A Bacon Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Mix the common salt, coarse sea salt, saltpetre, salprunella, coarse sugar, and spices together.
Open the ham slightly at the shank and stuff it with the salt and spice mixture.
Tie the shank-bone tightly with pack thread to keep out the air.
Rub the ham well with the mixture and place it in a trough, sprinkling a little salt above and below.
Cover the trough with folds of an old blanket to keep out the air.
Cure for three weeks
After 2-3 days, pour off all the brine.
Mix more common salt into the remaining salt and spice mixture.
Rub the ham with this mixture daily, discarding the old brine each time for 3 weeks.
Keep the trough covered during this time.
After 3 weeks, remove the ham and place it on a table with boards and weights on top.
Dry and smoke
Hang the ham up to dry and smoke it with wood, preferably juniper.
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 out moisture and seasons the meat, helping preserve it during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour during curing.
- Coarse sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds a mild sweetness to the cure.
- Coarse sea salt
- Adds salt to draw moisture out of the ham and firm its texture.
The step that matters
Keeping the trough covered and changing the brine daily. Pouring off old brine and re-rubbing the ham keeps the surface clean and salt-rich, while the cover limits air exposure that can allow spoilage and off-flavours during the long cure.
“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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