I took the two mangalitsa legs I have curing in salt and weighed them. They lost around 7% off its original weight. This is where most of the research I've done over the past couple of months comes into play. Even though I have my own personal "go to guide", I try to do as much research as I can on anything I am about to start curing. I have 3 major sources that I looked at before I started the prosciutto. I wrote down each method from the 3 sources, then compared each of the 3 major steps in curing prosciutto. The 3 steps that they all talked about were salt curing, incubating, then drying. I took all the information from the research I did, and looked at what was similar, and what were the major differences. From this, I created what I decided would be my own way of finishing my prosciutto. Of course, like all muscles, you must start them off in a salt bed for a certain amount of time. Which, between all of the info, is roughly about 1-2 months. Now comes the hard part. This is the time where every different book and website I've been looking at for the past year changes, but it's been the part that I've been looking forward to the most. Next is when I decide what I'm going to do to make this prosciutto my own. I'm going to give it just a little more time in the salt before I decide to hang it and start letting it move on to its final curing stages.
