JVestphalia Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Cure the ham
Rub the ham with ½ pound of coarse sugar and let it sit for 12 hours.
Rub it again with 1 ounce of finely beaten saltpetre and 1 pound of common salt.
Let it sit for 3 weeks, turning it every day.
Smoke and cook
Dry the ham in wood or turf smoke.
When boiling, add 1 pint of oak sawdust to the water.
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
- Coarse sugar
- Adds sweetness and softens the sharpness of the salt cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps the meat keep its pink colour and slows spoilage during curing.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and preserves the meat over the long cure.
- Oak sawdust
- Adds a smoky aroma to the ham as it cooks in the water.
The step that matters
Turning the ham daily during the 3-week cure. Salt and curing agents penetrate the meat slowly by diffusion, so turning the ham each day exposes all sides to the cure and helps it cure 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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