Venison Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Use newly killed venison for hams.
Mix equal parts salt and brown sugar; rub into hams.
Place hams in a tub; let them cure for seven days, turning and rubbing daily with salt‑sugar mixture.
Mix saltpetre and common salt in a 2:1 ratio (two ounces saltpetre to a handful salt).
Rub the saltpetre‑salt mixture into hams; let them cure for an additional week.
Smoke and store
Wipe hams, rub with bran, and smoke for two weeks over hickory wood.
Pack smoked hams in wood ashes.
Do not cook before eating; use as tea‑table meat, chipped or shredded like dried beef.
Note that it will not keep as long as other smoked meats.
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. See the original page.
Explore the science
What each ingredient does
- Venison (in the method)
- Forms the hams, which are the meat being cured and smoked.
- Saltpetre
- Gives the cured meat its characteristic pink colour and helps preserve it.
- Brown sugar (in the method)
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
The step that matters
Rubbing the salt‑sugar and saltpetre mixes into the hams. Cure salts must reach the meat evenly. Uneven rubbing leaves spots that spoil or stay salty, so the hams need daily turning and rubbing during the cure.
“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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