Cured Pork Loin - "Kasseler Ham"

[LM600]

Here's how I make 'ham', technically it's cured and smoked pork loin also known as Kasseler Ham.

Once the meat has cured I'll soak it to remove any excess curing salt then cold smoke it over hickory for 12hrs, rest for 12hrs, smoke for 12hrs and repeat for 5 days.

To cook it I usually just wrap each piece in baking paper and tinfoil and sling 'em in the oven for 1hr or so at 160°C.

Leave overnight to cool, unwrap and slice......the liquid that comes out during cooking/resting I save and use as a flavouring for soups etc.

 

[DivotMaker]

Details, details, lad!  What type of cure - just #2 curing salt?  How long for the cure?  Have you ever done this with a wet cure?  Looks great!  I've done Canadian bacon out of pork loin with a 12-day wet curing brine, then slow smoked to fully-cooked, but this looks intriguing!

 

[LM600]

Yeah, that was me being tardy!

Here's what I do....

Weigh out the pork loin, this was 4.6kgs.

Weigh out the cure, I use a product called "Supracure" which is ordinary table salt premixed with 0.6% of sodium nitrite.
I weigh out the cure at a usage rate of 5% to the weight of the meat so in this example I needed 230g of cure, I got 232g on the non calibrated kitchen scales.

I then cut the loin into three, just so it would fit in the Tupperwares I have, if you have a lidded container that will take the whole thing then use that but make sure it'll fit in your fridge and your smoker.

I rub about a third of the cure into the pork loin pieces and put them in the Tupperwares, lid on and into the fridge they go for 24hrs.

The next day, I remove the loins from the fridge, drain off the liquid and apply some more cure to them, lids back on and back into the fridge for another 24hrs.

I keep repeating the step above until all the cure has been used up (3-5 days) and there is no more liquid coming out of the loins (about 5 days).

I leave to cure for 10 days in total, this produces a very cured product but you can get away with using it as soon as no more liquid is coming out of the loins.

Once cured, I soak for 24hrs in fresh, cold water - I change the water every few hours as I remember to.

After soaking I dry the loins with some paper towels, place on a baking tray and put them back in the fridge for 24hrs so the pellicle can form.

Now comes the fun part....cold smoking these bad boys!

I use my Heath Robinson metal mesh sieve cold smoke generator and mainly hickory sawdust. Fill the CSG, light it and let it smoulder.....I get 6-8hrs from one load, so I'll light it before I go to bed and reload and relight in the morning.

When I get in from work, I remove the loins from the smoker, put them in Tupperwares and fridge them overnight.

The next morning I put them back on the smoker and smoke for another 12hrs repeating this smoke/rest/smoke protocol for 5 days or 60hrs of cold smoke.

They can now be sliced for Canadian style bacon, cut into bacon steaks or cooked into ham. i just wrap them individually in baking paper and tinfoil and put into the oven at 150°C for about an hour.

Leave to cool in their juices overnight and then slice for ham sarnies.

This produces a highly smoked, highly cured ham which I like.