foolproof ham recipe

[Franco]

Does anyone have a definitive recipe for a simple boiled/roast ham?


Franco

[TobyB]

Franco, are you after a recipe post curing (ie to cook your ham once cured as if so I have a brilliant one). If it's curing info you want I'm not the man to ask I'm afraid.

[Oddley]

Lol Franco use your own bacon cure with a bit of brown sugar it comes out nice. Did it at Christmas.

http://forum.sausagemaking.org/viewtopi ... highlight=

[Franco]

Oddley,
Have you tried using my cure in a brine solution?

Toby,
post your recipe when you've time.

Franco

[TobyB]

I'm afraid all figures are a bit vague as that's how I do my cooking but hopefully this will give you the idea of what I'm up to.

This is to do a roast ham delicious either hot or cold.

1 Ham (skin on) either smoked or unsmoked. If smoked soak it in cold water overnight prior to cooking.

Put ham (skin still on) in a large saucepan, cover with water (unsalted). Boil for about 2 hours.

Remove ham from water and set aside to cool. (I always save the stock and use this to make pea and ham soup using split peas I can post a recipe for that too if you want.)

Once the ham is cool enough to handle remove skin carefully leaving a good layer of fat (about 1 cm if possible) around the ham. Place ham in a roasting tin.

Score the fat in a diamond pattern all over and insert a clove(pointed end in floret facing outwards) into the corner of each diamond (my diamonds are usually about 2cm wide and 4cm long). Baste with a mixture of honey/maple syrup and Angustora bitters. I usually do this totally arbitrarily but the ingredients are safe to taste so make a mix that suits you. I often also add a little apricot jam and a dash of soy sauce but this isn't necessary. The important ingredient is the Angustora bitters any other sweetening agent can be used instead of the honey or maple syrup (I usually use honey but didn't have any to hand at Christmas and used maple syrup and was very pleased with the result and will in future use it instead of honey).

Place ham in a preheated oven (approx 180 degrees C) and roast for about forty five minutes to an hour or until the ham is golden. re apply baste as necessary. Eat either hot or cold.

Tip: Line your roasting pan with foil before putting ham into it as the baste will carmelise and then burn on the bottom of the pan and is very difficult to wash off.

Regards

Toby

[Robert May]

TobyB

Put ham (skin still on) in a large saucepan, cover with water (unsalted). Boil for about 2 hours ... Place ham in a preheated oven (approx 180 degrees C) and roast for about forty five minutes to an hour or until the ham is golden.

I have several questions is the ham boned or on the bone, and how much did it weigh?

I would also recommend using the bitters sparingly as they are very potent (former bartender).

best wishes

RM

[Oddley]

Franco I have not yet used the bacon cure for a brine. But I have an idea how to calculate it so that the meat will absorb approx the same amount as a rub.

I will do this for you and post the recipe and calculation so they can be checked.

You have to tell me:

1: How much water you want to use
2: List and weight of all other ingredients sugar spices etc

I need all that to calculate the brine.

As this is an idea only at the moment, if I hit any snags I can't get over I'll let you know

[TobyB]

I've done this with boned and unboned and smoked and unsmoked hams. The two hours was for a whole ham (of varying weights hence the "about") evidently if you use a smaller one you could boil for less although it doesn't seem to make a great deal of difference (refer to any cookery book for the cooking times for boiling a ham the boiling is the cooking the roasting is merely to crisp up the outside/set the glaze).

Agree with the use of Angustora sparingly. Sadly I've never measured the amounts but imagine that it's probably not more than 10% Angustora

[Oddley]

I have just done some rough calculations and to make a 1 gallon brine it would use somewhere in the region of 1.5 kg of your bacon cure much too expensive.

I understand that Lucus does brine cures perhaps that is something to look into.

[sausagemaker]

I Made a couple of hams week before last with Supacure
Mixed at 10% in water
Injected into the pork @ 12 - 15% and tumbled in bags for 10 minutes.
Cured for 7 days in the bag, drained rinsed & dried.
Steam cooked to internal temp 70c.

Franco if Lucas does not have a cure send me a PM

regards
sausagemaker

[Fatman]

TobyB

I also do my hams the way you have described, practically word for word.

Regards

Fatman