Happy birthday BG! With all that zin looks like it's gonna be an all nighter! And CW where the heck did you study history? Ontario in a civil war? There was the Upper Canada Rebellion in 1837 but it was quickly suppressed by the British controlled government. We Canucks may occasionally fight over b...

CW I'm wondering if you will soon be posting further instructions for the next phase of the project. I'm leaning toward making the summer sausage and will have some time middle of next week. I am also planning to make a bit of Polish style sausage and would like to do everything at the same time sin...

I called butcher and packer today. He said they keep it at 30 below zero. They ship to us in a couple of days and to toss my bactoferm t-spx as it would be no good. Just a thought. Although it's possible, I doubt they keep their freezers running at 30 below or almost -35°C. In fact I would bet fift...

Redzed, Talk to me about those stockinettes your using in the photo. It looks like a different size for the ham and another for the picnics. I'm interested in getting some for small hams, picnics, and some 10# chubs of headcheese for support. I've been searching the net and there is a lot of stuff ...

Good job Jeff, looks very nice! I also think that the small holes would have disappeared if you would have given it a chance to dry out somewhat.

I am going to have to try the soak in brine approach. Those look so fine. I am patient enough to plan so far ahead that I could have them ready for a given future date. Hanging them in bags or nettingmakes them nice and neat looking and is much easier than tying them with turns every inch or less. ...

Ray, pumping the picnics will definitely lessen the brining time, by as much as half. It also depends on the size of the ham and degree of salinity. My brine was less than 30°, but I had pretty small cuts of meat in there and in retrospect, I should have added a bit more. My wife always complains ab...

Yeah that sure is a nice toy!. I sure would like to have one of those meters, but my wife would flip if she saw that I spent $375 for it. I guess I'll have to get one while she is not looking and then tell her I got it at Home Depot for $9.95. Testing with strips is a pain in the dupa, especially af...

Are you sure it did not say -17C (1.4F)?

Redzed, I'm interested in your picnics and how you do them. Is that the cut you purchased in the store, picnics? Did you wet cure them? I'm interested in learning your process as to how much brine was injected vs. green weight, how long they were smoked and what temps you used. I'd sure like some s...

Good stuff! You sure are well organized! Couple of questions. Do you have a Canadian supplier for the Bactoferm products and how do you check your ph?

Toda, I'm actually smoking a couple of small hams cut out of two picnics. I bought four of them, averaging 9-10lbs, hock on, for .99lb. I processed two and threw the other two into the freezer. In addition to the two small hams, I cut off the hocks for headcheese, got about 6 lbs of nice dark meat f...

Hey Ross good lookin' stuff. I'd eat one right now!

How are you dealing with the storm?

First of all you will probably be shocked at the price. It seems that pork bellies are becoming the most expensive cut off the pig. As Ross says it is a matter of preference as far as the skin. If you are buying it with the skin it should be a bit cheaper. Like Ross, I like to cure it with the skin ...

Hard to say, but I would think there should be no problem since you are already into your third week and as long as the humidity is stabilized. I have noticed that after a week or so when I added a product into my chamber, the humidity swings dissipated considerably. Are you running your humidity at...