This may take 6 months or more beginning to end, but the amount of work you have to do equates to about half an hour.  This is easy…so easy…try it – I beg you…that’s how chuffing good it is!

Ingredients

• Pork – use the top of the leg, or the whole leg.  Leave the bone in and skin on and do not score.  I’d use a minimum of 2 or 3kg
• Salt- approximately 1kg for every 3kg of meat, but enough to keep it well covered.
• 500 grams lard
• Cracked black pepper
• Cheesecloth
• Time – lots of it…at least 6 months

First of all, be sensible – remember you’re not cooking this meat…at all!  So you don’t want to introduce any nasties, so keep everything from your hands to the surfaces to the knife…clean!  The salting should take care of everything, but you don’t want to wait a year and have to throw it out.

Pat the meat dry, then salt the pork by rubbing salt into every nook and cranny of the wee beastie.  This isn’t as easy as it sounds because it just falls off.  I rubbed salt in and then laid some cling film down, salted that, wrapped it around the meat and kept salting as I went…it kinda worked.  However you choose, just make sure it has salt all over.

Place skin side down in a container and put a few kilos of weight on top, then leave in your fridge for 2 days per kg of meat.  If you can’t fit it in your fridge with weights on top, you can put a chopping board on top and use a ratchet strap – works a treat.  Check it every couple of days and pour off any excess liquid, and salt more if necessary.

When it’s ready, it should feel firm and dense to the touch.  Rinse off all the salt under cold water and pat dry with kitchen roll.  Spread the lard over any exposed meat areas to prevent it from drying too quickly and wrap in 4 layers of cheesecloth.

Hang it in a cool dry airy place.  The ideal conditions are 15 degrees C and 60-70% humidity, although I did it with very different parameters (see Proscuitto de Collaroy) and it worked fine, but just remember you need it to not dry too quick and you don’t want it to go off!  Now wait…

…and wait…and wait.  Skip forward at least 4 months and you’re probably starting to get there, but you can go a year depending on your conditions.  The ham should lose about 30-50% of its weight, so record it when you start and start weighing again after 3 or 4 months to determine progress.

When you think it’s ready, have some kind of ceremony…wipe the excess lard off, slice very thin and parallel to the bone, be irreverent, lay that paper thin slice on your tongue, let it sit for a moment, close your eyes and breathe in, let your mind float to the hills of Italy, close your mouth, breathe in through your nose, chew a little and realise how worthwhile that long long wait was. Oooooh yeah!

See my blog on Proscuitto de Collaroy here.

(this recipe adapted from Charcuterie by Ruhlman and Polcyn)