If someone was lucky enough to try real home-made ham, he undoubtedly immediately appreciated the difference between this delicious product and store samples. Purchased ham is directly stuffed with flavorings, flavor enhancers and various obscure substances "E". But is it possible to cook ham at home, if there is no appropriate 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.
Very simple recipe
We take the best parts of the carcass - a ham or a neck. The meat should not be frozen, but chilled. Based on one kilogram of pork, we make such a backfill. One hundred grams of salt is mixed with a teaspoon of saltpeter and 10 g of sugar. We rub the surface of the ham with this composition. We lay the pork in a wooden tub with the cuts up, and fill it with the remaining 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 salting pork falls in November. At this time, balconies are a great place to establish a tub. There should be meat 10-12 days.
Now boil 100 g of water with cloves, cinnamon, allspice and bay leaf. Cool, pour into a tub with meat, carefully stir the salt so that all the crystals are dissolved. The liquid should completely cover the pork. So ham at home should be steeped for another 15-20 days (depending on the size of the piece of meat). After that we put the ham out to dry. It should be a cold, dry and ventilated area. After that, if there is such a desire, the meat can be smoked.
Another simple ham recipe at home is this. The meat is cut into strips of 5 cm thick. 200 g of salt are dissolved in a liter of water, seasoned with spices to taste and put the pan on fire. When the brine boils, they lower the strips of pork into it for 2-3 minutes. After that, each piece is suspended in a dark, dry and well-ventilated room, where the temperature is not lower than zero, but not higher than ten degrees. There, pork should fade for about 20-30 days.
Shovdar, or Ham at home in Transcarpathian
Transcarpathia has its own way of making pork loin. Dissolve 110 g of salt in a liter of cold water. A piece of neck or ham without bone is pierced evenly with a fork. We put it in stainless dishes and pour brine. We put the load on top and set it for five days in the cold. Turn the meat daily to make it evenly salted.
Pour water into the pan, heat to 85 °. Of course, the kitchen is not a pharmacy, and you can determine the temperature by eye. Water should be very hot, but not boiling. Season it with various spices. We take the meat out of the brine and immerse it in the liquid. Turn the fire to a minimum and cook under the lid for about an hour and a half. Then the pork must be washed under running water. But temperature contrast can affect the meat’s stiffness. Therefore, it is first washed with boiling water from the kettle, then with warm water, and finally with cold water. That's all. The ham at home turned out to be fragrant and tasty.