Prosciutto- 2012

Prosciutto is made from either a pig's or a wild boar's ham (hind leg or thigh). The process of making prosciutto can take anywhere from nine months to two years.  Prosciutto is the Italian word for “ham,” although most consumers outside of Italy associate prosciutto with a specific type of cure for ham. To make prosciutto, ham is salted and then air dried for a period of up to two years. Within Italy, the term is generic for a specific cut of meat. The food which non-Italians call prosciutto is formally called prosciutto crudo, or “raw ham,” because it is never actually cooked during the curing process. Prosciutto cotto, “cooked ham,” is similar to the dish which non-Italians think of as “ham.” Different prosciutto is also individually identified by processor and origin, and some regions of Italy have a Protected Designation of Origin, as is the case with Parma. In order to be labeled “Parma ham,” the meat must be processed in a certain way, using the flesh of pigs fed from the curds and whey left over after making Parma cheese, or Parmesan.

Project Participants:  Me, My Dad and Blair

I always wanted to make a prosciutto but was nervous about the drying time since it takes a year to make.  Lucky for me I found out about a prosciutto making class at a Sons of Italy club in Pittsburgh.

With a day to spare I was able to get into the class and learn the how to make a prosciutto. What is nice about this class is we actually go back three times, once for the craving and curing step, then for the hanging prep stage and lastly for the de-boning process. 

The first step is too delicately remove the aitch bone and trim the leg into the shape of a mandolin.  You also want to remove any sliver skin and fat, exposing a nice lean surface.  Below is a picture of the ham before and after its trimmed.

After the ham is trimmed its important to massage any remaining blood in the arteries, there are several arteries the run on each side of the aitch bone.  The next step is to salt the ham. In this class we used Morton sugar cure. Next time I am going to make a cure that consist of 60% kosher salt, 40% sugar and Cure#2, which is weight out to 1 teaspoon per 5lbs of ham.  You use 4% of the cure per lbs of ham. In this class we used 2 teaspoons per pound.  We had a 25lbs ham after it was trimmed.  Below is a picture of the ham in a bus pan with a wire rack underneath it to keep it off the liquid. The salt will pull moisture out of the ham, that’s why it’s important to have the ham slightly slanted.

The cure is applied in three phases. We broke the bag of cure into three parts. Salting day1, day7 and day 14. The prosciutto will cure for three weeks at 38-40%.  After the 3 weeks we will began the pressing process, which will shape the prosciutto and helps draw out excess moisture.  Below is a picture of the press I made. We will place about 30-50lbs on the press for 1day per lbs of meat, so 25 day in my case.

After pressing we will began the hanging prep. I will post updates periodically, since this process takes about a year to finish.

**update** 2/23/2012  Just started to press the prosciutto tonight. It should be done pressing on 3/17/2012. I we will go back to the Sons of itlay in glassport to prep then prosiutto for hanging.