Cutting into a Traditionaly Cured Country Ham after 22 months!

hey there folks this is Josh Tony rich farmer welcome back to the farm vlog today we're off the farm and we're in a very special place we're at hand Hume farm here in Ohio these guys this is Andy and Doug and mrs. Stoney Ridge and these guys do specialty meats up here in Ohio so we'll tell you all about these guys and today we're going to get into the first ham that we cured on the farm from 22 months ago so come along as we slice into this hopefully we're gonna make a prosciutto out of this we're gonna eat it right off the bone it's going to be absolutely fun absolutely delicious and we'll take you guys around and show you a little bit of what's going on in this place look up here so I'm going to show you some different cuts of meat and all sorts of fun butcher type stuff so come on let's out a little bit fun [Music] this is a family affair everybody pull in here what we're getting ready to do it is open the ham that I haven't seen for close to 20 months misses tiny red ones therefore part of it and these guys were not here for part of it but this is something that's really enjoyable to me I think we're gonna have a great time first thing we're going to do is take a little toast to the animal to the life of this hog and Cheers to the life of the meat let's talk about what this is this is probably about a 35 pound shoulder off about a 350 pound hog that we butchered close to 20 months ago 20 22 months ago this bag that it's in is like a nylon type bag it's wrapped in paper and it has cotton string wrapped all around inside here it's covered with salt for two weeks prior to hanging and then we cover it with black pepper a mix of brown sugar water black pepper and a little touch of liquid smoke and red pepper on the bone ends to keep the skipper's out and so those are little bugs there'll be a link in the video description to how we did this okay so without further ado we're gonna open this up and then we're gonna talk about what you guys do here will hand here and farm the knife sharp gonna stab myself in the face this is a knife that I pulled out of a bucket full of rusty screws and nails restored it awesome let's tear up the tip nice yeah okay here's the reveal this is the grocery bag and this is how we wrapped it all up and string which just cut these strings away and reckon back Oh what what makes a lotta tear so good got that good mold on there and what's that mold called fellas each area one of Penicillium each area of the world has its own Bowl right yeah it's a jello mold okay oh yeah so this is covered and it looks delish it is covered in black pepper and okay because I'm gonna lift it up and dad said first thing we need to do is wash or brush this off I don't know about washing it we've gotta brush with you want yeah I wouldn't bother brushing say we just cut into it because it looks so ugly look at that so yeah ugly ugly as any gorgeous that is the skin side right here and this is this was soft when we put it in there but it's pretty hard now so it'll be clear right the head of the pig was up here yeah the wrong way and belly was here exactly exactly them foot down here yep cool all right right here all the knives we're deciding which knife to use what are you looking at what you looking at we've just got a new knife friend yeah it's breaking knife which is gorgeous and we haven't got to use it very much I don't to use that let's use it let's use it first let's before we cut this let's a little teaser before we cut this so come on in here guys tell me tell us what you do here and if somebody wants to take like a butchering class they can come up here to hand uniforms that right we are factoring classes here at the farm like the next one is right for Christmas gotcha and then we also travel to farms the next place we're traveling to is in Tennessee okay January awesome VA you can always check our website we do small classes we just got done over in a salami class yesterday thanks and a baking class before that got you yeah we're always doing new classes at all of our website and your website is Han here to farm comic-con hand-hewn farm comm there'll be a link down the video description in case you guys want to get with these guys and absorb knowledge this is like how to describe this this is like a conglomeration of knowledge from old Italy from curing hams the old southern way the Virginia ham way and Appalachia yes bean Spain France yeah so meats been cured all over the world before refrigeration and these guys have pulled together the knowledge that you need to have in order to do it successfully at your place and my dad has some of that knowledge to them were passing it on to you too so it's good stuff ham here in farm calm and they can get one of these guys right here too right all leather handmade aprons yeah cool can you get them around the website soon soon okay call me coming soon let's cut this thing we're gonna let these guys cut it first gonna be red I would like to slice right here but I'm probably gonna run into this shoulder blade yeah so we can come up here and cut on this side without running into any bone for a little bit so this is probably our best bet and I want I personally want to get some you wouldn't want to come at this like this on the coppa that feels me exactly so this is all gonna be skinned right here yeah and the thickest back fat on the animal is going to be right here the clear plate of back fat which is where lardo is from we're taken from so you've got skin and then back fat right here but then once it's on top of it and American butchery is the Boston but but an Italian dry curing capicola muscle I've turned into capicola so this is like the money cut if you it's like a Suzy that sits right here yeah if you're into dry curing we can actually get one out of one that we did you can actually see the shape is really similar the awkwardness Annie and I never trimmed a dry-cured shoulder of this size especially the high still in on bone in the awkwardness is you can't cut from here because this is where the hawk was located and if you were to cut from here