Cider Ham
Continuing the updates on the cures started in early February, the Cider Ham has now been cooked and sliced:
This cure started with the gift of some cider from Mark at Rockingham Forest Cider. To do this craft product justice I felt that a brine immersion cure was called for - none of your injection cured shortcuts for this ham!
A recipe was formulated using quite a high level of cider and with nice warm spice overtones, the spices you'd put in mulled cider or wine: cloves, juniper, cinnamon, allspice and coriander. A nice golden Demerara sugar was used for sweetness.
The recipe for 2 kilograms of meat was:
Cider 620gm
Apple Juice 200gm
Salt 90gm
Demerara Sugar 80gm
Saltpetre 0.57gm
Cure #1 9.7gm
Coriander seeds 10 ea.
Allspice 2 gm
Juniper berries 4 ea.
Cinnamon stick/cassia bark 2 inch
Cloves 3 ea.
All the ingredients with the exception of the cure were placed into a pan and brought to a rolling boil for 2 - 3 minutes. They were then allowed to cool. The cure was added and mixed well in to ensure that it was fully dissolved.
The meat was cured in the brine in a bag, sealed without vacuum.
It cures for 10 days per kilogram of meat, so some 20 days later a somewhat dirty piece of ham emerged - I think that the sludge is from using powdered allspice (in the absence of any whole spice).
After 8 days drying and maturing the meat was cooked in a water bath at 70°C - 75°C until the internal temperature was 72°C sealed in a bag with apple juice to give even more apple flavour.
It's a very popular ham that everyone seems to like.
This cure is one where the cure should be half the weight of the meat. It's easier to use the Ingredient Calculator below rather than work out your own amounts for the meat you have.
There are eight comments
Hi Frosty,
I don’t know what to say.
I can’t see, and don’t know, what you’ve done. So I can’t say that what you’ve done is safe.
If you’ve done as I did, then it will be safe after cooking – guaranteed!
I fully understand that curing using someone else’s recipe is a “big leap of faith”, particularly if your wife is pregnant. If are worried as to whether my cures are safe, and to be honest why should you be? Then, head over to http://forum.sausagemaking.org and ask the guys over there about them – it may help to put your mind at rest. I’m known as ‘Wheels’ over there.
I hope that you enjoy the ham.
Thanks Phil,
I am 100% sure of your recipes, I’ve tried plenty of them.
The best way I will see of making sure is to EAT it. Then if I am sick I probably won’t let the wife have any ;)
I think we may well have already spoken on the Sausage forums, I’m on there too
Frosty
Thanks Frosty. I realise who you are now. Enjoy the ham and I hope that everything goes fine with the new baby.
Thanks Phil,
We had lots of people over at the weekend and this made an outing. There was not a single person who wasn’t amazed by it!
Excellent recipe, I shall be making another.
Cheers
Frosty
Phew! Thanks goodness for that! Thanks for letting me know, it’s always good to have feedback.
Although they’re a bit of a pain, this method does produce some nice results.
Hi Phil,
Can you tell me if the cider is carbonated when you use it or did you let it go flat first?
Cheers
Hi Phil,
Just a wondering…….I’ve done this and the ham is now maturing and drying in the fridge.
I’ve cut it in half……it looks very pink – is this right? The missus is pregnant so don’t really want to feed her something that hasn’t cured properly (Obviously I still need to cook it!)
Ta
Frost