You may think that creating your own cured meats at home will be very difficult and require loads of expensive specialist equipment, as well as a degree in meat science or something.

However, it is actually quite simple to create a basic and reliable setup at home. With just a few easily acquired pieces of equipment you can put together a decent kit in your home for around £200 and be enjoying great cured food in relatively no time at all.

The key to creating your own home cured meats is just a simple matter of finding an area of the house where you can control three key environmental conditions – temperature, humidity and air flow.

What curing basically boils down to is controlling the slow release of water from the meat and once the water activity level gets low enough that organisms cannot survive in it, it is good to go.

Finding the Spot in your House

You can buy a decent Hygrometer for less than £20 which will let you measure the ambient temperature and humidity in your house. Leave it in different locations for 24 hours a piece and see what you get.

You ideally want the temperature to be somewhere between 50F and 60F and the humidity to be around 70-75%. Too hot and bacteria will grow faster and too cold will slow the process down significantly. Likewise if the humidity is too low moisture can become trapped on the inside of your food and if it is too high it won’t dry properly which can result in bad mould.

It is fairly likely that you won’t find an area of your house that is ideal for curing, but do not despair as you can easily make your own setup that will let you control such things.

Create your Curing Chamber

Buy yourself a frost-free fridge. It doesn’t need to be brand new or expensive, just as long as it works. Then you want to purchase a temperature controller that will turn on and shut off the fridge in order to maintain your ideal temperature. There are plenty of these available for home brewing, but will work just as well for our purposes. Set it up with the probe in the fridge and the temperature set to 57F and you are good to go.

Next you want to get yourself a humidity controller, a small dehumidifier and a fan. Use a multiplug to connect both the dehumidifier and the fan to the controller and that should take care of both your humidity and air flow issues. Also drill some holes in the sides (not the front or back) of the fridge to allow the air to circulate. Also consider covering the holes with some mesh, just in case any little pests decide they like the smell of your mouldy meats.

And, that’s it really. You now have a controlled environment in which to begin curing your own meats. So, the next thing to do is to get started with the process of actually making some food. You’re going to need some things like curing salts, dextrose and casings for sausages and a decent set of kitchen scales, but apart from that you just need to decide what to make first.

To get you started, here is a quick and easy recipe to make your own deliciously seasoned pancetta.

Ingredients

• 5 pound slab pork belly - skinned
• 4 minced garlic cloves
• 2 teaspoons pink salt
• 1/4 cup kosher salt
• 2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons coarsley ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons crushed juniper berries
• 4 crumbled bay leaves
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 4-5 sprigs fresh thyme

 

So, there you have our quick guide to getting starting with homemade charcuterie. Please let us know if you have tried it and if you have any tips or tricks. Also let us know the tastiest (or the worst) results that you ever achieved.