Pickle for Curing Hams and Tongues
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Mix the common salt, coarse sea salt, saltpetre, and black pepper together.
Rub the meat with the mixture, turning and rubbing daily for 14 days.
Add the treacle and baste the meat daily for 6 weeks.
Smoke and store
If smoking, place the meat in the smoking room after it has dried for about a week.
Do not use the hams for 6 months.
In damp weather, rub the hams dry and store in a dry place; in summer, keep in a cool location.
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
- Common salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salting power and flavour while drawing moisture from the meat.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives it its characteristic reddish colour.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and a dark colour to the cure during basting.
The step that matters
Daily rubbing and basting over the cure. Regular turning and rubbing spread the salt evenly and keep the cure in contact with all surfaces. Missed days can leave dry patches where the meat may spoil or cure unevenly.
“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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