I chose a suffolk cure for the ham but I put the ham in a basic cure for a day prior to going into the final cure.
Again I have lifted most of the method and ingredients from Hugh FWS River Cottage Cookbook see pages 158 - 160.
The basic brine consists of 2kg of coarse salt, 50g of saltpetre and 6 litres water boiled for 1o minutes to dissolve the salt. I then transfer this to a fermentation bucket to cool before adding the chilled ham.
To submerge the ham in the cure I weigh it down with two or three 1Kg weights sealed in a vacuum packed bag. ( you must not have any metal in the brine)
To try an keep the "brew" at the desired temperature of 3-4°C I also add a couple of plastic cold box chillers which I change twice a day.
For the Suffolk cure I bring the following to boil in a large pan and allow to cool
- 2 litres beer
- 2 litres malt vinegar
- 1.5kg salt
- 25g peppercorns
- 25g cloves
- 25g saltpetre
- 1kg soft brown sugar
Given it is a Suffolk cure then the beer just had to be Adnams
Tha ham will now spend the next 28 days in the Suffolk cure
