Dry Salt Cure For Ham
Ingredients
1 ham (english hams weigh roughly 14 to 20 pounds)
1 ounce brown sugar
1/2 ounce saltpeter (from the drugstore)
2 pound rough salt
Cooking Instructions
You will need a salting pan. Leave the ham unskinned. Rub in the sugar and the saltpeter first, paying particular attention to the bone ends. Then rub on half the salt and put the ham to rest on slats in a slating trough (best if it has a channel for the brine to drain out). Rub in the rest of the salt at the end of a week. Leave the ham to take the salt for a total of 3 weeks (depending on the size of the ham), turning regularly. Then hang the ham to dry in a draft of warm air for a day or two. If you would like to smoke your own, you will need a barrel smoker or a smoking shed. Light the fire with kindling first, then feed it with beech, birch, or oak sawdust. Smoke over the open end of a smoker barrel. Keep the fire smoldering constantly – it is not good for the cure to allow changes in temperature. Twenty-four hours in the smoke should suffice for a ham; 6 hours is enough for a side of bacon. York hams are then hung to mature for 2 to 3 months in a temperature and humidity controlled room.
My tears have been my food day and night, While they say to me all day long, “Where is your God?” (Psalms 42:3)