Ham, Cured (West Country Method)

Ingredients

• three or four hams weighing fourteen or sixteen pounds each
• two ounces of sal prunella
• two ounces of saltpetre
• one pound of salt
• three gallons of water
• four pounds of common salt
• four pounds of basalt
• seven pounds of moist sugar

Method

1. 1

   Hang hams for a day, then rub with sal prunella, saltpetre, and salt.

2. 2

   Make a pickle by boiling water, salt, basalt, and sugar for twenty minutes.

3. 3

   Pour hot pickle over the meat, rub and turn daily for three weeks, then drain, dry, and smoke if possible.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Cassell's dictionary of cookery (1892) by Cassell & Company, page 680. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

two ounces of saltpetre. Rub the hams thoroughly with this mixture, put them into a deep pan, with the skin downwards, and turn and baste them every day for a month, at the end of three days pouring a bottle of good vinegar over them. Drain, and dry them well, and, if they are to be smoked, hang them high in the chimney, to keep the fat from melting. "This," says M. Ude, "is superior to a Westphalia ham." Pro- bable cost. Is. per pound. Ham, Cured (Warwickshire method). — Rub two ounces of saltpetre well into a leg of pork, and leave it until the next day to drain. Put four quarts of river- water into a large stew- pan, with a peck of pale di-ied malt, a pound and a half of basalt, two pounds and a half of common salt, one pound of treacle or moist sugar, and three ounces of sliced onions. Skim carefully, and boil for ten minutes, then pour the liquid through a sieve, hot, upon the meat. Turn the ham, and rub it well every day for three weeks, drain and dry it, and smoke it for thi-ee weeks or a month. The ham should be entii-ely covered with the piclde. Probable cost, Is. per pound. Ham, Cured (West Counti-y Method). — Take three or four hams weighing fourteen or sixteen pounds each. Let them hang for a day, then rub well into each one two ounces of sal prunella, two oimces of saltpetre, and one pound of salt. Put the hams into a deep pan, and turn them over and rub them each day for three days. jMake a pickle by boiling together three gallons of water, four pounds of common salt, four pounds of basalt, and seven pounds of moist sugar

Cook this with the app: pantry check, scaling, and the assistant.