Getting ready for Christmas: ham at home

If someone was lucky enough to try this homemade ham, he, undoubtedly, immediately appreciated the difference between this delicious product and store samples. The purchased ham is directly stuffed with flavors, flavor enhancers and various incomprehensible substances "E". But is it possible to cook ham at home, If there is no corresponding equipment? Yes, and now we will prove it. There are several ways. This process is long and in some cases laborious, but the result is worth it.

A very simple recipe

We take the best parts of the carcass - ham or neck. Meat should not be frozen, but chilled. On the basis of one kilogram of pork we make such a backfill. One hundred gram of salt is mixed with a teaspoon of saltpeter and 10 g of sugar. We rub this surface with the ham. We put the pork in a wooden tub with the incisions upwards, fill the rest with the mixture. We cover the container and put it in a cold place. In Europe, ham at home is preparing for Christmas (December 25), so the process of pickling pork is in November. At this time, balconies - an excellent place to establish a tub. There the meat should be 10-12 days.

Now boil 100 g of water with cloves, cinnamon, sweet pepper and bay leaf. Cool, pour into the tub with meat, diligently stir the salt, so that all the crystals are dissolved. The liquid must completely cover the pork. So ham at home should be soaked for another 15-20 days (depending on the size of the piece of meat). After this, the ham is hung to dry. This should be a cold, dry and ventilated room. After that, if there is such a desire, the meat can also be smoked.

Another simple recipe for ham at home is as follows. Meat is cut with strips 5 cm thick. In a liter of water, dissolve 200 g of salt, season with spices to taste and put the pan on the fire. When the pickle boils, pork strips are lowered into it for 2-3 minutes. After this, each piece is suspended in a dark, dry and well ventilated room, where the temperature is not below zero, but not more than ten degrees. There, pork should languish for about 20-30 days.

Shovdar, or Ham at home in the Transcarpathian way

In Transcarpathia has its own way of cooking pork loin. In a liter of cold water, dissolve 110 g of salt. A piece of neck or ham without a bone is pierced evenly with a fork. We put it in stainless dishes and fill it with brine. We put the load on top and put it out for five days in the cold. Every day the meat is turned over so that it evenly salts out.

Pour into the pan water, heat up to 85 °. Of course, the kitchen - not a pharmacy, and you can determine the temperature by eye. The water should be very hot, but not boiling. Season it with various spices. We take the meat from the brine and immerse it in liquid. Fold the fire to a minimum and cook under the lid for about an hour and a half. Then the pork must be rinsed under running water. But the contrast of temperatures can affect the fact that the meat will become stiff. Therefore, first wash with boiling water from the kettle, then - warm, and at the end - with cold water. That's all. Ham at home was a fragrant and tasty.