or what was used? What was put on the exterior of it before it was bagged?

Red, the bag has a good amount of juices from the orange and loin hanging around in it right now. It's looking good so far and I do think I'm going to open it up and toss some minced garlic into the bag. I might toast some fennel and grind it up and give the loin a light dusting before I seal it in ...

Me too Devo. I actually tried a dried loin a few months back, but it got away from me and it got forgotten about (don't ask me how). Once I actually pulled it up stairs from the basement, it was way over dried, but I sliced off a piece and it had real good flavor. I'm looking forward to this.

Inspired by Red's Orange Lonzino, I started my own last night. Starting weight of the loin is 1716 g. Spice mix is very simple with 2.75% sea salt and .25% Cure #2. I cut up about 8 naval oranges, squeezed about half of their juice into the bag, and put all of them (the squeezed ones too) into the b...

Is this something closer to the exterior texture you are looking for? http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/362869/width/500/height/1000/flags/LL http://www.smokingmeatforums.com/content/type/61/id/362870/width/500/height/1000/flags/LL For these, I dried at 100 for 2 hours and then smo...

Thanks Bob. This will the 2nd one and it's been a ride to say the least with the 1st. So we're looking forward to it. I've never used actual back fat for any of my stuff. I don't have a butcher locally that I can get it from and I'm not about to order that online. For these 2 recipes, I simply bough...

Devo wrote:As a rule of thumb for these 32mm bags I find they loose about 2-3 % every 24-30 hours. Not sure on the 50mm ones yet as I have not started anything with them yet.

I definitely doesn't seem to be that case with the 50mm ones I'm using. I'm seeing that percentage drop in usually 2-3 days time.

Thanks Devo. I feel like I'm getting better at "knowing" where they are at by squeezing them. It's definitely different than the Soppressata. The meat came from the same shoulder and the same amount of liquid was used with the culture in both recipes. I know it's safe to eat so that good seeing as I...

Well I'm on my last of 4 logs of the Soppressata and it's still in the bag in the fridge. It's gonna sit there until the wife is ok with trying it. She's having our 2nd child next and my parents will be up, so we're opening after the hospital stay. This stuff is good and I'll be making the exact rec...