Do I have to boil a ham before eating....

[baringapark]

...after it has been brine cured and smoked?

Apologies if this topic has been previously covered. I am having trouble navigating as I am new here

We are fine with making our salami, bacon and dry cured hams, but are confused with brine curing hams. We brined, and smoked a large ham and then I boiled it. It taste more like pickled pork than the ham we have at Christmas time.

What is the process for a brined and smoked ham? Can it then be eaten or must it be cooked?

Many thanks

[Spuddy]

What did you use in the brine? Any Nitrites?
If you don't use some sort of nitrite cure then it won't come out like ham.

[Bad Flynch]

If your pork cannot be guaranteed to be Trichina-free, then you must cook it. Here in the U.S., pork is seldom guaranteed to be free of the parasite. I do not know about G.B.

Cooking it by boiling must be a regional variation. Here, most all of the hams are roasted. Boiled ham has a peculiar flavor, much milder than roasted and here is used in sandwich meats.

[saucisson]

Quote from DEFRA:(Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

It is one of the most widespread foodborne parasitic diseases and occurs in most countries of the European Union. The UK is believed to be free from the infection. There have been no human cases acquired from meat produced in the UK for over 30 years, but occasional cases occur in people who eat undercooked pig or horse meat produced abroad.

And elsewhere:

Found in most parts of the world with the exception of Australia and the Pacific Islands.

[wheels]

Boiling a ham is a common term - it would be better described as poaching it. Cover it in cold water and gradually bring the water to about 75�C. Cook the meat in the water, at 75�C, until the internal temperature of the meat is about 68-70�C then remove. The meat will get to about 72-75C over the next half hour or so.

You can achieve the same by putting the whole lot in the oven if your oven will run at a low enough temperature.

Hope this helps

Phil

[aris]

When you say 'remove' do you mean remove from the heat, or remove from the water?

[wheels]

Aris
I take it out of the water. I don't think it's that critical but I should advise that good practice EHO style would probably have you cook it to 72C and cool as quickly as possible.

The main thing with this method is to keep the water below 80C when cooking. If you don't you will have far greater shrinkage/weight loss.

I forgot to mention that I put onion, celery, carrot, and any other 'stewing' type veg I have in, to flavour the water.

It's more or less the same method as in this post by dougal. A similar method, from Vernon Smith using steam is here.

My neighbour, who was a golf club steward, has a ham boiler. He cooks the ham in the boiler with the ham in a roasting bag. I've yet to try this method - the logic is that none of the flavour is leeched because it's not actually 'in' the water. Obviously, the ingoing salt may need to be adjusted to allow for the 'drier' method of cooking. It looks worth a try.

Regards
Phil

[baringapark]

Thankyou all for your info and links.

This little gem from Vernon has made it infinitely more clear to me!

I was lucky enough to meet a retired small goods maker a while ago and elicit a lot of useful information from him over a few draughts.
To cut a long story short, he confirmed my opinion that the only significant difference between ham and bacon is in the cooking.

A gammon steak is fried or grilled at a high temperature so it is "bacon" A whole gammon is poached in water at a far lower temperature so it becomes "ham".

He confirmed that most of we amateurs make boiled bacon - not ham - because even simmering water at 95 deg C is far too hot.

That leads me to wonder what category does salami & prosciutto come under, being neither poached nor grilled?

[aris]

I've heard of the boiling in a roasting bag before. One of the local butchers does this for his ham off the bone. He says it keeps the ham moist.

[clivmar]

Information on curing and boiling ham can be found at: -

http://www.archive.org/details/secretso ... 00bhelrich

The recommended temperature for boiling is 155 degrees Fahrenheit. The water to be heated first then the ham placed in the water and kept to 155 F. By keeping the water at this temperature very little fat will cook out of the ham. When the ham is cooked it should remain in the water until it is very nearly cold. This will allow the ham to re-absorb the much of the nutriment, which has been drawn out during the cooking process. I have boiled ham at this temperature but waiting for the water to cool takes a long time I take it out of the water after about one hour.

The information can be found on page 74 of the book called secrets of meat curing and sausage making can be found at the above link.