Basement Charcuterie

If you home cure meat, this might be a familiar site:sausage and ham in the basement

Five pounds of saucisson sec and a fifteen pound serrano-style salted air-dryed ham hanging in our basement.   Both are made from the meat of Red, the hog we slaughtered in April.  The saucisson sec will hang for three to four weeks and be taken on our long back country canoe trip in July.  The ham will dry until the fall at the earliest.

Curing meat hanging from drop ceiling stringers is just one of the pitfalls of home charcuterie.

refrigerated hog casing

If you take up charcuterie like Alex has, you might also find yourself with hundreds of feet of dried hog intestine, i.e. casing, in the fridge, pictured above.  You'll probably have a stash of pink salt, that nitrite containing bacon flavoring good stuff.  Michael Ruhlman's Charcuterie book will be nearby for recipes and advice on all types of curing.  You will have a meat grinder and possibly several other sharp and dangerous tools.

guanciale home cured jowel bacon

Of course you will also have the rewards:  spicy delicious chorizo, home cured guanciale (jowl bacon pictured above), salt cod, fresh breakfast sausage and the experience to preserve whatever comes your way.