Home cured ham

[Slinwagh]

I did this last Christmas and it was well worth it, there is little effort required but it takes a fair bit of time, 9 1/2 days in total!

Ingredients:

1800 g salt 12 litres water
2 heads of garlic.
Zest of 2 lemons.
Zest of 4 oranges.
6 sprigs of rosemary
4 cinnamon sticks
Bunch of thyme
14 bay leaves
14g star anise
300g coriander seeds
4g cloves
8g allspice
2g juniper berries

The ham.

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Dissolve the salt in hot water, allow it to cool before you put the ham in.

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb43/Slinwagh/IMAG0071.jpg

Chop up the thyme and rosemary, zest the fruit and and all the spices to a muslin cloth.

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Tie the muslin so nothing can fall out.

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Put everything into the brine.

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That is everything you need to do for the first 7 days.

After 7 days you wash the ham and soak it in clean water for 24 hours, the more you change the water, the more salt you remove, last year changing the water 3 times was enough.

After the 24 hours are up you cook it, bring the pan to the boil and then place it in the oven at 60'c for 32 hours!.

[Slinwagh]

And you end up with this.......

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb43/Slinwagh/IMG_0171.jpg

[Desmo]

MB did this last year and it tasted damn bloody nice. Not sure if he used the same ingredients as you or not though.

[Jonny69]

Mmmmm that looks really good. I hate supermarket gammon (what makes it taste like that? :p) but home made bacon and ham... YUM!

I'd heard that if you use 5-10% saltpetre in with the salt it preserves the colour of the ham, but it looks like yours has remained pink.

[Desmo]

I was wrong, MB did bacon. I remember eating the massive bacon sarnies at his :D

[lostkat]

Were they vertical Desmo? Uh huh huh huh huh :p

That does look like a jolly nice ham. Mum does our hams but I'm sure she doesn't bake them for that long!!

[Glaucus]

*insert drooling smiley here*
Darn that looks good and was going to ask about this the other week. Wanting to do one for Christmas.
Although I've been looking at wet cured recipes.

[Slinwagh]

That is wet cured but you also roast it. Not sure why !?

[Glaucus]

Doh' should read the instructions between the photos.
Exclent will be making this then.

[Desmo]

Were they vertical Desmo? Uh huh huh huh huh :p
Yes.....with a little sauce.

[Slinwagh]

Right nearly 4 days in.....

http://i205.photobucket.com/albums/bb43/Slinwagh/IMAG0078.jpg

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All I have done is turn it over, it comes out of the brine on Tuesday and then into the oven.

The smell when I took the lid of was fantastic, spicy and citrus.