Curing Tamworth Ham

My Cured Ham

Well, it was not exactly timed to perfection.  I hoped for a ready cured ham of lovely Tamworth by 26th December 2012.  I did not start it in time unfortunately, so today the 4th January 2013 is the day.

I mentioned recently that I cured some belly pork to make streaky bacon.  This was a huge success and majority of the credit has to go down to the fantastic pork supplied by Liz Shankland at Tudful Tamworths.

I can vouch for the quality of the Tamworth as I have recently cured some supermarket belly pork using the same cure mix bought from www.sausagemaking.org.

Now the cure is great, but the supermarket pork is not nice!  I don't think I have been spoilt, I think I have been shown just what poor taste the fast maturing intensely bred pigs produce. Its no fault of the pigs, it is what we have done due to demand for the cheapest meat ever available.

As you can tell, I am converted to eating quality pork, in fact any quality meat.

I genuinely do not want eat supermarket pork again and would only eat rare breed pork monthly to ensure I am eating a tasty meat and helping in the survival of a rare breed animal.  

So, back to the ham.  I decided to use the bacon cure on a join to try and produce a ham.  It is looking rather good and will be boiled in cider and then baked in the oven in the next day or so. 

I'm sure I will be eating like a king for a while!

Thanks for reading.