Curing whole cuts of meat can be both easier and more difficult than making salami. Since the interior of meat is pretty clean, you have fewer sanitation issues — but since the interior of a large cut like the back leg of a hog can be huge, controlling the temperature and humidity can be tricky if you want the cure to get to the center of the meat before it rots from within.
If you’ve never done this before, start with a duck ‘prosciutto,’ which can be done in a few weeks. For those waterfowl hunters out there, this is a great use for the breasts of Canada and snow geese. Other easy projects on this page include my bacon recipes as well as my jerky recipes.
Bacon in All its Forms
Basic Unsmoked Bacon
This is a “green” bacon, so called because it contains no nitrite, and so will not be that pretty red color. Green bacon also goes bad much faster than cured bacon.
Ventreche, French Bacon
A lightly cured, smoked variant on pancetta. This is a great addition to any French dish.
German Bacon
Bacon with German seasonings that is smoked over oak or beech wood.
Chinese Bacon
A Chinese style of bacon that is heavily spiced and heavily smoked.
Hams and Other Whole Cured Meats
Duck or Goose Prosciutto
This should be your first project when you are a beginner at charcuterie. It can be done with domestic or wild ducks or geese, and cures rapidly.
Smoked, Honey-Glazed Ham
This is an “Easter Ham” style ham made with wild pig. Cured, smoked and glazed with honey.
Chipotle Venison Jerky
You want to make this. Yes you do.
Wild Duck or Goose Jerky
Thinly sliced pieces of duck or goose breast, salted, spiced and air-dried. A perfect use for snow geese or diver ducks.
Prosciutto D'Oca
Goose leg ham, a recipe from Northern Italy. It’s easy to cure, but to make it really well, you need to hang these legs for several months.
Corned Venison
An awesome recipe for the big roasts on any kind of venison. Cook up several of these, vacuum-seal and freeze them, and you have lunch meat ready to go.
Mocetta, or Goat Ham
Mocetta (MOH-chet-ah) is a Northern Italian ham normally done with wild Alpine goats, but domestic goats or venison work just fine.
Lardo, or Italian Cured Pork Fat
Sliced thin, this is like pork butter. A little goes a long way…
I believe there’s a typo in the description for the German Bacon article. It incorrectly describes it as “A Chinese style of bacon that is heavily spiced and heavily smoked.”
I will try the Mocetta with Himalayan Tahr and feral goats as soon as I move back to New Zealand. We also have a large population of Canada Geese which I will experiment with.
Hi Hank
Did your duck jerky recipe but substituted it with top side roast meat cut into 1/4 inch strips and it was superb.Great site and lots of good recipes you can follow easily.
Cheers