I have vivid memories of being a small child and getting handed a piece of buttered bread with Jambon on it. It was savory, sweet and had a texture that melted in your mouth. It obviously made a mark on me. It's a taste that I have longed for, but have long accepted could only be had in Europe. Until now.
Jambon is the French word for ham, and just like in the US, the word has many meanings. Ham used to refer to the hind leg of a pig, but it now can refer to many things. There are glazed hams like the kind abundant on holiday dinner tables, to the compressed and sliced stuff that comes in plastic deli pouches, to even stuff you can buy in a can. Eww!
The differences between a ham in the US and ham in Europe can be many. Factors include the origin and species of the animal and the environment that it feeds on, the spices and flavors used during preservation, and the care and respect with which the meat is treated all along the way. In the US, we can't do much about the first category other than by buying the best quality meat from honest and reputable sources. The other categories though, we can definitely affect.
What makes ham, ham, anyway? Ham is just pork that has been wet cured, dry cured, or smoked, and is usually cooked or air dried afterwards. The many varieties of ham play on combining these processes in different ways. I'm only going to talk about one type here...for now, the kind that is wet cured, then cooked. Simply. Magical. Stuff. Since I was only 5 at the time, I don't recall the official term for what we used to get, but if you Google around for "jambon blanc" or "jambon cuit" you can pretty much get the idea. The Italian version is called prosciutto cotto, which again just translates to cooked ham.
Deli ham in the US is synonymous with "processed ham," and rightfully so. Some of it is made the same way that hot dogs are—ground up with large amounts of fat, antibiotic ridden meat and meat glue, then pumped with salt water until the last bits of natural flavor have been evacuated. Of course, there are other slightly better options that are whole cuts of meat, but again, they may be slabs of questionable meat compressed together and doused in chemical preservatives to form a long lasting product that looks uniformly circular when sliced, but carries little to no flavor. I'm not sure how, or when the craft of these old world delicacies got lost and turned into its unfortunate present state. But, I'm glad to report, I have been able to reproduce flavors analogous to the memories of my childhood, at home.
Ham is pink. It get's its pink color from something called "pink salt," which is a curing salt that contains sodium nitrate. Sodium nitrate is cousin of the originally used potassium nitrate, which was also known as saltpeter and was an ingredient in making things like gunpowder, fireworks, and fertilizer, starting many centuries ago. Pink salt is dyed so as to to never be mistaken for regular salt. It goes by other names as well like Prague Powder and Instacure #2. This ingredient is essential for both the color and flavor of the Jambon that I'm about to tell you how to make. There are no substitutes.
Here's how the recipe goes:
Ingredients:
3.5-4 lbs of pork shoulder
4 liters of water
225g kosher or sea salt
125g cane sugar
30g Instacure #2
1 leek
1 or 2 ribs of celery
1 carrot
several sprigs of thyme
3 or 4 bay leaves
a little parsley
4 juniper berries
about 20 peppercorns
Equipment:
Meat Slicer (not optional)
Large container
Immersion circulator (optional)
Food Saver (optional)
Timing disclaimer: make on a Tuesday to serve on a Sunday.
Bring the salt, sugar and pink salt to a simmer in the water to dissolve. Turn heat off and cool. While it's cooling, coarsely chop the aromatics and add to your container. If there is a bone in your pork shoulder, it is highly advisable that it is removed before curing. I tied up the meat into a nice bundle with some butcher's twine so that it could keep its form. Don't trim any of the fat! Add the cooled down water to the container, and add the meat. A weight could also be placed on the meat to achieve a more flattened ham form for easier slicing.
Leave the meat in this wet cure for 36-48 hours depending on the weight of your pork. Flip it after the first 24 hours. Once the appropriate amount of time has passed, remove the meat from the container, rinse off the brine, and let air dry on a cooling rack in the fridge for 24 hours. Use a large pot filled with water to cook the ham. I did it very gently with an immersion circulator (I use this one). You can experiment, I've done it at 150°F for 24 hours and 160°F for 18 hours with good results both times. Otherwise simmer in a pot of water on the stove for about 3 hours or until the internal temp is at least 150°F. Once the meat is cooked, it needs to be refrigerated overnight before slicing and consuming. I seal the meat in a Food Saver bag before the cooking process and the meat cooks in its own juices making for a very moist and flavorful product.
The meat will be encased in gelatin when removed from the package, just wipe this off and you can start slicing. It is highly recommended to do this with a meat slicer, the kind with a circular blade. I'll go as far as to say that you shouldn't even attempt making this unless you have, or have access to said meat slicer. One of the very important factors that makes this so delicious is being able to cut amazing thin slices. You want to just shave it. It's the thinness that creates the buttery, melt in your mouth, mouthfeel. We keep all the fat on intentionally for this reason. It contributes considerably to both flavor and texture.
To get the full affect, do the following:
Slice the meat as thin as you possibly can without tearing the meat. Lay it out on a plate and let it come to room temperature for about 10 minutes. Take out some high quality butter to come to room temp at the same time. While the Jambon and butter are warming up, cut a fresh, crusty baguette into 1/2" thick slices. When soft, apply a generous amount of butter to the bread, sprinkle a very small pinch of kosher salt on top, and add a few slices of ham. Close your eyes, and enjoy the best tasting ham you could possibly consume, the quality of which no supermarket will ever let you know.
