Cooking with Jonny69: home cured ham

Jonny69

Jonny69

Jonny69

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I've been holding out for a bit before I post this because it's taken a bit of experimenting and practice, but I think I'm ready so here goes. If you read this section much you've probably seen that I cure my bacon and I've been doing it for a few years now. I've wanted to try curing some ham but it's a much bigger commitment because it's a big hunk o' meat and takes a bit longer. If you can do bacon and understand the curing so you can make it not too salty, then this will be a pretty easy transition. Essentially, the difference is that ham is wet cured and cooked, while bacon is dry cured and either eaten raw or fried.

Here's some I made earlier, ready to stuff into a sandwich:

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You need:

Pork
Salt
Sugar
Saltpetre (you can get it on eBay or in your local chemist)
Water
Large container to cure it in

I got lucky with the meat and picked up a 2kg hunk of pork reduced right down. Ideal for the early days when you're not 100% confident it's going to work:

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I took the skin off and trussed it back up to make it a convenient shape again. The skin can be used to make pork scratchings so don't throw it away:

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Now you need to make a brine to cure the meat in, which is made up of salt, sugar and saltpetre:

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Damn, hit post new thread by mistake :p

This was quite a big bit of meat so I used a washing up bowl for the brine:

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I used about 350g of salt, half again of sugar and you add 2% saltpetre depending on the amount of salt you used, so in this case 7g. In total there was about a gallon of water. The skank floating on it was where I plonked the meat in to see if I had the right amount of water to cover it.

Then, in goes the meat:

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That gets covered and it goes in the fridge to cure:

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The curing time depends on the size of the piece of meat. I left this one for eight days, but based that time on a smaller one I'd done that was about the right saltiness. About 1kg needs about 4-5 days.

After that time you need to tip away the cure and cook the ham. I put it in a large pot and covered with cold water, brought it up to the boil and let it simmer gently for 2 hours. Then leave it in the water until it's cold and it's ready to eat:

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You can then slice it extra thick and stuff it into bread with plenty of English mustard:

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The saltpetre is optional but it serves a couple of functions:
1) Firstly it kills botulism, which is a very serious toxin. However, it's very rare and in my personal opinion it's not a problem with meat in the UK.
2) Secondly, it keeps the meat pink. If you don't use it your ham will be grey in colour.
3) Thirdly it affects the saltiness of the meat. It tastes a lot saltier if you leave it out and you'll have to reduce the curing time a little.

Whether you choose to use it is up to you. Generally I don't use it with bacon but the ham looks less like slabs of roast pork when it's pink. In terms of shelf life I don't think it's an issue. Salted ham keeps for weeks and weeks in the fridge in nothing more than greaseproof paper and this is the same.

Who else is brave enough to have a go then? :D
 
oL said:
Looks nice, does it taste better than the ham you buy in supermarkets?
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Much, much better than supermarket ham and it's really porky. Fries up nicely for things like ham, egg and chips too :)

BloomerzUK said:
Looks awesome.. how do you make the bread crumb topping you normally see? Any tips for coatings Jonny?
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No idea, it's probably just yellow coloured breadcrumbs and water :p
 
I hate you. Keep wanting to try all your cured stuff. Haven't got round to the bacon one yet.
And once again this looks amazing and inspirational.
 
Looking good, impressed at how pink it went. My home cures never end up like that even when using saltpetre.
I've never cured my own ham, but I make salt beef reasonably regularly.

I alternate between using brisket and silverside and used to do it in brine in a bug tub like your ham, but have found it works just as well (and used less space) by putting it in a big plastic bag with just the dry curing ingredients.
It's sort of a cross between a dry cure and brining as I tie the bag up and let the meat cure in the mixture of the dry cure ingredients and whatever water comes out of the meat.
 
Jonny, when you say half again sugar is that 350*1.5=525g or half of the amount of salt used (350*0.5=175g)?

Gonna cook myself up one of these bad boys this weekend!
 
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Half the amount of salt used. My general rule is two parts salt to one part dark brown sugar :)
 
I've got to be honest that looks fantastic Jonny69. If I did that there is not way it would last weeks, I'd say a maximum for 1 week but for like 4 days or so :D
 
Couldn't find any KNO3 in any of the pharmacies here so I went without it dude :(, also, I used a shoulder roll - think it'll still be ok?

It's been in since Monday night, the roll was 2.4 kg with skin and I would say 1.9 without. Do you think it'll be ready now?
 
Yeah shroomz you'll be fine. Two parts salt to one part sugar. Give it about seven days in the brine :)

I'm cooking up some salt beef tonight. I've had it in a salt/saltpetre brine with no sugar for 8 days and tonight it's simmering with a couple of carrots, an onion, some cloves and peppercorns. Going to serve it with dumplings and mashed potato, real Yiddish style. Tomorrow it's salt beef bagels with English mustard and pickles for lunch :D
 
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