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Ham

A method of curing ham with salt, sugar, and saltpetre, followed by drying and smoking.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Cure the ham

  1. Rub the ham with 1 ounce of saltpetre, ½ ounce of pounded sal-prunella, and 1 pound of coarse sea salt.

  2. Place the ham in a salt pan for 10 days. Turn the ham once.

  3. Rub the ham with more salt.

  4. After 10 days, scrape the ham clean. Dry the ham with a cloth.

  5. Rub the ham lightly with more salt.

  6. Hang the ham to dry.

Cure by the second method

  1. For the second method, rub a fine ham from a fat hind quarter of pork with 2 ounces of saltpetre, 1 pound of coarse sugar, 1 pound of common salt, and 2 ounces of sal-prunella.

  2. Let the ham sit in the mixture for a month. Turn and baste the ham daily.

  3. Hang the ham in wood smoke in a dry place, avoiding heat, for 1 to 2 months.

Cook and serve

  1. Boil the ham in a large pot with cold water for 4 to 5 hours. Skim the surface until it boils.

  2. Remove the ham half an hour before serving. Peel off the skin.

  3. Sprinkle the ham with finely sifted raspings.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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 preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic colour.
Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the cure.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds a mild sweetness to the cure in the second method.
Common salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during the second-method cure.

The step that matters

Hang the ham in wood smoke in a dry place, avoiding heat. Smoking and slow drying firm the cured meat and preserve it. Heat would cook the ham and spoil the slow curing, so it must stay cool and dry for the full one to two months.

“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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