Veal Hams
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the ham
Cut the leg of veal like a ham.
Mix the coarse sea salt, saltpetre, common salt, and juniper berries together.
Rub the mixture well into the ham.
Place the ham in a hollow tray with the skinny side down.
Cure and smoke
Baste the ham daily with the pickle for 14 days.
Hang the ham in wood smoke for another 14 days.
Cook
Cook the ham by boiling, parboiling, or roasting.
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
- Veal leg
- Forms the ham itself, a large cut of meat that the cure penetrates and firms.
- Saltpetre
- Helps preserve the meat and gives the cured ham its characteristic pink colour.
- Common salt
- Draws out moisture and seasons the meat while helping preserve it during curing.
- Coarse sea salt
- Seasons the meat and helps draw moisture out during the dry cure.
- Juniper berries
- Adds a resinous, aromatic flavour that complements the cured meat.
The step that matters
Basting the ham daily with the pickle. The cure must reach the whole joint evenly over the 14 days. Skipping basting leaves parts under-salted, so the meat may spoil or cure unevenly.
“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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