Wheels everyday ham

[johnfb]

Himalayan Pink Salt ???

[saucisson]

http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/himalayan_salt.htm

Dave

[johnfb]

The ham is bubbling away nicely in a large pot of water with some cloves and black pepper corns in it.
Tasted the cooking water after a half hour. Not too salty at all, nice and mild.
Should be ready about 9.30pm for tasting....mmmmmm!

[img]http://www.emoticonking.com/emoticons/drooling/008-[Drooling]-[EmoticonKing.com].jpg[/img] [img]http://www.emoticonking.com/emoticons/eating/045-[Eating]-[EmoticonKing.com].gif[/img]

[saucisson]

I'll have a pancake ready and waiting

Dave

[johnfb]

Drum Roll please.

Ok,just took it out of the pot.

Wife said: Ohh, it looks like real ham (not sure what she expected )

So, here are the results of the Irish vote:

Colour: 10/10
Smell: 10/10
Taste: 11/10

It IS a mild and slightly sweet recipe that has a nice immediate flavour but then builds up into a great mixture of salty and sweet with a hint of clove in the background. God, I sound like a food critic here
Haven't sliced it yet as it is too hot, but will slice it on the slicer in the morning.
A great result all round. My wife, who is hard to please, says it's beautiful.
I will never buy ham again, and that's the truth. What a great recipe. Can't wait until it's cold enough to slice for ham rolls.

Thanks for all the help Phil, a really great recipe

[wheels]

Phew, I've been on 'tenterhooks', hoping it would be OK.

[johnfb]

No way, you could only be 100% confident on that recipe.

I would urge all to try this brine out....SUPERB!!!!!!

[saucisson]

You sound like you did when you made your first bacon Well done,

Dave

[johnfb]

I know...like an expectant mother

It's a great feeling when you don't know what the hell you're doing but put your faith in those who do, and those you trust. And then it comes out better than you had hoped.

The same as your pepperami recipe...as in my PM to you the other day. A great result for little effort..but lots of pacing the floor.

I will be making your pepperarmi this weekend for my brother, along with bacon, a full ham, and a fistfull of sausages.
I'm such a show off now...

[wheels]

I don't know about Dave, but I have kittens every-time I post a recipe. With the best 'will in the world' someone's going to come back sometime and say, they don't like it.

Thanks for PM'ing me with the spices you used, John.

To explain to others, I'm having a problem when I scale this recipe up. Everything scales in proportion except the spices, which are then too much. Has anyone else found this, with either this or others?

Phil

[johnfb]

Phil,
Just to make public my last PM to you:

I will be using the supracure and the same amount of spices this weekend for my brother and I. If it becomes 4 / 5 liters of brine then I think it will double the spices, they are very subtle in the flavour and I think the meat could take it.

I really feel the spices will not mar the taste of the ham with a large amount of brine. But we will see.

I sliced up the meat this morning. The cut of meat was not great and I only managed to get a dozen or so nice slices. However, my wife's eyes lit up when she saw the rest of it. She chunked it up and is using half tomorrow for dhicken and ham pie...yummm and the rest is gone in the freezer for a lovely Dublin Coddle stew next week.

Coddle? I hear you ask:

A fab old Dublin recipe for stew, althoug we would leave out the fancy herbs at the end....

http://www.recipezaar.com/Irish-Stew-Du ... dle-313516

OR

http://www.dublin.ie/forums/showthread.php?t=6589


Anyway here are pics of the end result....really a truely great recipe:

[wheels]

The recipe looks interesting John - I've never heard of a Dublin Coddle before.

Your right though - cilantro (coriander) and basil ain't exactly traditional Irish ingredients!

[johnfb]

The recipe looks interesting John - I've never heard of a Dublin Coddle before.

Your right though - cilantro (coriander) and basil ain't exactly traditional Irish ingredients!

We eat this at least once a month, we love it. Although when people have it first they always look at the white sausage in it, as it is poached rather than fried, as if there is something wrong with it. Tastes great.

[johnfb]

In that case, we'll amend it. It now becomes a compromise between having enough cure if the level is 1%, and not having too much if its 1.5%.


Use:
1000 mls (1 litre) water
20g salt
125g sugar (white/brown - whatever takes your fancy)
170g Supracure
The spices you fancy

This will give at 1%:

129PPM Nitrite
129PPM Nitrate
Not ideal, but above the minimum of 120PPM US standard.

At 1.5%

194PPM Nitrite
194PPM Nitrate
Again, not ideal, but below the US max for Nitrite of 200PPM but slightly above current EU levels (but below pre mid-2008 levels though).

Salt and sugar will be as before (roughly).

Sorry, John - best I can do in the circumstances.

Phil

Have a ham in 8 litres of brine using the above recipe. 10% pump. I tasted the brine and was salty rarther than sweet but not overpowering so. I had 2.6 kilo piece of pork left over and have that in the fridge curing in 2 litres of the same brine.The big one will be in the brine for 14 days but the baby one I will try in 5 days and see if it is a success like the brine using cure 1.

More to follow.

[wheels]

I look forward to seeing the results.

Phil