Pork ham simple recipe. Juicy pork ham baked in the oven

You can prepare this ham in advance and reheat it before serving if you plan to serve it as a main hot dish. Or slice thinly and serve as cold cuts, delicious either way.

First, prepare the brine. To do this, pour three liters of good, clean water into a large saucepan. Add coarse salt, brown sugar, juniper peas and allspice, dried rosemary, marjoram and thyme. Bring everything to a boil and simmer for three minutes.

Cool the brine completely and put the washed piece of pork ham into it. Close the lid and put it in the refrigerator for a day to salt.

We take the salted meat out of the brine and stuff it. Stuff with garlic cloves and pickled pearl onions (optional).

Fold the stuffed meat in half and tie it tightly with kitchen twine. Place on double-folded foil placed on a baking sheet, pour in soy sauce and close the foil tightly.

Place the baking sheet with the meat in the oven, heated to 180 degrees, and cook for twenty minutes. Then we reduce the temperature to 160 degrees and cook the meat for another hour and a half.

If you have a piece larger or smaller than mine, weighing two kilograms, then the algorithm is as follows: + 20 minutes of baking for each kilogram.

Take out the finished ham, let it cool slightly, open the foil slightly, pour the juice and fat into a saucepan. Place the saucepan on the fire, pour wine into it, add coriander seeds and evaporate the liquid by half. Add fresh thyme leaves or chopped sage leaves, this will be a sauce for the meat.

Unwrap the meat, remove the twine and serve with sauce.

An excellent side dish for such a baked ham would be potatoes baked in the oven, or baked with herbs and garlic, a mix of root vegetables, carrots, parsnips, try it, it’s very tasty!

If the meat is cooked in advance, then do not touch it, do not unwrap it, but cool it in foil and twine and store it in the refrigerator for two to three days. A strong, tannic wine with good aging will go well with this meat.

Salting meat and lard at home has long been the most common way of preparing them. This method has not been forgotten even now. To prepare delicious salted pork ham at home, use fresh, lean pork.

For this type of preparation, only meat from a healthy animal is suitable. If the pig was sick with something, then after slaughtering it, the meat will have to be boiled - it cannot be salted or smoked, since salt does not destroy microorganisms, but only delays their development.

Before salting, the hams should be kept in the cold for 1-2 days.

A new barrel or one after pickling cucumbers or cabbage is suitable for pickling, but the barrel cannot be used after fish or non-food products. Before using the barrel after vegetables, soak it, scald it with boiling water and ventilate it. This will eliminate the specific smell. We check whether the barrel is leaking: pour boiling water into it, close the hole in the lid and roll it from side to side; if there are cracks, steam will come out of them. The lid or circle should be made of wood, not plywood or chipboard; these materials delaminate and poison the brine with glue.

Preparing meat for salting.

We begin preparing the hams for salting. We cut off the hind limb from half the pork carcass and butcher it. First, we cut off the leg at the joint, remove the tail vertebrae, fatty parts on the outer and inner sides, and give the piece of ham an oval shape.

Salting meat.

We cut the prepared ham between the tibia bones, small and large, and thoroughly rub the mixture both in the cut and on all sides. Pour more mixture into the cut so that the meat does not spoil. We put the salted hams in an oak or beech barrel, which we will prepare in advance.

Pour a little pickling mixture into the bottom of a clean barrel, lay the hams horizontally, making sure that the skin is on the bottom, sprinkle each with salt and seasonings, close with a lid or a mug and place in a cold place (temperature 2-5°C). This temperature is considered optimal for salting; at a higher temperature, the meat can spoil, and at a lower temperature, it can be unevenly salted. After a few days, the brine should come out, then we put pressure on top of the circle.

Dry salting of meat lasts 2 weeks. After that, fill it with cold brine, cover it with a circle, and put pressure on top. The oppression is usually a large smooth stone, previously washed and scalded with boiling water. After 2-3 weeks the meat was salted.

