Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Cure
Cut out the hams from the pig.
Rub each ham with saltpetre, sal-prunella, and common salt.
Place hams in salt-pans for 10 days, turning them once and rubbing with more salt.
Let them sit for another 10 days, turning daily.
Dry and hang
Remove hams, scrape clean, and dry with a cloth.
Rub lightly with salt and hang to dry in a cool place.
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
- Saltpetre
- Preserves the meat and gives cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
- Sal-prunella
- Acts as a fast-acting curing agent that helps set the cure and preserve the meat.
- Coarse sea salt
- Draws moisture out of the meat and slows bacterial spoilage during curing.
The step that matters
Rubbing the salt cure evenly into each ham. Salt and curing agents only preserve where they reach. Uneven rubbing leaves spots that can spoil, so every surface and the turning schedule need attention during the long cure.
“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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