My first (piece of) ham - with as much detail as possible...

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My first (piece of) ham - with as much detail as possible...

Postby dougal » Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:03 pm

My very first ham.

Not difficult and actually rather good.
I'll be doing another soon. :D

Here's what I did
A small (745g inc skin) rolled and tied, boneless pork leg joint, actually free range Hampshire, from Waitrose.
I found a tallish (deep) bowl that would contain the joint and in which it could be fully submerged by a fairly small quantity of brine.
Weighing the joint, minus a little juice in the packet, recorded 736g on my scales.
I put the joint in the bowl and filled it up with water, to discover the quantity of brine needed. It was conveniently pretty close to 1 litre.
I went along with the general consensus of using a brine of about 120g/l salt. Because I wanted it to be, if anything, slightly sweet rather than salty, I actually used 100g of salt, and about 100g of sugar (80g granulated and two spoonfuls of honey).
To that I added 3 fresh bay leaves and about half a dozen dried juniper berries.
And 2g of saltpetre. (Even though the convention is 6g/litre, I've decided I'd actually use slightly less next time. See later.)

I warmed the brine and stirred to get everything to dissolve, and then cooled it. Meanwhile the pork was left to warm itself up towards room temperature. Using saltpetre, one depends on the bacterial flora for the saltpetre aspect of the cure to work, so since I was going to be dosing it with lots of salt and saltpetre, I was quite happy to let all the flora develop a little before starting to deal with the bad guys.
With brine and meat both close to room temp, the meat went into the brine with a clean saucer on top to sink it. The top of the bowl was sealed with cling film and it was put on the top shelf of a fridge - where the temperature was known (from measurement) to be in the neighbourhood of 6C.

The idea was to do an "equilibrium cure" where the meat takes up all the water, saltpetre, salt and sugar that it cares to. For this the timing isn't critical. It just has to be long enough. I judged a week about the minimum at 6C for my joint. I think it could go for a couple of months without a problem.
I gave it two weeks. During that time it was actually completely ignored. I think it should have been stirred a couple of times, but no harm came of ignoring it.

After two weeks, the joint was removed from the brine and weighed - it registered 800g. Thus the weight "pickup" from the brine was 8.8%
The meat exterior was a rather white colour, like boiled pork, and with only the merest trace of pink.
I found my largest pan, and estimate its full capacity as about 7 litres.
I moved the empty pan to the cooker.
The joint was put in the pan and the pan was filled with cold water.
The joint sank to the bottom.
A small china saucer was found and put under the joint to keep it out of contact with the potentially rather hot base of the pan. The joint was still fully submerged.
A digital probe thermometer was inserted into the centre of the meat, and, using clothes pegs, a dial type meat thermometer was clipped in place to measure the water temperature.
Heat was applied at a moderate rate - much less than the ring could supply. As the water slowly warmed it was frequently stirred, not least to even out the temperature.
With the water at 60C (and the meat core in the low 30's), it was decided to taste it for saltiness, to see if the water needed to be changed to flush out excess salt from the meat.
It tasted very bland indeed.
There being no need to change the water, I added 1 and 1/2 roughly chopped carrots, half a white onion studded with 6 elderly cloves and a bouquet garni.

Once the water temperature reached the mid 70'sC, I began to turn down the heat, and the maximum water temperature was in low 80's. (The frequency of stirring of the water to equalise temperature was maintained throughout.)
From the point of starting to turn the burner down, it was only about 20 minutes until the meat temperature reached 64C, and I carefully moved the pan off the heat.
However the meat temperature continued to rise, peaking at 73C, slightly higher than I had intended.

Once the meat temperature had fallen to the mid 30'sC, the probe was removed and the meat was transferred to a small pan. The veg and herbs were put in with the meat, and the pan was filled with a little of the poaching broth.
A saucer, tin can, and 1 litre fruitjuice tetrapak were then used to apply about 2kg weight to the meat as it was set to chill in the fridge.

The following day, it was discovered that the meat, still rather pallid and grey, was set into clear jelly.
The meat was removed from the pan, the skin carved away and a sample slice immediately cut.

I really didn't want to mess around with glazes or even decorative breadcrumbs. I wanted to see and taste what I'd made!

It was beautiful pink ham inside!
Image
The colour actually appeared more even than the photo suggests...
The texture was firm, without being chewy. The meat was moist, not at all dry, and yet not "wet". And there was the jelly for a little juice.
It had a splendid ham taste. Not at all salty, not discernibly sweet, and with just a light herbal note from the bay leaves and bouquet garni. I couldn't isolate the taste of juniper or cloves, but I think that they contributed to the overall rather pleasant flavour.
It was actually damn good. Way, way better than any reasonable expectation for a first attempt. Frankly, I wasn't surprised, I was utterly astonished.
If I'm going to be super-critical, (and I tend to be, especially of myself), then I'd say that the only problem was a slightly too noticeable 'tang' from the nitrate. I'm certain I've tasted a stronger 'tang' in some commercial hams.
Anyway, next time, I intend to reduce the nitrate by perhaps 1/3, and see what happens.

