Czech Pork Ham
A classic Czech homemade pork-shoulder ham, hand-worked to a sticky bind with curing salt for a rosy, fragrant slice and gently poached in the ham maker.
⏱️ Prep: 40 min🍳 Cook: 120 min
Ingredients
| 2 kg | cleaned pork shoulder | |
| 30 g | salt | |
| 2 tsp | 10 ml | icing sugar |
| 1/2 tsp | 2.5 ml | ground pepper |
| 200 ml | cold water | |
| 20 g | curing salt / speed salt (Praganda) |
Instructions
- Don't be put off by the curing salt: in ham-making it is what gives you a beautiful pink, fragrant ham instead of a greyish canned meat, and the amount here is far smaller than in shop-bought products — it is perfectly safe.
- Mix everything in the bowl thoroughly by hand for at least half an hour (it is very important to work it into a sticky "mud" that later holds the meat together), then cover and refrigerate for 48 hours, mixing gently by hand several times during that period.
- Stuff the mixture really firmly into the bag in the ham maker (the pusher) and stand it in a pot. Pour in warm water so the whole ham is submerged and cook for about 2 hours only gently, at 75–80 °C (no more!) — use a cooking thermometer.
- Then immediately shock-chill it in ice water, cut open the packaging and let it cool completely so the juices don't leak out unnecessarily.