Everyday Ham

This cure is in the process of being revised. Please use Pauline's Ham in a Bag in the meantime.

You know how it is, you go to the fridge for a sneaky slice of ham only to find that someone has beaten you to it! Well in our house that's likely to be my wife, Pauline. She loves the stuff. So the time has come to make some more. Forgetting that it's Broughton Astley Farmers' Market today we ended up in the supermarket and bought a piece of pork leg (too cheap to be good!). Not something I'm proud of; I hope you'll forgive me because I've confessed and am now in sack cloth and ashes.

I'm going to cure it by injecting it with the cure so it will be ready quickly. It won't have the depth of taste of a dry or immersion cured ham but it will still be better than most of the supermarkets offerings.

I am curing it with Prague Powder #1, a mix of sodium nitrite & salt, but have just found out that I only have 25gm of it left so will have to adjust all the other ingredients to allow for this. The cure will be:

780gm Water

90gm Salt

97gm Sugar

25gm cure #1

4gm Spices (Juniper Berries, Cloves, Bay Leaf, Coriander Seeds, Parsley and Thyme)

TOTAL 996gm

This will give around 1% Salt and Sugar and 150 Parts Per Million Nitrite if injected at 10% of the meat's weight. A safe and acceptable level.

Half the water is boiled with the salt, sugar and crushed spices. It's cooled, the cure #1 added, and it's made up to 996gm with cold water.

The meat is weighed.

10% of the meat's weight is calculated and this amount of the curing brine is measured.

The meat is injected with this brine then put into the remainder. Ideally, the meat would be covered in the liquid. I will turn it regularly to make up for this.

The meat is now put into the fridge for 4-5 days or so. See the result at Everyday Ham - Part II.

There are 21 comments

Can this brine be worked up in quantity to cure a whole back leg for a hamn???

John Byrne, (Email ) - 24-01-’09 20:14

Yes John

Over at http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.. you’ll see the recipe for using 1 litre of liquid. It can be more easily scaled up from that one.

Phil

Phil, (Email ) (URL) - 24-01-’09 20:28

Thanks Phil

John Byrne, (Email ) - 24-01-’09 20:33

Phil,
What cut of meat did you use for this???

John Byrne, (Email ) - 25-01-’09 14:39

It’s a piece of leg John.

Phil, (Email ) - 26-01-’09 14:20

Sorry Phil, should have clearer on that last post. Was it a piece of leg boned and rolled or bone in? And how was it for slicing afterwards, did you need to par-freeze it??

John Byrne, (Email ) - 26-01-’09 19:21

Hi John

It was B & R – sliced fine (berkel slicer)

It’s usually uncooked meat that’s a problem to slice.

Pics are here:

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/weblog/..

Phil, (Email ) - 26-01-’09 21:16

Thanks again

John Byrne, (Email ) - 26-01-’09 21:38

Hi Phil, me again
One final query.
Did you leavve the meat in for the 5 days as above and did it turn out ok in that time?
thanks
John

John Byrne, (Email ) - 29-01-’09 15:30

Sorry…meant to add to the last post…did you need to soak it for any amount of time before cooking??

John Byrne, (Email ) - 29-01-’09 15:41

It should be OK in 5 days John – but you can leave it longer with no ill effect.
The salt level is quite low so it shouldn’t need soaking. Mind you, I use a very large pan of water. Taste your cooking water after about 10-15 minutes cooking, and if it’s too salty, change it for fresh.

Phil

Phil, (Email ) - 29-01-’09 17:20

Cheers Phil.

John Byrne, (Email ) - 29-01-’09 19:56

hi again Phil :)
as the first attempt of Pauline’s Ham is done the whole leg was consumed , now i’m moving on tomorrow for my next ham to try , EverydayHam ! i just have a small question:
if i get 3-4 KG of pork leg by tomorrow, will any figures change according to the meat weight ?

Roger, - 01-01-’13 16:02

sorry but forgot to ask about cooking it , did u cook it ? can i smoke it after cooking it ?

Roger, - 01-01-’13 16:05

Hi Roger

The meat above was just over 3kg so you shouldn’t have any problem. The ham is cooked after curing. If you wish to smoke it, you should either hot smoke it (which will cook it), or cold smoke it before cooking. However, for smoking, I would choose a more ‘robust’ ham: one with a bit more salt that can stand up to the strong smoke flavour. Maybe one like the black ham here:

http://www.localfoodheroes.co.uk/?e=608

Phil, (URL) - 01-01-’13 17:36

Phil, Thanks a lot ! actually i would LOVE to do the Black ham and yesterday i was making my mind up to it !! but i didn’t want to wait 40 days to eat it :D ( the leg i have 2day is 3.855 KG) so as it has saltpeter it will take 10 days per Kilo :/
any way i can reduce the time of the black ham for my 3.855 KG cut ? then i would proceed NOW :D

Roger, - 02-01-’13 07:53

Patience is a virtue!
If you want a quick cure, you’d be best with Pauline’s Ham as it’s slightly saltier than this one, so is better with the smoke.

Phil, (URL) - 02-01-’13 21:45

one question Phil, is it recommended to remove the skin and the whole fat ? Will that effect the finished product’s taste ?

Roger, - 22-02-’13 16:21

Hi Roger.

With this type of ham, the skin is removed, and fat trimmed, after cooking.

Phil, (URL) - 22-02-’13 16:27

Sorry Phil another question, if I wanna use the saltpeter then how many grams per kilo ? And to reach 170 ppm what will be the figures of the cures ?

Roger, - 22-02-’13 16:30

I am in the process of revising this cure. Things move on, and whilst I don’t think that there is any problem with this cure, I would use another instead.

Regrettably, the revised cures for injection curing, aren’t suitable for use with saltpetre.

Phil, - 23-02-’13 12:58

I'm somewhat incapacitated at present so replies may take some time. Please post urgent enquiries at the www.sausagemaking.org forum.