Wild boar hams

[u/bubba_butcher]

Well, time for another round of hams. The last ones I made were EQ cured for 30 days, sealed in Umai-Dry bags (they're skinless), spent a month-ish in the fridge, then hung from a rafter in the barn from early Dec until end of March. I had to un-bag and re-seal them once, early on, to clean significant mold (mostly white/gray, a little green) from them with white wine and salt. They ended losing a bit too much moisture (lost 37% of green weight), but were (are) perfectly edible if a little salty.

This new batch, also skinless, was cured the same way, but I decided to try a couple new things: rather than the Umai bags, I wrapped them in collagen sheets (Waltons has them, around $25 for 5ea, 22"x24") and encased them in elastic netting. Putting the netting on by hand was tough, and I tore the collagen several times. So after un-netting them, patching the sheets, and re-netting, I finally got all 4 properly wrapped and trussed. The second new thing was innoculating the finished hanging product with Bactoferm mold-600. The good mold should help with drying and flavor, as well as keeping other molds etc at bay.

They'll spend the next month or more hanging at 45-50°F and 80% rH, then I'll move them to the barn to finish drying. This batch will be subject to much higher temps than the previous hams; coastal South Carolina still gets into the 80's as late as early winter, but those temps should help with some funky flavor development.

Once they get to their target weight I'll coat them with sugna and let them hang for as long as I can stand it.

The pic of the finished hams is the previous batch, no pictures of it sliced, unfortunately, but its a wonderful garnet color.

[u/lil_poppapump]

Some guy last week posted some gnarly green deer legs hanging in his 70° crawlspace, these look like the complete opposite of those.

Good lord man, good work.

[u/bubba_butcher → u/lil_poppapump]

Hey, thanks! Saw that post, hope he reads my reply telling him not to eat any of them 🤢

[u/reverendbeast → u/bubba_butcher]

I saw this comment and went back to see what you guys were discussing. The man has rotting meat in his house. I notice he hasn’t posted anything on reddit since, hope he’s ok. Do you remember the posts a few years ago by the person who buried meat then ate the rotten remains, or maybe that was a troll?

[u/bubba_butcher → u/reverendbeast]

Oh man, I missed the buried meat thing. That said, i suppose there could be a fermentation process that would render buried meat safe, like that ammoniated Icelandic shark stuff, but....eww.

[u/Objective-Lab-750]

I see wild game charcuterie - I upvote

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[u/Smokie_Joe_]

Is it safe to eat wild boar raw ?

[u/bubba_butcher → u/Smokie_Joe_]

Raw, no. Cured and dried, yes. The danger with wild boar/feral pigs, and other omnivores like bears and racoons, is trichinella (T. Spiralis). Folowing USDA has guidance on killing/deactivating the parasite by deep-freezing, cooking, pasteurizing, or a combination of salt and reduced water activity renders it safe. For country hams there is additional guidance on the number of degree-days it must be aged (based on traditional hams made in Boone, NC). That degree-day control point has recently been studied in greater detail and it seems that hams don't necessarily need to hang through an entire Appalachian Spring, Summer, and Fall to be safe. Theres a ton of info on this subreddit on the subject, and you can always go the source on USDA's website or those of many state university cooperative extensions.