Projects/Cooking:Home-Cured Ham

So recently I decided to start experimenting with curing my own ham.   Turns out it's actually a pretty simple process and the results are well-worth the time.   All you need is some curing salt.   I just got a bag off amazon.   It's amazing stuff.   It magically transforms plain old pork into magical tasty hammy goodness!   The instructions told me to use it at 5%, so 50g for 1kg of meat, and so on.   I started off small.   Just a modest-sized piece of pork... (Fillet.   Ham is traditionally leg, but anything works)  

...with simple flavourings added to the cure.

This was just brown sugar and cloves mixed in.   Then you take your cure and rub it into the meat, like so...

Then you put it in a sealed plastic bag in the fridge for the week and leave the cure to do its stuff!   All you need to do is drain off any fluid.  Miraculously the cure gets all the way inside the meat, even if it's a large piece, and turns it delicious and hammy!

Then after a week, remove the meat from the fridge and boil it for 1 hour per kilo, then rub it with a glaze (I used soy sauce and maple syrup) and roast it for the same time again.   Job done!   

   Ham post-boiling.   Yes, I know it looks a bit rude...

Ham, glazed and roasted.

And deliciously pink and tasty!

I've found it keeps for about a week in the fridge once it's cooked.   

Soon I got bolder (or maybe greedier) and started using larger bigger pieces of meat...

...and more flavours.

I think this one was garlic, nutmeg, coriander seeds and thyme.   Do be creative, cos it's really amazing how the flavours get into the meat.   The taste is much stronger than with roasts. 

  

Post-curing

And post-roasting!   Sorry about the bad quality phone photo.

So that describes my curing adventures thus far.   I've also tried to do some prosciutto crudo-type stuff, but it hasn't worked very well so far.   I'll keep experimenting and keep you posted.   Also tempted to try bacon in the future too.