Dry curing meat.

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The slow cooker melts the collagen into the meat, the pressure cooker destroys it. Pretty much like difference in mincing meat to make mince and driving over it 3 times with a 5 ton truck wheel to make mince.

That makes sense. Probably works on the same principle as the one that prevents 9 pregnant women from being able to produce a baby in 1 month.

:o :o :o :o :o :o :o :o 8)

The hung ham was just too small at 1.1 kg abouts, it dried an outer case that was almost to the center. At 2 months it was biltong. Cody ate most of the core which was like less flavoured biltong, the rest was sliced as doggie treats.
I will try this again in winter with a larger piece of meat.

I in the meantime have made formed hams the formed hams were great, even if lacking in appearance.

Hi Treeman, any feedback on the meat, or new ideas and results to share with us?

Free range chicken looks and tastes much like guinea-fowl. Dark, rubbery meat with a "bloody" taste, similar to blesbuck.

Truly free range chickens are not easily consumed by average Joe, myself very included, they just taste so NOT what you used too. The term "it tastes funny" will be heard.

Tree, you must get your butt over to my side of town sometime again, I will tell you tales of limestone field tomatoes and hillside hams. Climates where chickens and legs of curing meat hang in cafe type shops, beautiful dry, firm chickens, so unlike the slimy dead things we buy cling wrapped from fridges.

I roasted a 'werf runner' chicken that I bought live from locals in the Transkei once. My professional city slicker mates who were on the trip with us couldn't believe that it was nominally the same species as a supermarket chicken. A genuinely free range chicken that eats mostly what it finds is as unlike a factory raised one as a bushpig is to a factory porker.

Tree, you must get your butt over to my side of town sometime again, I will tell you tales of limestone field tomatoes and hillside hams. Climates where chickens and legs of curing meat hang in cafe type shops, beautiful dry, firm chickens, so unlike the slimy dead things we buy cling wrapped from fridges.

How the acorn fed pigs taste so different to the grass fed pigs and the forest ranging like our farm goats pigs that evidently taste like heaven.

In the Cape there are descendents of European boars - feeding on long ago imported OAK TREES
There are a few farmers farming with them

And then they accidently introduced the Chineese shot-hole borer beetle and that is causing the end of the Oak trees in South Africa and the acorns and the pigs that fed on them. And I'm peeved off because you used to find such amazing porcini mushrooms and chicken of the woods on the trees, which are now dead.

How the acorn fed pigs taste so different to the grass fed pigs and the forest ranging like our farm goats pigs that evidently taste like heaven.

In the Cape there are descendents of European boars - feeding on long ago imported OAK TREES
There are a few farmers farming with them

Do you have any German or Danish friends ?
Know anyone in Namibia ?
THIS is very much their thing - smoking and processing of meat / pork
How many different types of sausages do you think one can make ?

I had ideas of a special dedicated temperature controlled meat smoking shed

Like less tasty wet biltong. Chewy.
Againstthegrain informed me that it will take some months for flavours to develop. He also said loss's will be higher, dry cut off related.

What will I then get from 1.4 KG which is now 900 gr bone in ????

Looking good. How does it taste?

My hung meat now since 10th December, looks like this.

20240106_171107 by David Frank Allen, on Flickr

I have a friend who has traveled/ lived in UK Spain, Italy, Turkey, Germany and the East Block. He was saying how the pork is so different in different places, so VERY different. From lean bodied meat animals to blocks of fat with some muscle in between the fat.
How the acorn fed pigs taste so different to the grass fed pigs and the forest ranging like our farm goats pigs that evidently taste like heaven.

I encourage you to support local farmers brave enough to raise pigs on rotated pasture with a bit of supplemental feeding. The meat is like it comes from a different species and tastes like heaven.

This is something I have been reading about - with the intention of trying to raise a few pigs like this. ( small scale for local consumption )
Do you have someone you know who is farming this way ?
I am on the look-out for any information / case studies / instruction videos

My hog shoulder has now hung 7 day, in a fridge set at 5.5 cel.
I called Cody and asked him what he thinks about my meat. " Whatch mean Daaad"
"Look at my meat, what you think so fa?"
,"oh! Ya looks alright, smells like that meat we buy"
"Ham roast cold meats?" _"ya, like that"
So 7 days later and not yet green.

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Who was it that said we are funny ????

Don't let this quote fall into the wrong hands or Cody may be taken away from you ;)

My hog shoulder has now hung 7 day, in a fridge set at 5.5 cel.
I called Cody and asked him what he thinks about my meat. " Whatch mean Daaad"
"Look at my meat, what you think so fa?"
,"oh! Ya looks alright, smells like that meat we buy"
"Ham roast cold meats?" _"ya, like that"
So 7 days later and not yet green.

