# Pork shelf life



## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

I was talking with the guy at the feed store and he said that pork doesn't keep as long as beef.

Is that true?


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

hmmm....I've got a country ham hanging in my pantry that's been there for 2 years. It seems fine.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

When you say "shelf" life, are you talking of canned pork on the pantry shelf? Or just keeping in the freezer?


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

Just freezing it.

Is that ham canned?


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

Sally, did you cure that ham yourself?? If so, I'd love to know your process, if you don't mind sharing.


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## BlackFeather (Jun 17, 2014)

Maybe it doesn't keep as long because he likes it and it gets eaten first.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

fishhead said:


> Just freezing it.
> 
> Is that ham canned?


It's a country ham. Are you familiar with those?

Calliemoonbeam, no I didn't do it myself. It's a ham from Kentucky, brand name Penn's. We have a friend in Kentucky that brings us one when he visits.


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

Ahh, okay. Lucky you! I haven't had a "real" country ham in ages, am researching how to cure one myself right now. Thanks!


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## Terri in WV (May 10, 2002)

Penn's sausage is really good too! I'm about 20 miles from them.


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## Wendy (May 10, 2002)

I have had sausage that was 3 years old that got lost in the freezer & it tasted just fine.


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

Calliemoonbeam, here ya go!

http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/458/458-223/458-223.html


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

Thanks Sally! I saved it to a Word file and also printed it out.


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## trmeyer (Aug 7, 2014)

Cured meats don't generally last as long in the freezer. My husband works in an old fashioned butcher shop and they don't keep any cured items past 6 months. It's not that they go bad, the cure just sometimes gets a funny taste. The fresh stuff lasts longer. 

Also I am the county wide 4H country cured ham leader. I could write out our recipe and instructions for curing your own old fashioned salt cured ham if there is interest. It might be a few days before I get it done but can do that. 

Tracy M


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

I don't know about anyone else, but I'd love that Tracy, thanks!


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## TnAndy (Sep 15, 2005)

We raise a couple pigs per year because in a year, last year's is gone.


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

What's a country ham?


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## trmeyer (Aug 7, 2014)

I just seen the post above with the link to the virginia extension directions. We do it basically the same way. With a few exceptions. 


First you will need a cotton bed sheet about 3 foot by 3 foot. Then a ham sock or a stockingnette. I'm not sure where other people would get these, but we get them from the butcher shop that my husband works at and helps with the ham project. It is just a plastic mesh bag like onions come in. But bigger and stretchy. 


This is the recipe we use. Not many people will be doing 100 pounds of ham so I have a recipe to do a 25 to 30 pound ham. 

2.25 cups of salt (we use non iodized salt)
1 cup brown sugar
4 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp red pepper
3.5 tsp potassium nitrate (salt peter)

We get the salt peter from a pharmacy. Most don't stock it but will order it for you. You will get a bottle that will last you forever. Because you don't use that much. 

If you have a ham that is bigger than 30 pounds or way smaller than 25 pounds, we have figured out that you need 1.25 ounces (by weight) of the total cure mixture per pound of ham. 

Mix up the cure very well. We use our hands (if you don't have any scratches or cuts, if so, wear gloves) to be sure to get all the salt and sugar mixed up. Take a 3 foot by 3 foot section of a cotton bed sheet and lay it on your work surface like a diamond and lay the ham on it. With the side up that has the skin and meaty part, not just the skin, (if that makes sense), and start rubbing the salt cure all over the ham. Scoop it up with your hand and put it on the ham. Make sure all the flesh part of the ham is covered with cure. Put some on the end of the hock to make sure that the cut end has cure on it. Don't pack it in the hock or it can keep it from draining correctly. Rub cure on the butt end of the ham. Turn the ham over and rub some on the skin and then turn the ham back over. Dump any extra cure that you have back onto the ham. There will be a lot of loose cure around. Take the bottom of the sheet and bring it up around the butt of the ham. (if you are going to show the ham, try to make sure there are very few wrinkles in the sheet, as any wrinkles in the sheet, makes wrinkles in the ham. Take a side of the sheet and wrap it around the ham, tucking the sheet in and making a nice strong tight bundle. Do the other side of the sheet and the top part too. Now, put it in a stockinette or ham sock hock side down. Make sure it is nice and snug in your sock. Tie at the top and hang in a cold place. Like an unheated garage or shed or outbuilding. The freezing and thawing action helps the ham pull in the salt in the cure. Be sure to put it somewhere that it can drip or put something under it. It will lose a lot of moisture. 

