Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra) Dry Cured Whole Leg or Ham of Mutton with Natural Nitrate

Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Air Dry Cured Whole Goat Leg or Ham)

Homemade Goat Prosciutto, Prosciutto di Capra  or Violino di Capra Recipe. Prosciutto is Italian ham made of bone-in hind leg (usually pork) which marinated in spiced and salt cured then hung to air-dried cured for several months. Capra is Italian word for goat or mutton; so Prosciutto di Capra is air-dried and salt cured (cold smoked) goat leg or ham. This homemade goat prosciutto is also cured without any preservative or curing salt (NO pink salt or salt petre)

Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Air Dry Cured Whole Goat Leg or Ham)

Unpopular Delicacy Goat Prosciutto di Capra

Goat prosciutto is not as well-known as the pork prosciutto, even in Italia it’s rarely served nowdays.  I’ve never seen any deli store here in Indonesia sold any goat prosciutto before and it’s challenging me even more to made it. Eversince I’ve made several whole meat muscles charcuterie before, i think finding the right goat leg for making the prosciutto di capra is my only issue.

Homemade Goat Prosciutto, Nicely Cured Mutton Ham!

Goat Prosciutto a.k.a Violino di Capra

Homemade Goat Prosciutto isn’t that hard to made if you got the passion on home curing charcuterie, i mean any amateur kitchen can made it, but sure it need some patients and precision steps to made the goat ham prosciutto edible. A little bit of passion can create a far better delicious prosciutto than any professional deli store products ever sold. Homemade charcuterie or dry curing is so easy; salting, washing (sometimes cold smoking) and then the final air dry curing. This is some of my previously charcutterie project;

• Homemade Lamb Pancetta di Agnello (Dry Cured Lamb Belly)
• Homemade Beef Bresaola(Dry Cured Beef Tenderloin)
• Homemade Venison Deer Bresaola Di Cervo (Dry Cured Venison Tenderloin)
• Homemade Spanish Chorizo (Dry Cured Smoked Paprika Sausage)
• Homemade Salmon Gravlax
• Homemade Tea Smoked Salmon
• Homemade Smoked Duck Breast
• Homemade Smoked Beef
• Homemade Venison Deer Bresaola Recipe
• Homemade Gravlax (Salt Curing Salmon)
• Homemade Duck Prosciutto (Air Dry-Cured Duck Breast)
• Homemade Tea Smoked Salmon Recipe

Goat Prosciutto (Salt Cured , Cold Smoked, Air Dried Whole Goat Ham)

Prosciutto di Capra

Goat prosciutto is considered delicacy for its mild gamey, sweet and yet tender delicious because it’s made from very young or junvenile goat that unless the prosciutto will be tough and rubbery. Prosciutto di capra usually made from about 6 months to 1-year-old goat hind leg weighed about 1 to 1.5 kg and no more than 2 kg each. Goat prosciutto will be hung to air curing for about two to three months untill it lost about 30% its original weight after salt cured. Goat prosciutto can enjoyed  for a long day since it can last for months or even years. Some would love to inoculate a good white mould in the exposed meat to make it last longer.

Goat Prosciutto; Nicely Vivid Red, Well Done Curing Celery Seed & Juice!!!

To maintain the red meat color and prevent spoiling and poisoning from botulism, prosciutto cured with nitrites like salt peter (sendawa) or potassium nitrit. The nitride oxide bonded and reacted with the remaining myoglobin in the flesh and make a red pigmentation. These process get even better when the water is drained out from the flesh. I used to used salt petre to my charcuterie project, but eversince i’m concerning about the health hence I’m using the natural form of nitrate from celery juice & celery salt for making this goat ham prosciutto.

Vivid Red Sliced Goat Prosciutto, Cured with Natural Nitrate of Celery Seed & Celery Juice

Measure the weight of your beef then calculate the sea salt weight (3 %) and the pink salt weight (0,1%) needed to curing the goat leg prosciutto di capra . If  you using salt petre for making prosciutto  it’s recommended ammount is 500 ppm (part per million) or 500 mg for one kg of meat. Unfortunately, i didn’t know about the correct ammount of nitrate on celery salt and juice for properly cured this prosciutto but judging from the satisfying result i guess my recipe is quite correct.

