From Bacon to Baked Ham

I have written before how i make my own Bacon and how successful it is.

After watching a video about curing a Ham  the chef then went on to bake the Ham in the oven instead of boiling it. Not having made my own baked ham i thought i would give it a try. Instead of using a joint of leg pork that is traditional for a Ham/ Gammon for a try instead i used belly pork.

I first skinned the belly and took out the bones. The bones went into my store of bones that will one day make a good stock for some soup. Below is a list of all ingredients that where used in the cure for the pork.

With the belly now boneless and skinless the meat was rubbed well with the salt cure and placed into a plastic bag. Each day the salt draws out some liquid and this has to be discarded and the meat rubbed with the salt cure again. At the 3 and a half day stage the pork will be washed in cold water and dried the curing is now done.

This time instead of using it for bacon i will roll the bacon to form a joint that can be baked in the oven all being well it should be as good as a Ham/ Gammon. I will glaze the joint as it's cooking. All being well at Christmas i will be making my own baked Ham.

250 gm Salt
50 gm Soft brown sugar
5 gm Ground black pepper
A tea spoon each of Coriander, Black mustard seeds, Juniper berries, Fennel seeds.

I have at last finished this project, after the belly was complete i rolled the belly up and placed it for three hours into a slow cooker. " If Heston Blumenthal can cook at slow temperatures then so can i ". After three hours i took the meat out of the slow cooker and kept the water for later to be made into a soup. I used my own home made marmalade as a glaze and then put the meat in the oven for two hours on a low light.

I waited until the next day before i tried my attempt at making baked ham. My time was not wasted the flavour was all i could ask for and the glaze worked very well. As a young butcher i was responsible for cooking the cooked meats for the shops i have worked in. I used to cook full silver sides of beef, whole legs of pork and boiled and baked hams.

One thing i would say if you want to try to make your own baked ham for your Christmas dinner then first give it a try. Use a cheaper cut of meat first and i am sure that you will not be disappointed in the end result.