Prosciutto Tasting

Hanging after 5 months

I cured and hung half a leg of pork for prosciutto in early October last year. This has since been hanging in the room off the utility room where the dog sleeps. It was hanging over her bed which was possibly a little cruel but it was the coolest room in the house. The recipe I had used was for a full leg of pork so I had halved the salt, herbs, etc. but was unsure about halving the time for curing. The recipe said 4 - 6 months for a full leg, I left the half leg for about 5 months to be on the safe side. I have heard of prosciutto being hung for 2 years so I doubt it can be left for too long really.

The first slice

Despite everyone that saw it thinking I had wasted a leg of pork, I was hopeful that I had some good quality prosciutto. It might not look very appealing hanging up but any of the meats I had air dried before never looked much until they were sliced.


Once I had taken down the ham and untied it, I washed off the lard that I had put on the exposed flesh. Next I nervously pared off some of the rind which is inedible but apparently good to add to sauces and stews for depth of flavour.
It revealed a lovely deep red meaty interior. It was firm but with a little give, just what I had hoped for.


I then put the leg onto the meat slicer to get the wafer thin slices that are the best way to serve prosciutto. After a little tinkering with the settings I got the slices as thin as I could. This is one of the main reasons I bought the slicer and I am glad I did, the thin slices are excellent.

 I am very happy with the outcome of this. I will be keeping pigs again this year and without doubt will be doing this again. I will probably do a full leg this time around. I have probably about half of my half leg left. It should last a month in the fridge. I don't think any will last longer than that but it should also last a few months in the freezer. Maybe if I do a full leg next time around I will slice some for the freezer to make it last a bit longer.

Today I was building some more raised beds for the garden. I have also separated some chickens for breeding so I will be collecting eggs next week and probably setting the incubator next weekend. I will probably have a post about both of those in the next week.

Until Then

Homegrown vegetable stock mix

My 4 jars of vegetable stock mix

When making soups, stews, sauces etc. it is handy to be able to add a bit of stock to add more flavour. The stock cubes you buy in the shops are full of additives and preservatives, and it can be time consuming to make your own stock from scratch. This is where vegetable stock mix comes in. I first read about it in the "River Cottage Preserves Handbook." You use it pretty much the same way you would a stock cube, just add 2tsp of the mix to a pint of boiling water and you have a full flavoured vegetable stock.

Making the mix is very straightforward once you have a food processor or a blender. The ingredients for this mix are pretty flexible. I have chosen these because they are the vegetables we grew this year and I wanted to make it as homegrown as possible. You can use whatever vegetables are in season, on special in the supermarker or you have lying in the fridge. Just try to keep the veg to salt ratio about the same and you should be fine. The salt preserves the vegetables to stop them going off so if you increase the amount of veg increase the amount of salt proportionately. For my mix I used:

Some of my veg for the mix

250g of leek
200g of onion
200g of carrot
200g of turnip
100g of runner beans
A few sun dried tomatoes
A few cloves of garlic
A bunch of parsley, thyme and sage
250g of salt



The method for this recipe is simple. Roughly chop your selection of veg and put it into a food processor. Blend the veg until it is a grainy paste like consistency. I put in the veg in stages because it wouldn't all fit in at once.

From this

To this

Then add the salt and herbs to the mix and blend again until all thoroughly mixed and blended together. Then put this mix into sterilised jars. This should keep for 6 months in a cool dry place. I normally keep a one jar in the fridge and store the others at the back of the press somewhere. When using the mix, do so before seasoning, then taste the soup or sauce after adding it because there is a lot of salt in the mix and you usually don't need to season it any further.

This recipe is very easy to do and you probably only need to do it twice or three times a year to keep yourself in homemade stock that isn't full of artificial flavours and preservatives.