HOMEMADE HAM WITH ORANGE TASTE

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Though it may seem strange but that slight orange taste is perfectly combined with pork.
It’s easy to cook at home an authentic, tender ham, almost without preservatives, nice-looking and full of flavors.
You need a lean pork meat cut, like pork shoulder or back lag ham part.
First the meat is salted.

Salt — 2%
CUR#1 (sodium nitrite) — 0,25%
Sugar — 0,5%
Granulated garlic — 0,5%
Peppers mix (black, coriander, red, allspice) — 0,8%
Ground nutmeg — just a little, at your taste
Smoked paprika (sweet o spicy, at your taste) — 0.2%
Thyme, rosemary, oregano — a little, at your taste to create extra flavor.

The piece of meat should be thoroughly coated with the mixture for salting, massaged well and finally packed in a bag to cool in the fridge for 5−7 days. I’d recommend turning the meat over and massaging it daily to balance the taste.

After salting the meat is washed over. All sides of the press mold of ham-maker should be covered by transparent stretch film. Over the film first you place slices of orange, then start placing tightly levels of meat. The final level is done again with orange slices. Now you need to cover it with the transparent film and press it at maximum.

Before cooking it’s highly advisable to warm up ham up to room temperature.
We increase pressure in the press mold of ham-maker and cook ham at the water temperature 80−90C until the inside ham temperature reaches 76C.
I’d recommend using an electric oven, where you can set any necessary temperature mode. You also need to place a bowl with water inside the oven to create a necessary humid environment. The process takes several hours, it depends on the size of the product.

In the middle of the cooking process I’d recommend to increase the pressure since the meat fat is gonna come out and consequently the volume of the product will decrease.

When the cooking process is over straight away you need to place the ham-maker press mold into a very cold water for 2−3 hours, after that into the fridge for 12 hours without decreasing pressure.
The ham gets a really tender taste with exquisite spice flavors and special orange notes.