This cure started with the gift of some cider from Mark at Rockingham Forest Cider. To do this craft product justice I felt that a brine immersion cure was called for – none of your injection cured shortcuts for this ham!
A recipe was formulated using quite a high level of cider and with nice warm spice overtones, the spices you’d put in mulled cider or wine: cloves, juniper, cinnamon, allspice and coriander. A nice golden Demerara sugar was used for sweetness.
The recipe for 2 kilograms of meat was:
620g Cider
200g Apple Juice
90g Salt
80g Demerara Sugar
0.57g Saltpetre
9.7g Cure #1
10 ea. Coriander seeds
2 g Allspice Berries (crushed a little)
4 ea. Juniper berries (crushed a little)
2 inches Cinnamon stick/cassia bark
3 ea. Cloves
All the ingredients with the exception of the cure were placed into a pan and brought to a rolling boil for 2 – 3 minutes. They were then allowed to cool.
The cure was added and mixed well in to ensure that it was fully dissolved.
The meat was cured in the brine in a bag, sealed without vacuum.
It cures for 10 days per kilogram of meat, so some 20 days later a somewhat dirty piece of ham emerged – I think that the sludge is from using powdered allspice (in the absence of any whole spice).
After 8 days drying and maturing the meat was sealed in a bag with apple juice and cooked in a water bath at 70°C – 80°C until the internal temperature was 72°C.
It’s a very popular ham that everyone seems to like apart from me. I’m not keen.
This cure is one where the cure should be half the weight of the meat. It’s easier to use the Ingredient Calculator below rather than work out your own amounts for the meat you have. Please note that it has only been tested on meat weights less than 3kg.
Other cooked cured meat that may be of interest:
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