Pickling Hams - Method 1

Ingredients

• A peck of common salt
• 51b. of bay-salt
• 2oz. of saltpetre
• 2oz. of sal-prunella
• 2galls. of water

Method

1. 1

   Mix and pound the common salt with bay-salt, saltpetre, and sal-prunella.

2. 2

   Sprinkle the Ham with common salt and leave for 24 hours.

3. 3

   Rub with the mixture and leave for 3-4 days in a cool place.

4. 4

   Place in a pickling trough, boil the brine until strong enough to float an egg, cool it, and pour over the Ham.

5. 5

   Soak for 2-3 weeks, then wipe, tie in paper, and hang to dry.

As published

This recipe was extracted from The encyclopaedia of practical cookery (1892) by Theodore Francis Garrett, William A. Rawson, page 39. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

A peck of common salt is mixed up and pounded with 51b. of bay-salt and 2oz. each of saltpetre and sal-prunella. The Ham is first sprinkled with common salt, and laid down for twenty-four hours. It is then well rubbed with the above mixture, and left for three or four days in a cool place. The meat is then placed in the pickling-trough, and the brine boiled in 2galls. of water until it is sufficiently strong to float an egg — that being the test usually accepted as the proof of the strength of brine. When this pickle is cold, it is to be poured over the Ham in the trough, and the Ham left for a fortnight or three weeks to soak. At the end of this time take out the Ham, and having roughly wiped it and tied it up in paper to keep the flies off, hang it up over a fireplace to dry. (2) Make a brine by adding to every gallon of water Joz. of potash, 2oz. of saltpetre, lib. of sugar, and 41b. of salt, put it over the fire, and boil till all the dirt from the salt and sugar has risen to the top and been skimmed off, then pour into a tub and let it stand till cold. Pack the Hams into an iron-bound cask, laying clean bricks or stones over to keep them down; pour the brine over, when quite cold, till they are well covered, and let them remain for a month or five weeks ; then take out, drain, and dry. (3) Strew the Ham over with common salt, and leave it until the next day; then throw over it a mixture of 141b. of salt, 2oz. of saltpetre, 2oz. of pounded coriander-seeds, loz. of black pepper, lib. of coarse brown sugar, and 4oz. of treacle. Rub the Ham well with the mixture every day for three weeks. Afterwards, soak it for one night in cold water, then let it be dried in the usual way. When boiling the Ham, put Jib. of treacle and a bunch of sweet herbs in the water with it. (4) For a Ham weighing 141b. allow lib. of salt, lib. of dark brown sugar, 2oz. of sal-prunella

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