The dry mixture for salting meat usually includes food-grade potassium or sodium nitrate. Saltpeter, which is used for fertilizers, should not be used under any circumstances. Saltpeter is not a preservative; with its help, meat only retains a beautiful pink tint, and without it it turns gray. If you don’t have saltpeter and nowhere to get it, and the color of the meat suits you, then you can do without it. Instead of saltpeter, you can use ascorbic acid; it also gives the meat a faint pinkish color, and besides, vitamin C is useful, unlike saltpeter. Ascorbic acid should be added to the brine at 0.5 g per 1 liter of water, and for dry salting - 0.5 g per 1 kg of meat. Sugar is also added to give the finished product a faint pink color.

We prepare a dry mixture for pickling from 1 kg of salt, 16 g of saltpeter, 50 g of sugar, you can also add crushed garlic, cinnamon or allspice.

For 5 kg of ham, take a large glass (250 ml) of the mixture.

We prepare the brine from 0.5 kg of salt, 100 g of sugar, 50 g of saltpeter, 10 liters of boiled water.

Cooking ham.

The meat is salted, but it is not completely cooked yet. If we want to cook boiled hams, then we boil the salted meat, and if they are dried or raw smoked, we smoke them in a smokehouse over smoke. The following tree species are suitable for smoking: oak, birch, ash, alder, beech. You cannot smoke over coniferous or birch bark wood.

Or you can cook it, it will also be very tasty.

Smoked hams store well all winter, because smoke is a preservative, and boiled and baked in dough can be stored in a cold place for about a month. All home-cooked meat should be juicy with a pleasant ham flavor.

See also video: Prosciutto - Italian cured ham or ham.

The ham is the hip or shoulder part of the carcass. In an animal, be it a pig, a cow or a rabbit, these are the areas where the most developed muscles are located, that is, the meat is quite tough. For more than a thousand years, Europeans have learned to cook pork ham so that it turns out juicy and soft.

How to cook pork ham: video recipe

Pork ham Provençal style

If you have a fresh pork carcass, the ham must be smoked. You can also buy ready-made smoked ham. For 1 kg of meat you will need: - tomatoes – 0.5 kg; - onion – 1 pc.; - eggplant – 1 pc.; - zucchini – 1 pc.; - bell pepper – 2–3 pcs.; - garlic; - Bay leaf; - a mixture of dry Provençal herbs – 2–3 tsp; - thyme – 1 pc.; - rosemary – 1 pc.; - ground black pepper; - vegetable broth – 0.5 cups; - olive oil - 3 tbsp. l.

Start cooking the ham by preparing the herbs. Wash the thyme and rosemary greens thoroughly, chop very finely and divide the entire amount into two parts. Chop the onion as well. Pour olive oil into a saucepan and place the ham in it. Fry it until a light crust appears on all sides. Add the onion and half the thyme and rosemary mixture. Fry the ham over medium heat for 2-3 minutes.

Pour in the vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then cover the saucepan with a lid and simmer the ham for an hour. While it is simmering, prepare the remaining ingredients. Wash the zucchini and eggplant and cut into thin rings. Remove the center of the pepper and cut it into cubes.

Peel a few cloves of garlic and chop very finely. Cut the tomatoes into slices. Squeeze the pulp into the vegetables; place the hard outer parts in a saucepan. Mix the vegetables, place in a frying pan and fry in olive oil until cooked. After adding the tomatoes to the ham, simmer for about another quarter of an hour. Serve the ham along with the vegetable mixture.

Provencal herbs can be bought in a hypermarket in the department where they sell various spices and seasonings

Pork ham baked in foil

Ham baked in foil cooks quite quickly. Of course, this requires an oven and food foil. The products you will need are: - pork ham – 1 kg; - garlic – 5–6 cloves; - tomato paste – 2 tbsp. l.; - salt and pepper to taste.

Peel the garlic and cut the cloves into thin slices. Season the ham with salt and pepper.

Salt and pepper can be pre-mixed

Cut the ham in several places. Place a slice of garlic in each cut. If there are several plates left, place them on the surface of the meat at approximately equal distances from each other. Wrap the ham in foil so that all the meat is covered. Make another layer and leave the meat for about an hour to allow the marinade to form inside.

