Ham Chap

[Fatman]

Today a colleague explained he used to have a " Ham Chap " for Christmas, anybody know what that is ?

Fatman

[Fatman]

Sorry my mistake , Bath Chap not ham chap.

[Fatman]

Sorry my mistake , Bath Chap not ham chap.

[Oddley]

Bath Chap

Often referred to simply as "chaps" this food is a meat speciality, originating in the British city of Bath, that is served as a snack or as an ingredient to be combined with other foods such as potatoes or eggs. Bath chaps, which are quite fatty, are made from the meat of either a pig's cheek or a pig's jaw and formed into a shape like a cone cut vertically in half. The meat is salt cured or pickled in brine, smoked, then boiled, and coated with golden-tan colored breadcrumbs. It is then ready to eat and is served as cold meat, tasting much like cooked ham.

Here

Eadles Bath Chap

Mr and Mrs Eadle, Redways Farm, New Inn Road, Beckley, Oxford OX3 9US
- 01865 351331

Recipe

Eadles Bath Chaps are pigs cheeks taken from our own outdoor reared Landrace/Duroc Pigs. The pigs cheeks are cut off, pickled in Brine for 2-3 weeks, then soaked in fresh water over night then the next day put into a cooking bag and then boiled for 3-4 hrs. Leave to cool in the fridge, skin them off and roll in bread crumbs. Serve cold with salad or slice thinly and fry in butter for an usual delicacy. "Bath Chap" may originate from Bath although we are not sure. Some restaurants in London use Bath chaps.

Here

Hope this is useful

[Oddley]

Fatman If you make bath Chap Let me know how it came out.

I'm going down to smithfield in January - Febuary to get another 1/2 pig I am seriously thinking about picking up a pigs head to give this a go.

[Parson Snows]

Additional info on Bath Chaps

This is a British Specialty and is the lower portion of a pig's cheeks.They are cured somewhat like Bacon. Chaps must come from a long-jawed pig rather than the flat-headed species. Though quite fatty, the Bath Chaps are served cold in the same manner as as Ham would be, often with eggs. They can also be simply referred to as Chaps. The name is assumed to have come from the original reputation of the Chaps made in Bath, England


kind regards

Parson Snows

[Parson Snows]

BATH CHAPS
Region of Production South England, Wiltshire and Somerset

DESCRIPTION
Weight: 400 � 600 g, depending on the age and breed of pig.
Colour: Bath chap has the appearance of a cone cut in half vertically; the curved upper surface is covered with light brown or orange bread crumbs; when cut, the chap is streaked in layers of pink lean and white fat.
Flavour: similar to English cooked hams of the York type.

HISTORY
A Bath chap is the cheek of a pig, boned, brined and cooked. Why this delicacy should be associated with the town of Bath is not clear, except that it lies in an area which has been a centre of bacon curing. Pig�s cheeks have probably been cured and dried for as long as any other part of the animal. The word chap is simply a variant on chop which, in the sixteenth century, meant the jaws and cheeks of an animal. These are probably what Mrs. Raffald (1769) intended when she gave a recipe �To salt chops� with salt, saltpeter, bay salt and brown sugar. This called for the meat to be dried afterwards; it would be expected to keep for several months. A century later, Mrs. Beeton gave a method for drying and smoking pig�s cheeks, observing that �A pig�s cheek, or Bath chap, will take about 2 hours after the water boils� Law�s Grocers� Manual (c 1895) notes both upper and lower jaws were used, the lower, which was meatier and contained the tongue, selling at about twice the price of the upper. Several manufacturers are recorded, including Hilliers of Stroud and the Wiltshire Bacon Company (founded at the end of the nineteenth century). However, today, only two producers have been located. Bath chaps are eaten at main meals, usually with mustard. They are sold already cooked.

TECHNIQUE
Bath chaps are no longer dried, merely lightly brined. They are cut from the pig�s heads, cleaned, and boned. They are brined for a short time after which they are cooked. Subsequently, they are pressed in a mould to give the cone shape; when cold and set, the chaps are removed from their moulds and dusted with crumbs.


Taken verbatim from �The Butcher�s Manual� � John Crampton and Co. Ltd. 1929/168 pages no ISBN

�BATH CHAPS

Are the lower half of the pig�s head, after splitting, which should be done neatly. Leaving one half of the tongue on each side, place in a plain brine for 6 hours to drain all of the blood, cure for seven days in dry cure, using mixture for dry cured hams, trim neatly and dry or smoke, cook about 2 hours at 200 degrees. Remove skin when cold and dust with ham dressing.�


Hope that this is of some use to you

Kind regards

Parson Snows

NOTE: Jowls tend to have higher microbiological counts and degenerate approximately twice as fast as the flesh of the rest of the carcass. (This should start off another discussion!)

[Parson Snows]

Bath Chap Recipe

This recipe is taken from �The Art of Making Sausages, P�t�s and other Charcuterie� by Jane Grigson � 1968 (ISBN 394 73252 9)

COURT-BOUILLON �.
1 calf�s foot (2 trotters, or feet would do instead)
3 onions stuck with cloves
4 carrots cut in rounds
3 cloves of garlic
3 � cups white wine
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra water to cover

Set all this to boil

BRINE �.

This English brine produces a good jambon blanc (White Ham � another name for jambon de Paris). A joint of pork left in it for 2 or 3 days is greatly improved �. This is the best one to keep in an all � purpose brine crock

3 quarts soft or rain water
� lb. sea salt
� lb. granulated or brown sugar (about 1 � cups)
4 tablespoons saltpeter

Put all these into a large pan and bring very slowly to the boil, giving them an occasional stir.
Meanwhile cut a small square of clean cotton, linen or muslin, large enough to hold:

1 level teaspoon juniper berries
A small piece of nutmeg (ungrated, a good way of using up the last fragments of a nutmeg)
1 bay leaf
3 sprigs of thyme
1 level teaspoon peppercorns
4 cloves

Tie up the cloth so that nothing falls out. Clean the crock with soda and boiling water. Rinse thoroughly with boiling water, and dry with a clean cloth. By now the pan of brine should be boiling away. Skim off the murky froth, and take the pan away from the heat. Put in the little bag of spices and herbs and leave to get quite cold in the pan. Pour the brine through a cloth � lined strainer into the crock and put the meat in. The cooling down takes much longer than you might suppose. You can hurry it up a little by pouring the boiling brine straight into the crock through a cloth � lined strainer, and adding the bag of seasonings then. It should be removed before adding the meat to the quite cold brine. Put a board on the top, to keep the meat below the surface, and weights (I use a reddish lump of igneous rock; for this purpose stones must not be porous or crumbly). � brine for 2 to 3 days

Bath Chap

Court-bouillon as for the preceding recipes.
Half the lower jaw of a pig
Bread crumbs to finish

Ask the butcher to cut off the jaw as for a Bath chap. I usually cook it in with the rest of the head, wrapped up tightly in a cloth so that it doesn�t lose its shape. It must be salted in brine for 2 to 3 days first, however (see page 191). (My note: I have copied this above)
Simmer gently for 4 hours. Unwrap it and carefully remove the bones. Mold the jaws into a nice Bath-chap shape, and leave it to cool, with a weight on top. When it�s quite cold, cover with toasted bread crumbs and cut the end of the snout off, as it upsets some people. Chill � serve � chilled and sliced thinly, with the usual accompaniments: hard boiled eggs, green salad, mashed potato, French mustard, perhaps pickled walnuts, capers, or gherkins.

I hope that this is of some use to you

Kind regards

Parson Snows