Pickle for Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Boil all ingredients together.
Allow the mixture to cool.
Pickle the hams
Pour the cooled brine over the hams.
Let the hams sit in the pickle for 3 to 4 weeks.
Dry and hang
After pickling, drain the hams and sew them in coarse hessian wrappers.
Hang the wrapped hams in a dry kitchen or place them on a bacon rack.
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 seasons it, helping preserve the ham.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
- Treacle
- Adds sweetness and a deep colour to the cured meat.
The step that matters
Allow the mixture to cool. Pouring hot brine over the hams could partly cook the surface and uneven the cure. Cooling the brine first lets it soak in evenly 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.
You might also like
Tomato Soup526 recipes
Brown Bread461 recipes
Mutton Broth292 recipes
Yorkshire Pudding264 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.