How to Cure Hams in Open Barrels
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Mix Freeze-Em-Pickle, granulated sugar, and coarse sea salt together.
Sprinkle some of the mixture over the bottom of a clean barrel.
Pack the hams
Rub each ham with the mixture and pack them in the barrel.
Place clean boards over the hams and weigh them down to keep them submerged.
Brine and cover
Dissolve the remaining mixture in 14 gallons of cold water to make the brine.
Pour the brine over the hams, adding more cold water if necessary to cover them completely.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Freeze-em-pickle
- Curing agent that preserves the meat and gives it its cured character.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and carries the cure into the ham.
The step that matters
Keeping the hams fully submerged in brine. Any part of the ham left above the brine can spoil or cure unevenly, because the brine is what protects and cures the meat throughout. Weighing down the boards and adding cold water to cover the hams completely prevents exposed surfaces.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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