Lamb Prosciutto - Into the curing chamber

The lamb prosciutto spent about 30 days in its salt cure, and it was time to move it into the curing chamber to dry. I left it longer than i normally would, but I was traveling; no harm though...i don't think. About 13 days into the cure I opened the container it was in, and flipped and massaged the meat. There was a cup or so of liquid that had been pulled out of the meat. By the end of the cure, the container was dry. I guess all that brine got reabsorbed into the lamb. It smelled AWESOME.



You can see here what the meat looked like after about 30 days. It smelled so good. Rosemary, black pepper....yum











I rinsed it off well under cold running water and then dried it off as much as possible with paper towels.













This is the other side of the meat after rinsing. You can see there is a portion of the muscle that is hanging on by a "thread" of meat. I found this also last time i made this. It must just be how it's butchered to remove the bone.









I cut the muscle off, and made it into a second chunk.












I didn't have a casing big enough for the large piece, i would have needed a 120mm casings, which are available, but the biggest i had in house was 100mm. No big deal, i just rolled it up really tightly and tied it up like a big roast, trying to get as many air pockets out as possible....really tie it up tightly.

Same thing for the smaller piece.

This picture shows side "A"



And here is side "B". Not quite as pretty.













Both pieces were hung in the chamber, at 54 deg. F and about 75% RH. I think it'll take about 45 days for them to dry enough (about 30% weight loss). The smaller one might dry a little quicker. Only time will tell!

I'll report back when I slice them.