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Ham

A leg of hog cured with salt, saltpetre, sugar, and common salt, then brined, hung, and dried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Ham

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Hang the leg of hog for a day or two.

Cure

  1. Rub it with the salt, saltpetre, sugar, and common salt in fine powder.

  2. Lay the rind downwards and cover the fleshy part with the salts.

  3. Baste it often and keep it in the pickle for a month, turning it every day.

  4. Drain the ham.

Smoke and dry

  1. Throw bran over it.

  2. Hang it in a chimney where wood is burnt.

  3. Turn it for ten days.

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

Leg of hog
Forms the meat that is cured, smoked and dried into ham.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
Saltpetre
Helps preserve the meat and keeps its colour during curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the salt and adds flavour to the cure.

The step that matters

Keeping the salt cover even over the fleshy part. Salt draws moisture out of meat and slows spoilage, so any exposed, unsalted patch can spoil. Turning the ham daily during the month-long cure lets the brine and salts reach all surfaces evenly.

“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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