Homemade Goat Prosciutto

Sliced Goat Prosciutto

I mention before that home curing goat prosciutto need a precision; simply because improperly curing process can lead to food bourne poisoning called Botulism and possibly causing death, no kidding!!!. Before you considering to made your homemade lamb pancetta or any other air dry cured meat, you should know about the safety about curing  first. You NEED NITRATE, that’s for sure because it’s the only known additive that effective to prevent the Clostridium botulinum growing.

Prosciutto di Capra, Salt Cured Cold Smoked and Hung Dried Whole Goat Hind Leg

Thinly Sliced Goat Prosciutto

Making homemade goat prosciutto is very fun to me, if you ask me why I’m curing my own goat prosciutto, my simple answer is; why not ? Beside the fact it’s must be very expensive to purchased and imported  genuine Italian prosciutto di capra, i also simply can control all ingredients and adjust the taste according to your own personal licking. For example, i add a little bit Szechuan peppercorn to my homemade prosciutto to satisfied my asian descent taste buds and you won’t get any of it in the store.

Thinly Sliced Goat Prosciutto with Lettuce Salad

Properly prepared goat prosciutto is  save to eaten raw as thinly sliced appetizer on charcuteries platter alongside other homemade cold cut charcuterie. Goat prosciutto  usually served uncooked or raw with greens leaves  salad and vinegar or lemon juice dressing. Beside that, prosciutto can be served as sandwich filling, rolled in the veggies and roasted and many more.

Bruchetta with Goat Prosciutto, Mild Cream Cheese , Kalamata Olives Puree, Preserved Artichoked, Mustard Leaves and Blossom, Crab Clawn Herbs, Pickled Garlic & Green Pepercorn, & Crushed Pink Pepeprcorn

I also made some bruchetta whith my homemade goat prosciutto. Crispy oven toasted french baguette, spread with some mild cream cheese and kalamata olives puree, then topped with  preserved artichoked and finished with some micro greens mustard leaves and blossom, micro crab clawn herbs, pickled garlic & green peppercorn, & crushed Pink pepeprcorn

My grandma won’t eat any uncooked meat, not even my raw delicious cured goat prosciutto, so she decided to crisp up the goat prosciutto by fried it up with some avocado oil and enjoy the crispy proscoutto like a fried goat bacon, lol

Violino di Capra a.k.a Violin of Goat

Violino di Capra or literary translated as violin of goat is the Italian names for goat prosciutto. It ‘a leg of ham made from goat and the name derives not so much from the cured ham shape as from the characteristic way of holding it for slicing. It is placed on the arm like a violin and sliced thinly using the knife as a bow

Slicing Goat Prosciutto

Slicing a goat prosciutto or violino di capra is quite challenging for me. First you need to sharpen your knive to get a thinner sliced prosciutto. I’m using small boning knives, i sharpen it using automatic knife sharpener and it’s almost as sharp as surgical scalpel knives. If you had the prosciutto holder, use it to secure and fixation it, but if you didn’t have any, use your left hand to hold it tight while  you slicing the prosciutto horizontally. Slice the prosciutto as thin as possible with a gentle and confident movement, well my grandma gladly do this job for me; at least for the photograph session, lol

Thinly Carving the Goat Prosciutto

Now this is How I Make My Goat Prosciutto or Violino di Agnello from scratch!!!

Young Goat Leg from 8 Months Old Goat Leg Weighed About 1 Kg, The Best Ingredients for Making Goat Prosciutto

1. Select the Goat Leg;

Prosciutto di capra usually made from young goat, i personally order 8 months old goat leg weighed about 1 kg for each of it. DO NOT EVER WASHED THE GOAT LEG WITH WATER or it will be had a very strong gamey aromas. Properly trimming the sinew as much as possible is essential to the rich taste and properly cured prosciutto. Clean the goat leg from any debris or remaining fur and trimmed the remaining blood debris or stain. You can pushed the leg a little bit to drain remaining blood then wipe it out with paper towel.

