Prosciutto Ham

Prosciutto Ham is aged cured.

Hi,

Making prosciutto is quite an involved process. I copied this off a supplier of high quality italian products that I use.
http://www.esperya.com/usa/

"Regulations stipulate the breed of pig to be used and how it is to be reared and fed to provide material for these exquisite hams. After slaughtering the pig, the thigh is kept in cold storerooms to harden the meat. It is pressed, cleaned, stripped of excess fat and salted. Salt preserves the meat, but since sweetness is highly valued, the secret is knowing just how much salt to use for just how long. The meat is now ready to be aged. Prosciutto di Parma is air dried for an average of 14 months."


Rob

I knew making itwas fairly involved. I guess I am looking at attempting to come close to the real thing.

This may be one of those things like making homemade wine that can compete with some of the decent wines you buy at a store. The problem I find with this, is you get a close as you can and then realize that what you made is good, but it is a lot easier to go to the store and buy it.

Don,

Never heard a Q man who said it couldn't be done. If you want to try, I'm sure there are some out there willing to learn from your experiment. There's some smart HAM people out there, maybe we can adapt some ideas for you.

Nope, haven't heard that question before here. Seen it elsewhere, but haven't heard of a simple answer (which is want you want).

Here are a couple of links.

You can probably read these and distill them down to a few basic steps (these links talk about the process overall) but you'll probably have to figure out the process. Smokin' won't be the hard part, but waiting 12 months or more in a controlled environment will be your problem.

Give these a read and let me know. Be happy to help solve this.

History

Comparing Southern Hams to Prosciutto

How it's made

Simple? steps

Proscuitto de Parma

Hope it helps some.

Smokin'

It looks from Smokin's good info that the taste of the prosciutto comes from salt and time, not smoke. It doesn't sound like you could replicate that taste in a CS.

Smokin'

Thanks for the info, it really helped. Living in Florida, hanging in a "cool, dry" location for any amount of time will be the biggest challenge.

I will have to give this some thought and see how I want to proceed.

Don