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This morning we headed off to help Aunty Mare - her windows are being replaced, so we offered to help her move things to allow the tradesmen room to work. We took all morning to pack up her plates, kitchenware & knick knacks.
For lunch she made us some soup & burek. She made the pastry & drew it out into thin layers using a thick piece of dowel. I found it very interesting as I carefully watched her work. A Slivovic (plum brandy) & a couple of beers later, lunch was eaten & we progressed to moving furniture, not a lot but enough to allow the tradesmen to work on stripping her wall, sealing & replastering it over the next few days.
On the way home to my cousin's we dropped in to meet Ivanka & her family. Ivanka is one of Aunty Mare's four daughters. She is so tiny & petite that she almost looks like a child. She knew my mum well & spoke fondly of her.
Well dinner back at Ivan's home mainly meat, actually left overs from lunch. The main meal of the day is always lunch, so having missed lunch at Ivan's we enjoyed a little of the chicken & rice dish along with some freshly picked super tasty tomatoes.
Little did we know that the best was yet to come. Ivan works afternoon shift this week so when he arrived home at 10:30 pm he when out to the cool room & returned with a full leg of prosciutto. The flavour of the meat was magnificent. It went down well with beer for Biserka & me and gemischt (white wine with mineral water) for John & Ivan.
Here's a quick rundown on how Ivan & Biserka prepare & smoke the meat. This all takes place between December & January (winter) each year. Once the pigs are slaughtered, new piglets are purchased in preparation for use the following year.
First the meat it is salted using about 150kg rock salt for 6 pork legs. 3 legs are laid flat on a bed of salt, covered with salt, then another 3 are laid on top & covered with salt. A slab of wood is place on top & weighed down using water in a wine barrel. The meat is then wiped clean of salt & the whole process is repeated, this time with the top 3 legs of pork placed on the bottom layer. After a period of about 5 weeks the meat is removed from the rock salt & hung in an outside smoking room with a large hole in the ceiling to allow air to circulate. The salted meat is hung about 3m above the smoking chips. The moist chips are placed below a large slab of wood & lit. They create a hot smoke, however, the smoke cools by the time it reaches the meat. This smoking stage takes a few days - long enough to turn the skin a golden brown colour. The meat is then left to hang in the cool air to dry out. When dry the meat remains stored in a cool environment until needed. This meat resembles prosciutto, however, it is much drier & the fat even tastes great as it is well smoked. It tastes so good that it takes tremendous will power to stop eating it. Once it is fully smoked the exposed bone is rubbed with really hot chillies to prevent fly attack whilst it hangs in the cellar.
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