To Cure Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cure
Pound the coarse sea salt, saltpetre, common salt, and coarse brown sugar together.
Mix well and heat the mixture.
Cure the hams
While hot, rub the hams with the mixture every morning for a week.
After a week, let the hams lie in the brine for another week.
Once incorporated, take them out to drain on dishes.
Dry the hams
Flour the hams and hang them up to dry.
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 sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and seasons it through the curing process.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat's pink colour and inhibits spoilage bacteria during curing.
- Coarse brown sugar
- Balances the saltiness and adds sweetness and mild flavour to the cured meat.
The step that matters
Heating the cure mixture. The mixture should be heated only enough to combine the ingredients evenly. Overheating can alter the sugar and salts, leading to uneven curing and an unevenly seasoned ham.
“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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