we're back again

[Flummery]

Growing fast eh? I know dogs worse trained than that!

[Glutton4...]

He looks soooooo sweeeeet! However, I know from a friend who had house-pigs that they are a real PITA, and will eat anything and everything! Have fun!

[Bramble-Poultry]

Glutton he's not gonna be a house pig, it was just easier to keep him in a dog crate in the house to feed him that anywhere else as soon as he's weaned it will be back out to the barn to join the other pigs.

Yes Chris - Meat we have 2 going off to slaughter at the end of March - looking forward to it now, YUMMY!!

[chris]

Shall have to time my mid-wales trip to pass yours at around 9am, end of march then! Nice cuppa and home reared bacon sarnie tehehe

[Suechooks]

Shall have to time my mid-wales trip to pass yours at around 9am, end of march then! Nice cuppa and home reared bacon sarnie tehehe

Join the queue!

[Hilary B]

You've got some older ones as well then? What age are the meat ones now?

[Bramble-Poultry]

we have some saddlebacks hilary that we bought as weaners in august. they were growing well through the autumn and then the really cold snap over the winter checked their growth a bit. they are now coming back nicely and will be going off at the end of the month, all except one "baby" which we will keep back to become the hand reared boys "girlfriend" if you get what i mean!

we also have the mum - shirley who is god only knows how old!

we could do with nipping to teh market and getting some more weaners in to fill the gap between the ones going off, and the piglets..... hmmmm, looks up the auction programme - could be going on the 16/3/2011 to get some more. Weaners from £7 each up to £27 makes it well worth a trip out. Our first lot of weaners cost us £50 each!!

[Hilary B]

Are you planning on bacon? We dry-cured a few, brine never worked out for us. Regardless of what the books say, you do NOT need saltpetre, salt and sugar are sufficient for a dry cure, just use LOTS!

[Bramble-Poultry]

hilary - i have been dry curing bacon for the last 8 years - and i find that although its true you can cure "green" bacon without nitrites, you do need saltpetre to retain that pink colour. You can use lots of sea salt as it contains natural nitrites but i end up using so much the bacon is over salty.

I tend to cure only using dry salts, and i make standard, sweet cure, maple cure, smoked and black bacon. (which is sweet cure with treacle that makes for a black rind that goes down into the meat making it a ruby red colour when cooked.)

Howeverm i also make sausage, salami and chorizon and i will NEVER omit saltpetre from any of those as you run a very very high risk of introducing botulism without it in air dried and preserved meats. I know that nitrites are suspected of possibly increasing the chances of cancer of a long exposure - but botulism can kill in one dose..... i fancy the chances of nitrites myself!

[Hilary B]

I had problems obtaining saltpetre, so I left it out, and there was nothing wrong with the colour of our bacon Maybe not as bright a pink as the stuff from the supermarket, but none the worse for that). I haven't done non-cook-type sausages, but pork 'bangers' do just fine without. It wasn't the 'dangers' of nitrite I was thinking of but the complexities of getting the stuff in sufficient quantity! I believe the reasoning behind making saltpetre relatively unobtainable is that it is a component of gunpowder.....

[Bramble-Poultry]

if you look on line for pronto cure, supacure or some of the prague powder cures (google weschenfelder for a full list) these are premized salts containing the right level of saltpetre.

You are correct that buying large quantities of saltpetre could cause concerns, however it is easily purchased from some chemical suppliers but the big problem is that saltpetre is actually toxic in the wrong quantities.

It is very good at scouring out your digestive system. This is why you must wash your hands before after and during bacon curing incase you inadvertantly consume some raw saltpetre.

I prefer to use the premixes. not anywhere near as harmful as the raw ingredients and dead easy to use. 35g of cure per kilo of pork, or 50g cure if sweetcure is used instead.

tim wescehnfelder has always done me proud with products.

As for cooking sausages such as bangers - there is absolutely no need to put salt petre in them at all. salt petre is a presevative and therefore should only be used in air dried. Bangers are designed to be consumed within the week, hence doesnt need preserving.

[Hilary B]

Never used a premix. The several baconers we did (purely for our own use) were done with nothing but coarse-grain salt and brown sugar, well rubbed in on all sides, and with extra salt sometimes.
It would be boring if we all had the same approach!

[Bramble-Poultry]

totally agree. if we all liked the same thing, wouldnt life be boring!