New England Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the hams
Beat the salprunella fine and rub it into the hams.
Let them sit for 24 hours.
Mix the coarse sea salt, common salt, saltpetre, and brown sugar.
Rub this mixture into the hams and let them sit for 2-3 days.
Brine and smoke
Make a strong brine with the common salt and water.
Boil it, then let it cool and skim it.
Submerge the hams in the brine, turning them every 2-3 days for 3 weeks.
Hang the hams in a chimney and smoke them for 1-2 days using horse litter.
Let the hams hang for a week by the kitchen chimney, then take them down.
Store
Store the hams in a dry place in a large box covered with bran.
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
- Salprunella
- Acts as a curing agent that helps preserve the meat and fix its color.
- Saltpetre
- Helps cure the meat and keep it pink while preserving it.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it during curing.
- Common salt
- Preserves the meat by drawing out moisture and seasoning it in the brine.
The step that matters
Turning the hams in the brine. Brine must fully cover the hams and be turned regularly over the weeks so salt penetrates evenly. Uneven contact lets parts 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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