Eventually, I seem to get the hang on it. The latest piece turned out beautifully. After smoking it thoroughly with the cold smoker and hanging it in the fridge to age for about four weeks, I recently gave it a try and I really like it. Tasty, not harsh, rather mild and the fat melts in your mouth. Luckily, I wrote down what I did precisely, so I can (and will) repeat.

Meat:

750g of pork neck, fresh from the butcher of my least distrust

Curing:

As for my standard curing formula (please read for food safety!) I used

• 3% per weight curing salt (= 750g x 0.04 = 23g)
• 1% brown sugar (= 7.5g)
• 1 heaping tsp. freshly and coarsely ground black pepper
• 1 heaping tsp. dried rosemary

Vacuum-sealed in the fridge for 1 day per cm of thickness + 2-3 days safety (= 5 days + 3 = 8 days). In fact, I forgot about it so it cured 9 days instead of eight. Dind’t do any harm.

Smoking:

According to my notes I did three rounds of cold smoking with cherrywood and juniper, for about 1.5 – 2 hours each with a rest in between (First round – rest overnight, secound round – rest until afternoon, third round – done). It already lost a little weight by smoking.

Aging:

Hanging in the fridge, wrapped in a coarse cheesecloth and tied up not too tightly until it lost 35% of its weight (= 740g x 0.65 = 480g) which took about 4 weeks. Unwrap and enjoy.