Jambon is the French word for ham, and just like in the US, the word has many meanings. Ham used to refer to the hind leg of a pig, but it now can refer to many things. There are glazed hams like the kind abundant on holiday dinner tables, to the compressed and sliced stuff that comes in plastic deli pouches, to even stuff you can buy in a can. Eww!
The differences between a ham in the US and ham in Europe can be many. Factors include the origin and species of the animal and the environment that it feeds on, the spices and flavors used during preservation, and the care and respect with which the meat is treated all along the way. In the US, we can't do much about the first category other than by buying the best quality meat from honest and reputable sources. The other categories though, we can definitely affect.
What makes ham, ham, anyway? Ham is just pork that has been wet cured, dry cured, or smoked, and is usually cooked or air dried afterwards. The many varieties of ham play on combining these processes in different ways. I'm only going to talk about one type here...for now, the kind that is wet cured, then cooked. Simply. Magical. Stuff. Since I was only 5 at the time, I don't recall the official term for what we used to get, but if you Google around for "jambon blanc" or "jambon cuit" you can pretty much get the idea. The Italian version is called prosciutto cotto, which again just translates to cooked ham.
Deli ham in the US is synonymous with "processed ham," and rightfully so. Some of it is made the same way that hot dogs are—ground up with large amounts of fat, antibiotic ridden meat and meat glue, then pumped with salt water until the last bits of natural flavor have been evacuated. Of course, there are other slightly better options that are whole cuts of meat, but again, they may be slabs of questionable meat compressed together and doused in chemical preservatives to form a long lasting product that looks uniformly circular when sliced, but carries little to no flavor. I'm not sure how, or when the craft of these old world delicacies got lost and turned into its unfortunate present state. But, I'm glad to report, I have been able to reproduce flavors analogous to the memories of my childhood, at home.
Ham is pink. It get's its pink color from something called "pink salt," which is a curing salt that contains sodium nitrate. Sodium nitrate is cousin of the originally used potassium nitrate, which was also known as saltpeter and was an ingredient in making things like gunpowder, fireworks, and fertilizer, starting many centuries ago. Pink salt is dyed so as to to never be mistaken for regular salt. It goes by other names as well like Prague Powder and Instacure #2. This ingredient is essential for both the color and flavor of the Jambon that I'm about to tell you how to make. There are no substitutes.
Here's how the recipe goes:
Ingredients:
3.5-4 lbs of pork shoulder
4 liters of water
225g kosher or sea salt
125g cane sugar
30g Instacure #2
1 leek
1 or 2 ribs of celery
1 carrot
several sprigs of thyme
3 or 4 bay leaves
a little parsley
4 juniper berries
about 20 peppercorns
Equipment:
Meat Slicer (not optional)
Large container
Immersion circulator (optional)
Food Saver (optional)
Timing disclaimer: make on a Tuesday to serve on a Sunday.
Bring the salt, sugar and pink salt to a simmer in the water to dissolve. Turn heat off and cool. While it's cooling, coarsely chop the aromatics and add to your container. If there is a bone in your pork shoulder, it is highly advisable that it is removed before curing. I tied up the meat into a nice bundle with some butcher's twine so that it could keep its form. Don't trim any of the fat! Add the cooled down water to the container, and add the meat. A weight could also be placed on the meat to achieve a more flattened ham form for easier slicing.
Leave the meat in this wet cure for 36-48 hours depending on the weight of your pork. Flip it after the first 24 hours. Once the appropriate amount of time has passed, remove the meat from the container, rinse off the brine, and let air dry on a cooling rack in the fridge for 24 hours. Use a large pot filled with water to cook the ham. I did it very gently with an immersion circulator (I use this one). You can experiment, I've done it at 150°F for 24 hours and 160°F for 18 hours with good results both times. Otherwise simmer in a pot of water on the stove for about 3 hours or until the internal temp is at least 150°F. Once the meat is cooked, it needs to be refrigerated overnight before slicing and consuming. I seal the meat in a Food Saver bag before the cooking process and the meat cooks in its own juices making for a very moist and flavorful product.
The meat will be encased in gelatin when removed from the package, just wipe this off and you can start slicing. It is highly recommended to do this with a meat slicer, the kind with a circular blade. I'll go as far as to say that you shouldn't even attempt making this unless you have, or have access to said meat slicer. One of the very important factors that makes this so delicious is being able to cut amazing thin slices. You want to just shave it. It's the thinness that creates the buttery, melt in your mouth, mouthfeel. We keep all the fat on intentionally for this reason. It contributes considerably to both flavor and texture.
To get the full affect, do the following:
Slice the meat as thin as you possibly can without tearing the meat. Lay it out on a plate and let it come to room temperature for about 10 minutes. Take out some high quality butter to come to room temp at the same time. While the Jambon and butter are warming up, cut a fresh, crusty baguette into 1/2" thick slices. When soft, apply a generous amount of butter to the bread, sprinkle a very small pinch of kosher salt on top, and add a few slices of ham. Close your eyes, and enjoy the best tasting ham you could possibly consume, the quality of which no supermarket will ever let you know.