like any suggested it's not a bad idea but this is where the stick was which we probably clean they probably cleaned it but this usually requires quite a bit of cleaning and also it's a bunch of different muscle groups fascia that's where the neck was skinned in fat so and back here is the scapula and shoulder blade so you can come at it but this way and come down or across one way or the other you're gonna have the humerus and the scapula any way you do it you're gonna run into a bone eventually so you kind of have to if you know where the bones are you can kind of formulate a plan I mean if this were mine listen to this conversation with a ham it's awesome this is I mean this is what they do man there's just so passionate about it like where do we cut it what you know what's the best way to eat an Oreo you know that's kind of what we're dealing with yourselves an Oreo it took two years yeah it is it's a mann's yeah so much work just taking a little bit off so we can set it flat to trim the other side this baby so we're trimming some of the looks like red pepper and then you get into a little bit of this yellow fat the yellow fat is actually when it yellows like that it's rancid which isn't a bad thing it's just when it's exposed to UV light it turns yellow and it gets like a metallic taste some people get real freaked out if they taste that they think the whole hams bad but it's actually not it's just superficial where the light has had access to the fat so it's not a bad thing you just need to keep on trimming so and as as you see like right here it goes from yellow and then it turns into that white and pink that's the good stuff right there we might have to trim it a little bit oh yeah it's gonna be nice we're gonna just need to get a little bit deeper and that can all be mitigated by just laying a towel or a rag over it some people will rub it down with oil olive oil etc sunflower oh but that does impart a flavor if you cover it with a rag at this stage it will no longer continue to get rancid in it in the sunlight so I just cut off a little piece of the skin just to make trimming a little bit easier as we go down through this exciting dome there yeah never cut a shoulder like this is this fun just have to dig a little bit it's that kind of like a treasure you got to work for it a little getting there we're gonna be able to start eating some of this here in just a moment you really don't want to need that yellow fat in your first bite because it kind of ruins the experience so we're trying to get through some of that getting real close bankers of boss yeah it's working pretty well one of those crystals call that get on there try Oh seen the the white crystals and meet they only show up oh yeah you gotta have something at least 18 months to show up in meat and cheeses that have been aged over 18 months I've get in there because this bait at the face of this meat wasn't completely flat because it had some undulations in it we have to dig down a little bit deeper but once we get there it's gonna be nice this is usually like when people talk about jowl bacon yes the head was right here this is a continuation of that same muscle that's in gel bacon okay meat like this is good in tiny amounts you lay it on your tongue interesting it's not salty well two weeks for a chukka meeting this to make like they're right on yeah we can't bury moon yeah it will not be salt pork and you said two weeks and I both thought the same thing oh man you might have nailed it you pay attention the only place you really get the salt is when you when your tongue gets to that meat so what's your plan for this thing well to do it like this try to do it like this work slice ham slices up and it seems like a waste you know now that I've seen what meat does what you guys can do with a piece of pork it seems like a total waste to slice a country ham and eat ham slices because it said this is a delicacy than uh nobody can get I mean there is no ham on the planet that tastes like that mr. Pirie nowhere anyway mmm it's good it's good and you'll get more of meat as you go like once you get down I don't know another inch or two you're gonna get into a lot more meat especially down here yeah you're good you're still the meet there later Joe delicious oh yeah the first slice I got was mainly fat off the top that's that slice of meat so you want to get down into it so guys when you live in the south it is impolite to go to someone's house empty-handed so whenever you visit somebody's house in the south bring something something unique something different that they can't get anywhere else whether it's a special coffee cup or whether it's a ham or whether a shoulder or you know anything a chicken whatever bring it I always bring a chicken to my dad's house when I go visit that or maybe some bush life and yeah no no live chicken chicken that once was living it's good it's not over salted that's silky I like it yeah I think the best is yet to come well even the last bite the one that's in my mouth yeah it's better than the first that has something to do with the proximity to the rancidity but more to do with the fat meat ratio the right fat be gracious were exact I think once you savor the flavor it's delicious I can't wait to keep on getting into it if you were able to continue this slicing strategy and Andy is begun you would go cross section through the Coppa through the capicola which we're getting to slowly right over here at the end let me go get one for visual reference yeah Doug is getting a cocoa muscle which is off at the top short of a pig and we butchered a couple really large pigs this winter probably a little bit bigger than this guy was this girl was but it's like a tube of muscle that the pig has on a snap pigs root everywhere that muscle does most of that work along with its snout so that muscle is really highly marbled and gets used a lot so it's full of flavor the Italians are like masters in curing it they call it capicola Doug's opening one right now that you'll be able to see the cross-section up so as you can down through this it will look similar to the meat and fat it's in