[climber_grrl]

I think my DH is nuts and we're going to end up w/an awful, stinky, rodent-attracting mess.

DH is from North Carolina and is in love w/country ham, just like his grandaddy (yup, that's the way he says it) used to make it. So, before Christmas, we bought an ENTIRE pig leg (30+ lbs - it was too heavy for the scale to weigh it!). It's been sitting in a tub of salt for 3+ weeks. Tonight, he took it out of the salt, rubbed it w/black pepper, wrapped it in burlap (from the garden department of HD), and HUNG IT from the rafters of our detatched garage where it will hang for 1 year.

Has anyone actually made one of these things? Anyone have a relative in Smithfield, VA who can give us some guidance?

This Jewish, suburban-raised girl has got her doubts.

[kelly]

I was going to say...but that sounds like old fashioned salt curing to me- don't mess with that much salt...it'll cook 'ya chemically!

[DulcineaK]

darlin, i was laughin just by the title and it being you
never cured one, but i guess you can know a lot by answering one question: how long did grandpappy live?

[DesignDiva]

Alton Brown did a show on Country Ham vs. City Ham. Hopefully your husband used canning salt, not iodized salt, to cure, and it was kept in a cool place (fridge temperature) the whole time. Otherwise, he's doing it exactly right. It should hang in a cool, dry area for up to a year, minimum of six months. Proscuitto is made this way. Don't be suprised to find mold on the ham in a year, it's normal and you just scrape it off.

[drlith]

What she said. I've never made a country ham, but I've seen them hanging to cure, and if you're not prepared to eat a piece of meat that you have just scraped green mold off of, your DH better be prepared to be eating a lot of ham by himself (don't ask me why I have no problem with the thought of eating bleu cheese, but the thought of scraping mold off my meat rind is appalling.)

[DulcineaK]

is the garage in silverado going to stay cold enough? all year?

[climber_grrl]

Thanks for the Good Eats link. I hadn't seen that and I'm not sure if DH did.

We used the bags of salt sold for water softeners. Not sure what kind that is.

Yup. It's gonna be hanging for a year. It's definitely cool now, but come July, I'm not so sure.

Oh, and he's gonna eat 99% of it himself (or give it away as gifts ??!! ). I tried it once at a local southern foods restaurant and OOH BOY was that salty. He tells me it's an acquired taste. I'm thinking I never bothered to acquire the taste of coffee or alcohol so I probably won't for this either. Biggest clue - I don't eat bleu cheese (eww, it's moldy! ).

[DesignDiva]

Salt is salt...as long as it was nearly 100% sodium chloride and not some other chemical, it should be fine. The main differences between salts is the crystal formation. The iodine in iodized salt can be a problem, but softener salts shouldn't have that in it.