Anyway, here's a rough calculation, following the equilibrium method from the FDA meat inspector's calculation handbook.
http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopic.php?t=1906 (but please note my warning about their strange idea of "percentages".)
The brine was about 1200g, lets call it 1250.
The meat was 735g, lets call it 750.
So 3/8 (750/2000) of the total was meat.
Hence, at equilibrium, 3/8 of the original 2g of potassium nitrate would be in the meat
ie 6/8 (0.75) of a gram.
Against 750g meat that is 1/1000 th of the meat weight.
Which is 1000ppm (potassium) nitrAte "ingoing" against the FDA limit of 700ppm ingoing in immersion cured (non-bacon) meat for US sale. (Note that the limit is just 200ppm for ingoing nitrIte.)
Remembering that their limit is calculated for *sodium* nitrate, and that I used potassium, there's a 20% adjustment that the FDA don't bother with for simplicity, so I don't think my 1000 against an adjusted limit of 940 was actually anywhere near dangerous.
But I do actually think it would have been (even) better with less. Even if the "standard" brine advised on this site is 6g/litre saltpetre and dear Mrs Grigson advises more than double that (2oz/gallon), next time I'll be trying about 1.3g/litre...
If I had used 1/3 less saltpetre, with the same meat and quantity of brine, I'd have hit 667 ppm.
I'll take more careful aim next time.
But I think I may have to buy a set of drug dealer's scales to weigh out such tiny quantities accurately...

I reckon that my equilibrium salt content of the meat would have been about 5%, but doing the simmering in water that was 10x the weight of meat, left it perhaps slightly lower than the 2% salt found in a typical commercial ham. Anyway, the final salt level was just fine for me.

I offer the above in the hope that it may be helpful to others contemplating having a go.
I'd strongly recommend that you give it a try.
Once you get past the stage of total confusion, its actually pretty easy!

EDIT: added the photo (2 attempts!), closed a bracket, and fixed two insignificant typo's
Last edited by dougal on Fri Aug 18, 2006 3:48 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Postby lemonD » Fri Aug 18, 2006 8:56 am

Dougal,
Thanks for sharing the info, I'll be doing my first ham soon.
Did you weigh the cooked ham?
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Postby dougal » Fri Aug 18, 2006 9:47 am

lemonD wrote:... Did you weigh the cooked ham?

No!
I was in far too much of a hurry to taste the thing!
I fully intended to, but somehow... sorry!
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Postby jenny_haddow » Fri Aug 18, 2006 10:19 am

Dougal,

Many thanks for such a precise and erudite account of your first ham. I'm sure those of us who have hovered around this area will now take the initiative and have a go.

Cheers

Jen
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Postby wittdog » Fri Aug 18, 2006 1:21 pm

Dougal in regards to the "slightly more tang" from the nitrates rayther than changing the amount of nitrates you might want to consider the amount of time that the ham was in the brine and cut back on the time. I've had the same issues and have found that by cutting back on the cure time the undesrirable tang is not an issue...Also try the ham today today after it's been cooled in the fridge and the flavors have set.....the flavor profile will change......When I've done hams I've done large one's 20lbs and I inject them with the cure and then brine them for about a week...and have good results....just my .02 I glad to hear that you ham project was a sucess...here is a couple of pics of the last ham I did
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Image
Image
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Postby jenny_haddow » Fri Aug 18, 2006 2:03 pm

Well, I'm hovering no longer. I've been to Waitrose and I have an 820gram piece of boned leg in brine and in the fridge.

Jen
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Postby dougal » Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:00 pm

I've added a (not-that-great) picture of my bit of ham to the main post at the top of the thread.

wittdog wrote:Dougal in regards to the "slightly more tang" from the nitrates rayther than changing the amount of nitrates you might want to consider the amount of time that the ham was in the brine and cut back on the time. I've had the same issues and have found that by cutting back on the cure time the undesrirable tang is not an issue...Also try the ham today today after it's been cooled in the fridge and the flavors have set.....the flavor profile will change......When I've done hams I've done large one's 20lbs and I inject them with the cure and then brine them for about a week...and have good results....just my .02 I glad to hear that you ham project was a sucess...here is a couple of pics of the last ham I did ...

Thants Wittdog, yours is indeed pretty!

The tangy taste aspect (almost an aftertaste) was indeed most pronounced in the first two days (or near the outside!) Before tasting it, I had allowed it to sit for over 12 hours cooling and equilibrating with its broth/jelly. I was a little surprised that it still seemed to be maturing after that.
I suspect that the 'tang' isn't actually nitrate itself, but rather is related to its decomposition products - which might account for the lack of flushing out, and the subsequent maturing.
I'm sure I've detected such a 'tang' in commercially cured hams that used nitrIte (rather than nitrAte) for curing.
This whole 'tangy' thing is a bit of a minor perfectionist distraction. It was very nice ham.