We do our hams in either December or the beginning of January. We pull them down in about April in the middle of the month to clean them (if you want to, it's not necessary). You can clean them with water and scrub the cure off or you can just use a dry scrub brush and dry brush the cure off. Rewrap in a clean sheet. Put back in the ham sock. Now you want to hang it is a spot that gets as hot as possible. This is the drying part. If you have a building with a metal roof or an attic of a house hang it in there as close to the roof as possible. So it gets as much heat as possible. We then bring them down at the end of July to either clean up and show or clean up and smoke them. 

We have eaten hams that were from two to three years prior. You just lose more of it because you cut the hardened skin off to get to the softer part of the ham. 

All during the process when the ham is hanging, check on it to look for bug or rodent damage. Something we have done in the past is take a roll of screen and wrap it around the ham very loosely. Just so any mice couldn't come and chew on it. Also to keep bugs off we have used bug spray to spray the rope the ham hangs from but not the ham. Our county used to allow people to use Borax on the outside of the sheet to deter bugs but that is no longer allowed by the FDA and I just wouldn't do it at all. It's really an easy project and if you aren't worried about showing it, it is even easier since you don't have to worry about how nice it looks. 

Also when you pull it down to clean it either in April or when you want to smoke it, there will be mold on the outside of it. Just scrub it off. If you hang it for storage, there will be mold on it. I wouldn't hang it for long term storage in the sheet. Just in the mesh bag so it gets more air to it. The mold doesn't hurt anything and washes or cuts off. 

I didn't like the flavor of the ham for a long time. My daughter has been doing this project way longer than I have been the leader. It is growing on me. My husband slices it and bakes it in either Dr. Pepper or black cherry cola soda. It really makes a difference in the taste. We don't soak it in water before baking or anything. Just trim off the dried out pieces of the ham. I hope this makes a little sense and helps someone knowing how real people do it. LOL! Or at least some real people. Our group does about 45-65 hams a year depending on how many are in the project. 

If you have any other questions, just ask away and I will try to answer them. 

Tracy


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

fishhead said:


> What's a country ham?


There are country hams and city hams (no joke!).

A country ham is a cured ham, as Tracy has posted. (Thanks, Tracy)

A city ham is one that is what people outside of the southern states get at their grocery. It has some salt water injected into it and maybe zipped through a smoker, but you can't leave it hanging in your pantry because it will spoil. With a country ham, most of the liquid in the meat has been removed due to the action of the salt and that is what keeps it from spoiling. Some sausages are done in a similiar fashion.

Here is a good article on country hams.

http://www.cookingissues.com/2010/10/28/country-ham-fantastica-our-hams-place-in-the-world/


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## calliemoonbeam (Aug 7, 2007)

That looks great Tracy, thanks so much for typing all that out! I never thought I'd be "diapering" a ham, but that's kind of what it sounds like, ROFL! 

Thanks again Sally, that looks like another great article!

Ohhh, I haven't had a country ham in ages, my mouth is watering! I just wish I'd found this out in time to do one for Christmas, lol. Oh well, there's always next year, but I'll have to do at least one before then to "test" it, you know? Maybe two just for good measure!


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## fishhead (Jul 19, 2006)

So if I have this right you cover it in cure in December and it hangs unrefrigerated so it can freeze and thaw until spring when you place it somewhere hot. Is that right?

And it will keep for months or years after curing?

Will this work with other meats?


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## suitcase_sally (Mar 20, 2006)

You don't want them to freeze. That's the reason they do them in the late fall or early winter. Down south, the temps don't get to a hard freeze that time of year. 36 - 40 deg. is about right.

You put the salt cure on the ham and let it work for "X" number of days/lb of meat. Sometimes it's "per inch of thickness", depending on the recipe.

Go back and read the instructions on that link I provided above.

After it has fully cured, it will last practically forever, however, ham producers today are producing a leaner product and the leaner the ham is, the faster it will dry out - becoming "ham jerky" after a year or so.


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## trmeyer (Aug 7, 2014)

Ours freeze and thaw. They get started in late December or early January. We are just getting ours ordered for this year. We will cure ours the first week of January. They actually always seem to do better with the colder winters. Ours hang in an unheated shed where they do freeze. On a warm day they thaw a little and excess liquid drains out. Then if it gets cold again they freeze again. It hasn't hurt them. We are in north east Missouri. Last year was the coldest we had had in a long time (like everyone else) and we had the best hams at the judging that we had in a long time. Less rotten ones. You can't start these just any time of the year. It has to be cold. I would assume that's one of many reasons people processed their pigs in the fall/early winter. And it is not a quick process. It has to hang quite awhile. I am no means an expert on these though. I just know what we have to do to get a good ham here. I hope more people try these out. The hardest part if you don't butcher your own is finding one with the skin on. And if you butcher your own most people skin them. So you have to remember to keep it on. 

Tracy


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