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Place the ham on a baking sheet. It takes about an hour and a half to bake a 1 kg piece. Remove the meat, unwrap it, brush with tomato paste. Instead of pasta, you can use mustard sauce - the ham will be more spicy. Place the meat back on the baking sheet, but you no longer need to wrap it in foil.

Bake for about another quarter of an hour. Check if your dish is ready. The control method is traditional - pierce the meat with a sharp knife or fork. There will be liquid left on them. If it is transparent, the dish can be served. If the juices are pink, bake the ham for a few more minutes.

All over the world, pork is considered one of the most popular and consumed types of meat. This is due not only to the taste of the product, but also to its benefits and versatility, since all parts of the pork carcass have excellent uses in different dishes.

The most sought-after part of pork is the meaty and juicy ham. It is ideal for different types of processing - baked in the oven, roasted on a spit, processed into minced meat, smoked, boiled, etc. However, any pork dish will taste excellent if prepared correctly.

What is softer - ham or shoulder?

Pork ham is the most expensive and the most delicious and tender part of the pig. This is a cutting from the hip or scapulohumeral section. The juicy ham is quite large, so for sale, butchers cut it into 2 parts.

• Lower- pulp on the bone, which is often bought for drying, frying and pickling.
• Top part(loin) has no bones. Excellent for cooking kebabs and schnitzels, cutlets and steaks on the grill.

The most delicious and tender, without a doubt, is the meat from that part of the animal that is not involved in the motor process. Starting from the back and the part closest to the tail will be the most juicy when finished.

How to choose?

If you want to buy a good ham, you should pay special attention to the pulp and skin of the pig. Light beige or white skin demonstrates a high-quality and undamaged product. The presence of yellowness on it indicates that the meat of an old individual is laid out on the counter. And the presence of pigment spots is an indicator of a sick animal. Fresh meat has virtually no smell.

The structure of the pork should be dense and elastic. You can check this by pressing the pulp with your finger - there should not be a dent at the point of pressure.

The color of the pork should not be too dark, as this usually indicates the advanced age of the animal from which it was obtained.

But too light a ham is not always an indicator of freshness. A pig that has been fed hormones will also have pale meat.

The white color on pork is only good for the fat layer. If it has a pink or yellow tint, it is better to look for another ham to buy.

You can choose a ham on the bone or without it, based on what you plan to cook. The boneless part is used to prepare boiled pork and all kinds of kebabs, lula kebab, dry-cured jamon, meatballs, and escalopes. This upper hind leg of the animal is the fleshiest.

The front part of the bone-in pork leg is intended for baking, grilling, stewing and smoking.

Calorie content and composition

Pork ham is first-class meat, which, according to all its quality characteristics, is considered one of the most valuable parts of the carcass. But even the high calorie content and controversial opinions about pork in relation to dietary nutrition do not detract from its merits. Pork is a more digestible meat than lamb. And it has much less cholesterol than beef. BJU will clearly tell you about the meat.

For 100 grams of pork meat there is:

• 17.68 g proteins;
• 23.20 g fat;
• 0.02 g carbohydrates.

The calorie content of pork is 270.23 kcal or 1131 kJ.

Cooking method

Such a delicacy as smoked pork ham can be prepared at home, if you have a smokehouse on your farm. You will need a fresh ham and some smoking ingredients. And also a good supply of patience, because the cooking process is not so simple. Although the result is worth it!

Ingredients:

• pork - ham;
• salt;
• sugar;
• peppercorns;
• laurel leaf;
• water.

Cooking method.

• Prepare brine for meat ham in the following proportions: for 1 liter of water - 100 g of salt, 1 tbsp. l. granulated sugar, bay leaf and peppercorns to taste.
• Place the meat in a container of suitable size and add brine to cover the entire pork. Place the container in a cool place for a week.
• Remove the salted pork from the brine and hang it on hooks to air for about 8 hours.
• Then put the ham in the smokehouse for half an hour until it turns golden brown.
• Afterwards, place the pork from the smokehouse into a special baking sleeve, squeeze out all the air from there and tie it up. Place in a large saucepan and pour water on top. Press the sleeve so that it does not float up. Cook for 1.5 hours in moderately boiling water.
• Remove the finished product from the sleeve and hang it to air dry.