a capital you'll see that big seams of fat father's made on the inside so this is the cross-section it used to be together like this but what you will have when you slice down through this shoulder this way is the Copa muscle will be sitting like this seal technically like that it'll be slicing down through that all which is we're gonna slice into this a little bit more guys in then we're gonna take you around the shop here and show you what's up the drone footage in the beginning and in the end of this video will be the actual footage of the farm you guys have pastured egg-layers right yep and you bastard meat birds in summer yeah summer and you've got some hogs over in oak forest okay the great oak and hickory forest that were on the other side so we'll be back here in the summertime at some point to take you guys for a good cool farm tour we sliced off a big fat slice and we're trying it like we would traditionally eat country ham my initial thought was this is not as salty as I thought it would be and it didn't have as rich of flavor but as we slice further and further down into the meat and we'll show you the shoulder here again as we slice further and further down we got more and more flavor and we sliced off a big wedge and we cooked it this is family this is family tradition passed down from like five generations of my family it's awesome to be able to share with you guys and it's awesome to be able to do this here mmm so good we're gonna take in the coolers and show you what's going on in here real quick and then we're gonna eat it's so good oh yeah okay so we've been into our shoulder about this far now and what you saw it first is totally different than what is going on now so this is what we're cutting into right now and that is totally shelf-stable will sit on your countertop wake up in the morning you want to slice it bacon or ham you slice it up throw it in a skillet cook it with your eggs or you can just slice off any thin little strips unbelievable we're gonna get a little tour of your butcher shop here okay yeah I'm gonna start with what's that what what are these this is our ladder chandelier so these are all pig bladders so every time we kill a pig we take out the bladder yeah fill it with water a few times stretch it out and then fill it up with air like a balloon yep and then put it here cool now well we usually then rehydrate them we put them in water and then we I'll show you in a minute we stuff them in we stop hams into them and they help aid in the curing process with hams boneless hams not like your ham gotcha yeah awesome so we're gonna go inside of a cooler here a walk-in cooler and what do you call this a curing room okay let's do we're gonna save the best for last so let's go in here our chill we got this Oh Craigslist I think it's yeah an old 1920's style walk-in cooler we outfitted it with a cool bot which helps regulate the temperature here right now if you look it's 37 38 degrees in here so we keep meat that's in the process of being cured over here on the side that we've been back sealed bags we've got some big hams off of a salad we butcher this winter salami is that we just stepped yesterday pancetta you just cut into eggs cheese's all sorts of cool stuff this is where we start then we go over to our curing chamber which after the stuff has been cured comes over here this is the cool room so in here we have Salam means that have already been cured now their ageing drying out a little bit we have little boneless hams that's a we use those bladders we take a ham get the bone out stick it into a bladder so these are all stuffed inside bladders larger format salami pepperonis this is the pancetta we tied with you last year this guy right here if you want to try cutting into it other big hams yeah this is where everything gets a little bit funky and delicious so if you want to go through a class and learn how to make some of this old-time traditional cured pork and or butchering classes for your pork check out hand-hewn farm com their great fans and friends of the channel it's just it's a special place guys it really is well worth the drive well worth the time to come here and to learn something that you're just not going to get anywhere else so I don't want to sound like I'm trying to sell you on coming here but yeah but we're here for a reason because this is one of the most special places I've ever been and I think it's important that we share it all with you guys the rest of the country hams will probably take in the butcher shop and we'll slice those country hams as the traditional way through the bone this is going to be a special ham that's going to sit on our shelf at the at the house it's shelf-stable it's going to sit on the chopping block and we'll shave off meat as we want it and just have something super special so guys I hope you enjoyed this video I hope you finally got to see the results of months and months and months of cured meat we're definitely gonna take you on a journey again and we'll process another hog sometime in the next year or so and we're building our hog lot on our farm right now so we can finish him with acres and chestnuts good stuff thanks a lot guys we'll see you next time on the Stoney Ridge thanks a lot guys we'll see you next time I hope you enjoyed this pound that like button subscribe the channel there's some wonderful stuff going on here on the farm the free and home of the brave I'm proud of Who I am I'm made on a stone Erie [Music]

Channel: Stoney Ridge Farmer

Views: 724,870

Rating: 4.8071623 out of 5

Keywords: suburban farming, chickens, homestead, homesteading, farming, tractor, farm tractor, cummins, jeep, ram, trucks, ham, country ham, cooking, food, smokehouse, virginia hams, country, recipe, how to cook a country ham, cured ham, salt cured ham, homemade ham, sustainability, kentucky, health, pig, meat, cure, pork, dinner, smoked ham, prepper, harpers country hams, virginia traditions, virginia country ham, appalachia, smoke meat, cure meat with salt, country ham curing

Id: 92fLjpieLnM

Length: 21min 54sec (1314 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 06 2019