To Pickle Hams or Cheeks
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Combine cold water, coarse sugar, salt, and saltpetre in a stone pickling pot. Do not boil the mixture.
Prepare the hams
Hang the hams for 3–4 days.
Sprinkle the hams with coarse sugar before placing them in the pickle.
Wash the hams in the pickle.
Pickle and dry
Pack the hams tightly in the vessel, ensuring they are fully covered by the brine.
Let the ham sit in the pickle for 14–20 days, depending on size.
Drain each piece for a day (if drying).
Dry the pieces thoroughly with a clean sponge.
Hang the pieces to smoke or dry for a few days before storing.
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
- Salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and preserves it by inhibiting spoilage bacteria.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and adds a cured flavour during pickling.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the cured meat.
The step that matters
Keep the brine from boiling. Boiling the brine can change its salt and sugar balance and damage the mixture's ability to cure evenly. Keeping it cold lets the cure penetrate the meat gradually and safely.
“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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