As regards the time in the brine, my intention was specifically to cure to equilibrium. Referring to Jane Grigson's "Charcuterie..." I found that she felt that the cure could be achieved in as little as 3 days for a small piece of meat like mine - BUT that was at ambient temperature, albeit probably in a cool room. She felt that there was no problem holding the meat in the brine for at least a month. However, because I was using a temperature at least 10C colder than she would be expecting, it seems reasonable (from basic chemistry) to allow rather longer, like at least double.
Once equilibrium has been achieved, it isn't going to get any saltier. There might be a question about how long the bacteria/nitrate reactions might take. But I suspect that the hardening effect of nitrate might be part of the limitation on the maximum time.

Incidentally, Mrs Grigson's basic brine ("saumure anglaise") uses equal quantities of salt and sugar, however the saltpetre concentration varies in different recipes (and in her "English Food") being 1 or 2 ounces per 5 pints of water. Thats roughly 10 to 20 g/litre of saltpetre. I used 2 g/litre, and intend to try with a bit less next time.
The impression I have is that while the salt and sugar may be diluted out during (soaking and/or) simmering, the nitrate or its products are not diluted away so easily.


Jenny - how much saltpetre are you using (and how are you measuring it?) Now its in the fridge, you've got at least a week to wait and salivate!
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Postby jenny_haddow » Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:35 pm

Hi Dougal,

I've followed your lead here with 2 grams of saltpetre which I weighed with digital scales. They seem to be very sensitive and register the slightest addition to the weighing bowl. My fridge is at 6c. also digital, so I can hopefully keep reasonable control of things, my other fridge is ramped up to 10c for my stilton which looks pretty mean!
I'm going to give the ham a week, and then have a look. If it's any thing like your picture I'll be well chuffed.

Cheers

Jen

Wittdog, that's a great looking ham.
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Postby wittdog » Fri Aug 18, 2006 5:50 pm

Dougal one other think on note...after brining I brush the outside of the ham...and rinse in water that might also help with the little bit of tang..your pic looks great of the ham...I like to get one that size and wrap some pork belly around it and then smoke it...Jenny good luck with your ham..can't wait to hear about it and see the pics.
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Postby dougal » Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:00 pm

jenny_haddow wrote:...I've followed your lead here with 2 grams of saltpetre which I weighed with digital scales. They seem to be very sensitive and register the slightest addition to the weighing bowl. ...

Jen - as long as you appreciate that I used 1 litre of brine with 2g/litre saltpetre. The calculation comes out slightly differently with the same weight of meat and 2 litres of the same brine, or 2 litres of brine with 2g saltpetre... and of course the calc is altered by the meat weight.
But 2g/litre is enough to work, and not way OTT, like some of Mrs G's traditional recipes.

My digital scales weigh in 2g 'clicks' - so this time, I weighed out 16g and cut it half (8g) then again (4g) and again (2g). The eye is pretty good at spotting inequalities...
I'm going to have to shell out for a scale with 0.1g (or even 0.01g) 'clicks'. These seem to be available over the net for not much more than a tenner...
My normal approach is to make up a stock solution and then measure quantities of that (being larger quantities of solution containing the tiny saltpetre quantities).

The photo, showing the knife cuts, gives some idea of the spot-on texture, but doesn't do justice (on my screen anyway) for the nice, and generally even, pink colour of the inside. And you can see the hole left by the probe thermometer!

Wittdog, thanks. I tried not to carry over any brine into the simmering pot. I have seen advice to soak whole hams for a day or two before simmering, but with my 750g piece and large simmering pot, I wasn't too worried about it. Hey, next time!
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Postby jenny_haddow » Fri Aug 18, 2006 7:15 pm

Hi Dougal,
I also used 1 litre of brine, our piece of pork was around the same size. I did think of sealing it in a plastic bag so it was suspended in the brine, but I had a suitable container that allowed it to float with a saucer on top.
I bought my scales to measure out accurate amounts of material for mixing glazes (pottery and cooking go hand in hand, when my OH says I make a good casserole he isn't always referring to the food!).
So, I'm using the watchword of treating curing ingredients with respect, and pleased to have lots of good advice on hand.
If this works out I can see I shall be walking past yet another counter in the supermarket.

Cheers

Jen
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Postby jenny_haddow » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:55 am

Just had a look at my ham, all seems well. I turned it over so the saucer is weighing down on the other end. Back in the fridge till Friday when I think I'll take it out and cook it. Such excitement!

Jen
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Postby wittdog » Mon Aug 21, 2006 12:46 pm

Jenny how are you planning on cooking it...are you going to smoke it? :D
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Postby jenny_haddow » Mon Aug 21, 2006 4:29 pm

Hi Wittdog,

I'll cook it as Dougal did probably, it's only a small piece and I can see it disappearing very quickly once the old man gets wind of it. Depending on the weather, always a factor here in the UK I may fire up the barbecue and give it some smoke, but I'm very new to smoking and its all a bit experimental at this stage. Could I hot smoke it?

Jen
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Postby wittdog » Mon Aug 21, 2006 9:56 pm

If you hot smoked it the texture would be much different the what in the states is conisdered a "super market" ham...
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