Hams Smoked
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the hams
Beat the salt-prunella fine and rub it into the hams.
Let them sit for 24 hours.
Mix the common salt, coarse sea salt, saltpetre, brown salt, and coarse sugar together.
Rub this mixture into the hams and let them sit for 3 days.
Brine
Make a brine similar to that for salt beef, adding the brown sugar.
Boil and skim the brine, then let it cool.
Submerge the hams in the brine and turn them every 2 days for 3 weeks.
Smoke and dry
Hang the hams in a chimney with wood and straw smoke for 7 to 10 days.
After smoking, hang the hams in a dry place.
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 the meat keep its pink colour and adds a cured flavour.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat during curing.
- Brown sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the saltiness of the brine.
- Coarse sugar
- Adds sweetness to the dry cure and softens the salt's harshness.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it through curing.
The step that matters
Turning the hams in the brine. Brine only penetrates evenly if the hams stay fully submerged and are turned regularly. Uneven contact lets some areas cure more slowly or spoil, so the turning schedule matters over the three weeks.
“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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