Hams, to Salt
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the hams
Rub the hams with salt to remove slime and blood.
Discard the liquid that comes from the hams.
Rub the hams with treacle, saltpetre, and salt.
Place the hams in a deep pan.
Let the hams sit for one day.
Make and apply the pickle
Boil the treacle, saltpetre, coarse sea salt, and common salt for 5 hours.
Pour the boiling pickle over the hams, ensuring they are fully covered.
Rub the hams with the pickle.
Turn the hams occasionally.
Let the hams remain in the pickle for 3 weeks to 1 month before smoking.
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
- Hams
- The main meat that is cured, absorbing salt and pickle over the weeks in the brine.
- Common salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it, helping preserve the ham during curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salt to the pickle, helping draw moisture out and season the meat during curing.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and a dark colour to the cure, balancing the saltiness of the ham.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the ham keep its pink colour and inhibits spoilage bacteria during curing.
The step that matters
Boiling the pickle for 5 hours. The pickle must be boiled long enough to dissolve the salts and treacle fully and to be evenly mixed, so the cure penetrates the meat uniformly. Pouring it over the hams while still boiling and keeping them fully covered prevents spoilage at the surface.
“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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