Pauline's Ham Calculator - Local Food Heroes

Pauline's Ham

This method of curing has been tested with various weights of meat between 2.3kg and 5.8kg.

The calculator will only work for pieces of meat between 1.5kg and 7kg.

Pauline's Ham - in a Bag
Enter the Weight of Meat in grams between 1500 and 7000.	gm.

Water	gm.
Salt	gm.
Muscovado Sugar	gm.
Boil the Ingredients above with your spices (below), then strain the spices from the brine retaining them for later. Weigh the brine and make it up to gm. Allow the brine to cool and then add:
Cure #1	gm.
Mix it in well.
Your Total Brine will now weigh	gm.
Inject the meat with gm of this brine until the meat weighs gm.
You can now add the spices back to the remaining brine and put the meat into a sealed bag with the brine. Exclude as much air as possible so that the meat is in contact with the brine. Place it into the fridge and turn it two or three times a day for no more than days.
Spices - please note that these amounts are only a guide
Juniper berries	berry
Whole cloves	cloves
Black peppercorns	peppercorns
Bay leaves	leaves
Coriander seed	seeds
Click the button to print your results.

The number of days shown in the calculator is the maximum that the meat can be left in contact with the amount of brine cure specified. The meat is only placed in the brine to allow time for the injected cure to spread evenly (equalise) throughout the meat. In virtually all cases, 7 days will be more than enough for this equalisation to take place, even if the maximum is more.

I recommend that you cook this ham, in water, or in a food-grade bag in water. Keep the temperature of the water below 80°C. The ham is cooked when the temperature of the centre of the meat reaches 72°C. It can also be cooked in a lidded pot on a rack above water, in which case keep the atmosphere around the ham at below 80°C. Alternatively, it can be roasted.

Return to Website