wellslomo
formulation for WELLSLOMO (spanish-style, air-dried loin ham)
ask your meat dealer for a complete eye of pork loin (nb cut long)
that central piece of meat from a chop or slice of bacon, you know the one
judge for yourself if any more fat or left-over cartilage/bone needs to be trimmed off (hard bits = bad for slicer/knife, fat = your call)
personally i chop it into two bits and don’t worry about a bit of the white
weigh your meat
you will nead precision scales (IMO) if you haven’t any let me know and i’ll adjust to graded spoon measurements
4% salt
3% sweetener (i use dextrose, you can use any type of ground sugar)
1% smoked paprika
0.2% cure#2 (optional, but will give you anti-bacterial, colour, further flavour and preservation qualities) available from sausagemaking.org – other premixed FULL COMPONENT cures are available from other places, but it’s more interesting to DIY
mix dry ingredients
in a lidded plastic box spread a little carpet for the loin/pieces to sit on
lay it/them down on the cure
put the rest evenly over the top/s
put in fridge
overhaul (turn over and baste with the brine you will find) every day or so (don’t stress) for AT LEAST 2 weeks
take out of fridge and give it/them a good wash
stuff it/them into an ox bung (natural casing, mainly used for haggis in scatland) and prick any annoying air-bubbles with a sterilised pointy thing
(ideally cold smoke for a few sessions)
wrap it tight & secure in muslin or stockinette (in fly season, if guaranteed no-fly-zone then don’t bother)
hang in a cool airy place for a month or two or three
this place must be away from flying, climbing, crawling and dribbling predators
judge safe readiness by a minimum weight loss of 33.3%
peel if you can, don’t worry too much
eat
wafferfin