Westphalia Ham, to Cure
Ingredients
Directions
Make the brine
Make a strong brine with salt and water.
Boil the brine and skim it clean.
Cool the brine.
Cure the ham
Rub the ham with a mixture of salt and saltpeter.
Place the ham in a vessel and pour the brine over it.
After 14 days, remove the ham and drain it.
Boil the brine with a little salt until clear. Skim the brine. Cool the brine.
Rub the ham with saltpeter again.
Return the ham to the brine for 3 more weeks.
Dry and finish
Rub the ham with bran.
Dry the ham by a wood fire.
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 during curing.
- Saltpetre
- Helps keep the meat's pink colour during long curing.
- Coarse brown sugar
- Balances the salt and adds sweetness and a mellow flavour to the cure.
The step that matters
Boil and skim the brine before cooling it. Boiling and skimming removes proteins and impurities that would otherwise spoil the brine or taint the ham during the long cure. The brine must then be fully cooled before the ham goes in, since warm brine can partly cook the surface and encourage spoilage.
“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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