To Salt a Ham

Ingredients

• three ounces of common salt
• half a pound of bay salt
• half a pound of coarse sugar
• two ounces of Jamaica pepper
• two ounces of black pepper
• half an ounce of saltpetre

Method

1. 1

   Rub the ham with salt and let it lie for a couple of days.

2. 2

   Then rub in the mixture and cover it.

3. 3

   Turn daily and rub in brine as needed.

4. 4

   Let it lie in salt for about a month before hanging to dry.

As published

This recipe was extracted from Chambers's cookery for young housewives (1894) by Annie M. Griggs, page 82. The excerpt below is the record exactly as published.

half a pound of bay salt, half a pound of coarse sugar, two ounces of Jamaica pepper, two ounces of black pepper, half an ounce of saltpetre. The mixture should be pounded finely, and rubbed into the ham for about an hour, leaving no part unrubbed, and an opening should be made at the shank bone, and some of the mixture rubbed in there. Then lay the ham in a clean pan with all the last mixture or brine about it, and cover it up as before. It should be turned every day, and the brine rubbed into it, a fresh supply of brine being added if required. The ham may thus lie in salt for about a month, after which it should be hung up in the kitchen to dry. It may then be smoked with smoke from wood where there is the means of doing so. Salmon is kippered or cured in the following manner: Take a large-sized salmon in good condition ; cleanse and scale it thoroughly, but do not wash it. Then split it, and take out the backbone. Rub it with a quantity of salt and sugar and a little saltpetre, according to the size of the fish, all mixed TO SALT A HAM

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