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Hams the Yorkshire Way

A method for curing hams with salt, saltpetre, and offal-prunella, then brining and drying.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Hams the Yorkshire Way

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Beat the hams well.

  2. Mix the coarse sea salt, saltpetre, fine salt, and offal-prunella.

  3. Rub the hams with the mixture and cover with the remaining salt.

Cure

  1. Let the hams sit for three days.

  2. Hang the hams up.

Brine and finish

  1. Add enough water to the pickle to cover the hams, adding salt until it can float an egg.

  2. Boil and strain the brine.

  3. The next morning, submerge the hams in the brine, pressing them down to ensure they are covered.

  4. Let them sit for a fortnight, then rub them with bran and dry.

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

Coarse sea salt
Draws moisture out of the meat and helps preserve it during curing.
Fine salt
Penetrates the meat quickly and helps preserve it and season it throughout.
Saltpetre
Helps cure the meat and keeps its colour pink rather than grey.

The step that matters

Adding salt until an egg floats. The brine must be strong enough to preserve the hams. Salt dissolved in water raises its density, so an egg floating shows the brine is concentrated enough to stop spoilage while the meat cures.

“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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