How To Prepare Air-dried Ham | Food

Date Published:: 18/02/2008

Whether tunnel-boned or stitched, and in either case salted on the inside, your leg should now be weighed: make a note of the weight.

Pour salt in a layer about 2cm thick over the base of the wine case.

Sprinkle the cracked peppercorns and coriander seeds over the salt and place the leg in the box with the lean, meaty side down and wide skin side facing up.

Pour the rest of the salt in an even layer over the leg until every bit of it is covered by at least 2cm of salt. Cover with a piece of wood or plastic that just fits inside the wine box and covers as much as possible of the leg.

Place a large weight (a stone or a concrete block will do) weighing 1½–2 times the weight of the leg on top of the board.

Leave the box in a cool, dry larder or cellar and check regularly to ensure that no mice or rats have been burrowing into the salt to get at your ham!

The weight of the ham will determine how long it should be salted: it should be left for no fewer than 3 days per kilo and no more than 4 (the latter is ‘safer’ but your ham may turn out a little on the salty side).

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Comments

Stupid question here. After hanging for 6 months can the ham be sliced and eaten without further cooking? Thanks Sean Smith

Posted by sean on 19/11/2009 19:42:21

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Is this not Hugh Fernley Whittingstalls recipe from his river cottage cookbook?

Posted by cliffy on 19/09/2009 07:49:00

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why not sea salt?

Posted by ramon on 28/08/2009 03:31:06

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with reference to your recipe for air dried ham, how do you keep the flies away from it when hanging over the warmer months? Regards

Posted by James Weedon on 07/06/2009 18:28:52

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Parma ham and Serrano ham sit amongst my favourite cured meats of all time. I am proposing to start curing my own in the course of time. It's a shame that we pay no heed to such beautiful and ancient practises and methods when our children are undertaking lessons in what today, is called food technology. The most adventurous my elder son has been allowed to be in school is making a pizza. Although more time seemed to have been devoted to the design on the packaging of such a pizza. And at a time when we're ramming eco-compliance down everyones' necks! They also made a fruit salad. This is really nothing other than a lesson in cutting things into pieces. Why teach it in January anyway, when fresh fruit is unavailable in the UK other than from imported stocks or from stocks forced under polythene? I agree that to have a class produce an air dried ham is totally impractical becuase of the time it takes. But as of yet,they have not been introduced to anything remotely interesting. Both my kids adore food of all kinds, and from all cultures around the world. No wonder they find school food tech lessons a bore. How to cut an apple in half lessons is hardly going to raise the pulse rate, is it?

Posted by Paul Anderson on 08/03/2009 20:31:05

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How to How to prepare air-dried ham, prosciutto style

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