2. Salt Curing the Goat Leg

Young Goat Leg, Celery Seed-Spices-Salt & Celery Juice = Homemade Goat Prosciutto

The spices and herbs used for making the goat prosciutto differ according to the traditions and your personal preferences. For making my homemade prosciutto do capra i’m using a combinations of nutmeg, celery seed, Szechuan peppercorn, fennel seed, cumin, cardamon, sage, tarragon, juniper berries, black pepper, bay leaf, cloves, thyme, oregano, and rosemary. For the salt, i’m using homemade sea salt that i processed with the spices and herbs until fine powder to made it penetrate better to the meat. The natural nitrate preservatives source for making this goat prosciutto is the celery seed and the celery juice that i added into it.

3. Salt-Dry Curing (Plus Cold Smoked) The Goat Leg

Salt Curing Goat Leg with Natural Nitrate

The hind leg or ham of the goat salted and cured with the celery juice, salt and seasoning for about 14 days, depend on your goat leg size. During this time the goat leg ham is sit in the refrigerator and gently pressed to drain all the blood that remains  in the meat and flipped over every day.  After the curing process, the goat leg is carefully washed in running water,  patted dry and hung in a dark, good-ventilated environment.  At this point, you can cold smoked the cured goat leg a little bit to improved the taste and induced the smokey flavour on it before hung it to air cured. The  humidity and temperature of the enviroment is the key success of making a good quality of goat prosciutto. The best environment for making cured meat is cold climate with low humidity. The goat prosciutto  is then left until dry and loosen  30 percent of it’s weight, so make sure you notes the weight of the cured beef before you hung it and calculate the 30 percent loss from the freshly cured goat leg weight. When you lived in a tropical country with high temperature and humidity, don’t worry about it, as long as you can set your refrigerator in “dry mode” you can made your own dry cured meat or prosciutto.

Recipe Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra)

Recipe Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra) with Natural Nitrate Preservatives (Celery seed & Juice) :

• 1 small goat hind leg (about 1 kg)
• 3% sea salt (30 grams) *add more if necessary
• 1 tsp celery seed
• 50 ml celery juice (from about 1 1/2 cups celery leaves and little stem)
• 1/2 tbsp freshly grounded black peppercorn
• 1 tsp of rosemary
• 1/2 tsp of Szechuan peppercorn *optional
• 1/2 tsp juniper berry, coarsely ground
•  2 tbsp of mix italian herbs
• 1 tbsp brown sugar

How To Make Homemade Goat Prosciutto (Violino di Capra):

• Clean the goat leg from any debris, pushed out the remaining blood and patted it dry with paper towel
•  Rub the celery seed, spices and salt mixture to the goat leg, make sure all the surface is coated with salt mixture evenly
• Pour the celery juice over the goat leg and massage it all over the surface, put it in a ziplock bag and pushed out the air to sealed it properly
• Let the salted goat leg cured for about 14  days, in the refrigerator flip it over every  day.
• Gently press the cured goat leg by putting some weight over the ziplock bag.
• When the curing process is done, your goat leg should be slightly flattened and firm to touch
• Washed the cured goat leg gently in running cold water to dissolved the remaining curing salt
• Pat it dry with clean paper towel
• Washed it a little bit with red wine vinegar*optional
• Rub it with a freshly ground black peppercorn*optional
• Measure and note the weight of your cured goat leg
• Hang it in your refrigerator (make sure you set it in dry mode)
• Ater hung 1 day in the fridge, you can cold smoked for about 2 hour *optional
• Let the goat leg dry cured into prosciutto for about 2 months up to 12 months
• Make sure you watch the weight loss
• Your goat prosciutto or violino di capra  is ready when it loosen 30 percent of it’s freshly cured leg weight, but if you want it develop more flavour let it cured for longer period of times.
• You can either serve it raw on salad or cook it in your pasta, your choice

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