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Ham

A ham leg cured with salt, saltpetre, sugar, and common salt, then brined and hung to dry.

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

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the leg

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

  2. Rub it with the salt, saltpetre, sugar, and common salt.

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

Pickle

  1. Baste it often.

  2. Keep it in the pickle for a month, turning it every day.

  3. Drain it.

Dry and smoke

  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

Fat hog leg
Provides the meat that is cured, its fat keeping the ham moist during long curing.
Coarse sea salt
Draws out moisture and seasons the meat, slowing spoilage during curing.
Saltpetre
Helps the meat keep its pink colour and inhibits bacterial growth during curing.
Coarse sugar
Balances the saltiness and adds mild sweetness to the cured flavour.

The step that matters

Covering the fleshy part with salts. Salt must fully reach the thick flesh, because uneven coverage lets bacteria survive and spoil the meat. Turning the leg during the pickle spreads the brine evenly through the cut.

“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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