Westphalian Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Cut the carcasses to retain the whole ham bone with the hip.
Rub the hams with a mixture of salt and saltpetre.
Place hams on cement floors or in vats and cover with salt for two weeks.
Transfer hams to a brine solution for 18 days, changing their position daily.
Ripen and clean
After 18 days, pack hams in a cool, dry cellar for four weeks to ripen.
Clean hams with a stiff brush in lukewarm water and soak in fresh water for 12 hours.
Smoke
Smoke the hams in a smokehouse using beech wood and juniper for about eight days.
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
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, slowing spoilage during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the cured meat and gives the ham its pink colour.
- Brine solution
- Carries salt into the meat over the long soak so the cure penetrates evenly.
- Juniper twigs and berries
- Adds a resinous, aromatic flavour that complements the smoke.
- Beech wood
- Produces the smoke that flavours and dries the surface of the ham.
The step that matters
Changing the hams' position daily in the brine. Hams sitting in brine absorb cure unevenly where they touch the container or lie submerged, so turning them daily helps the salt and saltpetre penetrate the whole joint evenly and prevents spoiled spots near the bone.
“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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