Westphalia Ham
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Rub the ham with ½ pound of coarse sugar.
Let it sit for 12 hours.
Rub the ham 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 balances the sharpness of the salt in the cure.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture from the ham and helps preserve it during the long cure.
- Oak sawdust
- Adds a smoky aroma to the cooking water.
The step that matters
Turning the ham daily during the 3-week cure. Turning the ham every day keeps the salt and saltpetre mixture in contact with all surfaces, so the cure penetrates evenly and the meat is preserved without spoiled spots.
“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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