Don't let this quote fall into the wrong hands or Cody may be taken away from you ;)

My hog shoulder has now hung 7 day, in a fridge set at 5.5 cel.
I called Cody and asked him what he thinks about my meat. " Whatch mean Daaad"
"Look at my meat, what you think so fa?"
,"oh! Ya looks alright, smells like that meat we buy"
"Ham roast cold meats?" _"ya, like that"
So 7 days later and not yet green.

You guys are funny ;D ;D ;D ;D

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Sad part is we were trying to be clever ::)

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The slow cooker melts the collagen into the meat, the pressure cooker destroys it. Pretty much like difference in mincing meat to make mince and driving over it 3 times with a 5 ton truck wheel to make mince.

That makes sense. Probably works on the same principle as the one that prevents 9 pregnant women from being able to produce a baby in 1 month.

You guys are funny ;D ;D ;D ;D

That book that you downloaded was pretty good in explaining the changes that meat goes through when processed.

*******************************
The slow cooker melts the collagen into the meat, the pressure cooker destroys it. Pretty much like difference in mincing meat to make mince and driving over it 3 times with a 5 ton truck wheel to make mince.

That makes sense. Probably works on the same principle as the one that prevents 9 pregnant women from being able to produce a baby in 1 month.

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Very funny but true factor.
I had a friend that did not believe in the law of averages. He would always pipe up - "So ! If you stood with one foot in a bucket of ice and the other in a bucket of coals, on average you would find the temperature bearable?"

*******************************
The slow cooker melts the collagen into the meat, the pressure cooker destroys it. Pretty much like difference in mincing meat to make mince and driving over it 3 times with a 5 ton truck wheel to make mince.

That makes sense. Probably works on the same principle as the one that prevents 9 pregnant women from being able to produce a baby in 1 month.

I prefer the slow cooker aka "prutpot" - overnight at 120 degrees.

For some reason, meat from pressure cookers tend to be more slimey m

I have exactly the same experience. Made 4kg of pork shanks in apple juice garlic and ginger like that. 120 degrees overnight and it was perfection. When I was convinced to try the same recipe in a pressure cooker because it would be so quick the texture was just off.

*******************************
The slow cooker melts the collagen into the meat, the pressure cooker destroys it. Pretty much like difference in mincing meat to make mince and driving over it 3 times with a 5 ton truck wheel to make mince.

I prefer the slow cooker aka "prutpot" - overnight at 120 degrees.

For some reason, meat from pressure cookers tend to be more slimey m

I have exactly the same experience. Made 4kg of pork shanks in apple juice garlic and ginger like that. 120 degrees overnight and it was perfection. When I was convinced to try the same recipe in a pressure cooker because it would be so quick the texture was just off.

I prefer the slow cooker aka "prutpot" - overnight at 120 degrees.

For some reason, meat from pressure cookers tend to be more slimey m

However, once in a while I get a warthog. We pickle and smoke the ribs. The front and rear quarters are deboned, then pickled. My mom makes an excellent pulled pork.

Yep, throw a W-Hog rib case in a pressure cooker with a sweet sticky marinade and it makes an amazing pulled pork.

I am more interested in the methods of bettering venison, I have not eaten pork in years.
I used pork fat recently in some sausage I made and now I do not want to eat it because the pig smell hits me before first bite.

That flavour/smell comes from the fact that the pigs are farmed intensely, and on a high growth diet. The diet is discordant with what is pig is meant to eat, being high calorie and lower in fiber. This alters the composition of the gut flora to organisms that produce large amounts of a compound called skatole: named from the Greek word "skata" which means shit. Hence skatole smells like shit, and an animal that produces lots if it in its gut, and walks in its own shit all day, the meat will have a poop smell to it.

I encourage you to support local farmers brave enough to raise pigs on rotated pasture with a bit of supplemental feeding. The meat is like it comes from a different species and tastes like heaven. Changed my mind completely about pork. Abattoir prices for factory pigs are around R40 per KG, but it costs about R60+ /kg to raise pork properly in fields, and is worth paying an honest farmer to produce it.

Curing some pork jowls to make into bacon...

Jowl bacon is the best. It is sad that most abattoirs don't understand this, and hack right through the cheek when they process the animal.

My father was an butcher, all my childhood years. Worked with him many a holiday, and learnt a little about the trade in that time.
What amazes me now in these modern times is how "just do it" things were done. There was this barrel that stood away to one side, filled with brine and meats, do not recall it being treated as special or a great thing, just there.
Salt and things were scooped and thrown in using a big sugar scoop, the water was topped up and I presume changed when I was not there. No temperature control, no mg, ml measurements, it was just done.

This answers one of my questions on brine.

We almost never eat pork, simply because of the health issue. However, once in a while I get a warthog. We pickle and smoke the ribs. The front and rear quarters are deboned, then pickled. My mom makes an excellent pulled pork.