Dried

• Prepare the ham with the skin but without the bone. Rub it well with salt. Place in a stainless steel bowl, skin side down. Place cling film under it and press with a weight of 5 kg. Refrigerate while salting. It is defined as follows: for 0.5 kg of pork - one day.
• Every couple of days you need to check that the entire ham remains in the salt and drain off any liquid that is released. Add salt as needed. The pork should firm up. If necessary, add additional salt and leave for another couple of days.
• Then remove salt and rinse the meat with cold water, dry with kitchen towels.
• Cover areas of flesh without skin with peppered slices of lard. Wrap the ham in 4 layers of gauze and tie with twine.
• Hang in a cool, ventilated, dry room (at 15 C and humidity about 70%) and keep there for up to 5 months. A properly prepared ham loses 1⁄2 of its original weight during this period.
• Remove the remaining fat from the dried ham and carefully cut off the skin. Cut the meat with a sharp knife into thin, almost translucent slices and enjoy.

Boiled

Another labor-intensive, but very tasty way to cook pork. The recipe calls for the ham of a young and not very fatty pig.

Ingredients:

• 5 kg pulp;
• 200 g salt;
• 10 g soda;
• 15 g sugar;
• 10 g coriander;
• 3 buds of cloves;
• 15 pcs. black pepper;
• 15 pcs. allspice;
• 5 laurel leaves;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• 2.5 liters of water.

How to cook:

• Remove the bone from the ham. Soften the seasonings in a mortar, combine them with salt, add sugar and soda. Divide the mixture into 2 equal parts. Rub one of them thoroughly into the pork.
• Place the meat in an enamel pan under the lid, press down on top with a weight. Leave for two days at room temperature.
• Boil 2.5 liters of water, cool it, add the remaining seasonings, pour brine over the meat, keep it cool (+4 - +8 C) for 3 weeks. Turn the ham every two days.
• Then remove the pork and rinse it. Dry well, tie with culinary thread, keeping the turns at a distance of 2 cm from each other. If the ham is large, roll it into 2 rolls.
• Place the meat in a large pan, fill with boiling water so that the ham is covered with water.
• Boil and then simmer over low heat for 2-3 hours. While the liquid is evaporating, add water.
• The readiness of the boiled ham is determined by using a fork: when the device enters without effort, the pork is ready. It is important not to overcook the meat, otherwise it will be tasteless and difficult to cut.

Recipes

Pork ham is usually prepared as a second dish, as a main course. Meat in foil baked in the oven turns out delicious if you fry it in a frying pan, salt it or bake it on a spit without removing the bones. Pork is combined with mushrooms, potatoes, tomato and sweet and sour sauces. Experimenting with its preparation at home is a real pleasure for the cook.

Roast pork with citrus glaze

Using this simple recipe, you can quickly prepare an original treat for a festive feast. Or make such a ham for dinner, pleasantly surprising your household.

First, the pork ham needs to be boiled until tender, and then baked in the oven for a fragrant orange-mustard crust. The spices permeate the pork with their aroma, and the result is amazingly tender, not very fatty meat. It is not forbidden to eat it even if you are on a diet. Of course, without overeating, and this is difficult, given the appetizing visuals and taste of the dish.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 kg of ham;
• 3 laurel leaves;
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns;
• 30 pcs. dry cloves;
• 1 tbsp. l. salt.

Glaze:

• 2 tbsp. l. orange jam;
• 2 tbsp. l. Sahara;
• 2 tsp. mustard powder;
• 2 tbsp. l. cognac

How to cook.

