Christmas roast ham
The upcoming Christmas season is a time that encourages culinary endeavors. Besides giving gifts, it’s a period of family feasting. That’s when our tables feature dishes we’ve prepared ourselves. Festive ham is one of those menu items that will certainly appear in many homes. Instead of buying it at the store, we suggest baking a traditional ham yourself. While preparing it does take a dozen or so days, it’s really worth it. So plan it into your holiday preparations now.
Notes
Roast ham recipe
Preparation:
Prepare a curing brine from the listed ingredients. Add saltpeter, salt, and sugar to the water. You can also add your favorite spices to the brine.
Inject the meat in several places with some of the prepared brine (approx. 60 ml per 1 kg of meat). Place the injected meat in the remaining brine. It is very important that the whole piece of ham is below the surface of the brine - this will prevent the meat from spoiling during curing. If there isn’t enough brine, add a bit more, remembering to proportionally increase the amount of salt.
You can additionally weigh the meat down from above, e.g., with a small plate, to make sure it stays below the surface of the brine.
Leave everything in the refrigerator to cure for 10 days.
After this time, remove the ham from the brine, pat it dry with a paper towel, and place it in a meat net. This step is much easier and faster with an easy-to-use net applicator and a sausage clipper.
Then place the ham in an oven preheated to 140⁰C and bake covered for about 2 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 70⁰C.
A Roman pot works perfectly here. Toward the end of baking, for the last 20 minutes, remove the lid to brown the meat.
Ham prepared this way will be juicy, and you can enjoy it both hot and cold - served with bread, preferably homemade as well.
