To Salt Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Dry cure
Pound the coarse sea salt, salt prunella, and saltpetre.
Mix together.
Rub the hams well with the mixture.
Lay any remaining salt over them.
Let the hams sit for three days.
Hang them up.
Make the brine
Take the brine from the hams.
Add enough water to cover them.
Add more coarse sea salt until it can float an egg.
Boil the brine.
Skim it well.
Pour it into a salting tub.
Brine and dry
The next morning, submerge the hams in the brine.
Keep the hams submerged like pickled pork.
After two weeks, remove the hams from the brine.
Rub them with more brine.
Hang them up to dry.
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
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and adds a cured flavour.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, preserving it during the cure.
- Salt prunella
- Is a fused salt that dissolves slowly, adding seasoning and firmness to the cure.
The step that matters
Adding salt to the brine until it floats an egg. The brine must be strong enough to preserve the hams and prevent spoilage. Too weak a brine leaves the meat open to bacteria, while the egg test gives a practical check of salt concentration.
“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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