• Wash the pork and place in a large saucepan with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat, then reduce it and cook for 10 minutes.
• Pour water from the pan and pour in cold water, boil again and add bay leaves and peppercorns.
• Cook the pork covered. Cooking time is calculated based on the weight of the ham - up to 60 minutes are required for 1 kg of meat. In 30 min. Before the end of cooking, it’s time to add salt to the broth.
• Remove the pork from the broth and leave to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Bake it on it, placing a baking sheet down to collect the leaking fat.
• While the pork is cooling, make the orange glaze. In a shallow bowl, combine jam, mustard powder, granulated sugar and cognac.
• Cut the skin off the warm ham with a knife, leaving only a layer of fat. Using the edge of a knife, make 30 punctures around the perimeter of the piece and insert cloves into the punctures.
• Thickly coat the ham on all sides with the orange mustard glaze.
• Bake in an oven preheated to 180 C for 30 minutes until golden brown. During baking, you need to turn the meat over once to ensure even browning.

Pork in the sleeve

Ingredients:

• ham;
• 50 g honey;
• 60 g olive oil;
• 7 cloves of garlic;
• 3 laurel leaves;
• lemon;
• salt;
• spices.

Cooking method.

• Prepare the meat: wash well, dry, scrape with a knife. If there is a bone, cut on one side and carefully cut it out.
• Peel and chop the garlic.
• Place the ham cut side up, apply garlic to the meat, rub it in, then sprinkle spices and salt over the entire piece.
• Roll the ham tightly and tie with a tight thread.
• Prepare a mixture of oil, spices, honey and lemon juice. Grease the ham and place it in a sleeve with laurel leaves. Bake in the oven for 1.5 hours (temperature 180).
• Cool naturally and remove the thread.

Pork in a “fragrant coat”

Ingredients:

• ham;
• 2 tbsp. l. pine nuts;
• 100 g Parmesan cheese;
• 30 g butter;
• basil;
• White bread;
• 3 cloves of garlic;
• salt.

How to cook.

• Grind the bread crumb in a blender. Heat the butter in a frying pan and fry the bread crumbs for about 5 minutes. Remove from stove, cool.
• Grind fresh basil in a blender along with garlic and a tablespoon of pine nuts. Add cheese and olive oil, add salt and pepper and beat well. Combine sauce with toasted bread crumbs.
• Dry the pork well, make a wide and deep cut in the piece, pour a little sauce into it and sprinkle with pine nuts.
• Tie the ham with thread and coat all sides with sauce. Transfer to a baking sheet, cover with foil and place in an oven preheated to 200 C to bake for a couple of hours.
• 25 minutes before it is ready, remove the foil to allow the crust to set.
• Remove the finished meat from the oven and cover with foil for 10 minutes. Then cut into portions.

Meat dishes are always the main thing on the holiday table. Smoked pork ham is one of the popular delicacies among smoked meat lovers. The delicate taste and pleasant smoky aroma leave no one indifferent, especially if this dish is prepared at home from natural products.

Composition, calorie content and benefits of smoked pork ham

Smoked ham is a very satisfying dish. It is consumed as an independent snack, for example, with horseradish or mustard. They are also used to prepare all kinds of dishes - soups, broths, appetizers, casseroles, salads, pizza.

Cooking meat by smoking preserves almost all the beneficial substances in it. The ham contains such useful minerals as: iodine, iron, fluorine, calcium, magnesium. As well as a large amount of vitamins PP and B groups.

The product is well absorbed by the body, satisfies hunger for a long time, gives vitality and energy. But, like any smoked delicacies, you should not consume it in large quantities. This can lead to excess weight, gastrointestinal and cardiovascular problems.

The calorie content of ham depends on how it is prepared. A boiled-smoked product has less calories, since after the smoking process it is still boiled. With this treatment, the amount of fat is reduced.

100 g of boiled smoked ham contains:

• Protein – 14.0 g.
• Fat – 26.0 g.
• There are no carbohydrates.
• Calorie content is 306 kcal.

100 g of hot smoked ham contains:

• Belkov – 15 g.
• Fat – 50 g.
• There are no carbohydrates.
• Calorie content 510 kcal.

How to salt a ham for smoking

As with any meat, the process of smoking a ham begins with marinating, or rather, salting. For dishes, it is recommended to use enamel containers or barrels made of natural wood. There are several types of salting meat that are suitable for both hot and cold smoking.

Salting ham with dry spices

Prepare the mixture for salting according to the following proportions: 1 kg of coarse salt, 150 g of sugar, 20 g of saltpeter (food grade), ground black pepper.

Place a small layer of salt on the bottom of the salting dish. Place the meat on top, generously rubbed with the curing mixture. Place the hams skin side down. Also fill the gaps between the legs with the mixture.

Meat should be salted at a temperature from + 2⁰С to +5⁰С for at least 2 weeks. After marinating, remove the ham from the brine, soak in cold water for 5 hours and hang in a ventilated place to dry (8-12 hours).

Salting in brine

Prepare the brine: add 750 g of salt, 180 g of sugar, 20 g of saltpeter to 10 liters of water. Bring to a boil until all ingredients dissolve, let cool.

Place the hams, skin side down, in the prepared bowl, topping them with spices (bay leaf, garlic, allspice). Pour chilled and strained brine over them. The liquid should completely cover the meat.

Salt the meat for 4 weeks in a cool place. Afterwards, the hams are soaked and hung out to dry.

Mixed Ambassador

To begin with, the meat is salted with a dry salt mixture at the rate of: 50 g of sugar, 15 g of saltpeter per 1 kg of salt. If desired, you can add your favorite spices. Spices should remain in the dry marinade for 12-14 days.

Afterwards, the hams are poured with cold brine. For 10 liters of water take 500 g of salt, 50 g of food nitrate, 100 g of granulated sugar.

The meat will stay in the brine for another 2 weeks. It is then soaked, dried and smoked. Adding potassium nitrate will give a nice pink color.

Hot smoking pork ham

When the ham is soaked and dried, it can be hot smoked. For this you need a smokehouse, firewood, and fruit chips. The smokehouse must have appropriate dimensions, since the ham itself is quite large.

The bottom of the smokehouse is covered with wood chips. Then the hams are hung in the smokehouse. For convenience, you need to make a small incision near the bone and thread the twine into it.

The smokehouse is covered with a lid, placed on a lit fire and the process of hot smoking begins.

Meat should be hot smoked for at least 12 hours at a temperature of about 60⁰C. The fire should be moderate. If a strong fire occurs, you can add raw sawdust.

When finished, the product has a very beautiful and appetizing dark brown crust. After the process is completed, the meat must be ventilated for at least 8 hours, and only then can it be tasted.

This type of dish involves boiling the ham before smoking. To do this, the meat is soaked for 1 hour after salting. Then you need to boil water, put the ham in it, add a couple of bay leaves and cook the meat for 2 hours over low heat. After that, remove the ham from the water, let it cool, dry it a little and smoke it hot at a temperature of 60⁰C for about 8 hours.

The meat product prepared in this way has soft, juicy flesh and the taste of ham.

Cold smoking pork ham

To keep meat for a long time, cold smoking is used. This is a long and painstaking process. But the end result is a fragrant and appetizing product that can be stored in a dry, cold room for several months.

After salting, the meat is soaked for 5 hours in fresh water. It takes 7-8 hours to dry.

The meat is smoked for 3 to 7 days with cold thick smoke. The temperature in the smokehouse should be 22-25⁰С.

The process must be continuous, especially in the first 12 hours. After smoking, the meat must be allowed to mature. To do this, the ham is wrapped in a piece of gauze and hung in a dry, cool room with good ventilation for 2 weeks. And only then the product is ready for tasting.

Features of smoking at home

• It is better to start the process in dry and windless weather.
• Use wood chips and firewood from fruit trees, alder, and oak.
• At the end of smoking, you can add juniper branches, this will give the product a piquant and unusual taste.
• Be sure to ventilate food after smoking to remove the strong smell of smoke.
• Refrigerate the product before serving. After lying in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours, the meat will acquire the real taste of a homemade delicacy.

Storing smoked ham

In a room with a temperature of 2-5⁰C, cold smoked ham can be stored for up to six months. In this case, the room should be dry, well ventilated and dark. An attic or storage room is perfect.

Hot smoked products and boiled smoked ham have a much shorter shelf life. It can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 2 months. In this case, it must be wrapped in thick parchment. It is better not to use cling film.