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Westphalian Ham
Westphalia is celebrated for the delicacy and flavour of its hams. A Westphalian ham needs to be soaked longer than one cured at home. It should be laid in cold water for twenty-four hours, drained, covered with fresh water, and left for another twenty-four hours. When sufficiently soaked, cleanse and trim it, put it into a saucepan, cover with cold water, and let it simmer gently for an hour. Take it up, put it in a stewpan upon a bed of sliced carrots, onions, and celery, and add a bunch of marjoram, a sprig of thyme, a clove of garlic, three bay-leaves, a dozen peppercorns, half a dozen cloves, and a blade of mace. Pour over the ingredients as much stock as will barely cover them, and let the ham simmer gently until done enough. Take the stewpan from the fire, and leave the ham in the liquor till cold. Take it up, draw off the rind, trim the fat evenly, put the joint in the oven for a few minutes, then press it with a dry cloth to free it from grease, and either glaze it or shake bread-raspings all over it. Time to simmer, about five hours.
A method for a heavily salted, smoked whole ham: long soaking, a first simmer in plain water, a second in aromatic stock, then cooling in its own liquor. The hinge is that last step — the ham finishes cooking as the liquor cools, and lifting it out hot will leave it dry and stringy.
- The ham this assumesA nineteenth-century Westphalian ham was a bone-in, hard-cured, cold-smoked leg sold uncooked and very salty. What is labelled Westfälischer Schinken today is usually a dry-cured raw ham eaten in thin slices like prosciutto, and it should not be boiled. For this method you want a whole bone-in country ham or a traditional dry-salt-cured gammon.
- Whether to soak at allThe 48-hour double soak is for salt-cellar-strength curing. A modern brine-cured or "mild-cure" gammon needs at most a few hours, and a supermarket ham labelled ready-to-eat needs none — soaking it will only make it watery.
- "Until done enough"About five hours of gentle simmering suits a large bone-in leg, on the order of 12-15 lb; the recipe gives no weight, so the figure is inferred. Judge it by the small bone pulling free cleanly, or by an internal temperature of around 150F or above at the thickest point away from the bone.
- Gentle simmer means gentleBare trembling of the surface, around 180F. A rolling boil tightens the muscle fibres and squeezes out moisture, which is the usual cause of dry boiled ham.
- A blade of maceOne whole piece of the lacy aril from a nutmeg. Roughly a quarter-teaspoon of ground mace if you cannot find blade, though the ground spice clouds the stock.
- Bread-raspingsDried crusts grated to a fine crumb and sieved — the Victorian all-purpose coating. Fine dry breadcrumbs, toasted pale gold in the oven, do the same job.
- The oven step"A few minutes in the oven" serves to dry and firm the fat surface before glazing or crumbing; the recipe gives no temperature, so read it simply as a hot oven. It is not further cooking -- the ham is already done and cold.
- Keep the liquorThe strained cooking stock is a strong ham broth, excellent for pea or lentil soup, though it will need no further salt. Skim the fat once chilled.
- YieldA whole bone-in ham of this size serves twenty or more hot, and keeps well under a week refrigerated once cold and trimmed.
Westphalia's reputation rests on beech and juniper smoke and on the tradition of acorn-fed pigs in its oak woods, and by the eighteenth century Westphalian hams were an export commodity known across Europe, the name serving in English writing as shorthand for the best. The point being taught is how to handle a hard-cured imported joint as opposed to a home-cured one: the salt penetration was far deeper, so the soaking is doubled and the first simmer in plain water is essentially a further leaching before the ham meets the aromatic stock. The finishing choice between a glaze and a coat of bread-raspings is Victorian sideboard practice, a cold joint being expected to look presentable for days of slicing. Specific Westphalian ham designations now carry European protection, which is one reason the product a modern shopper meets under that label bears little resemblance to the boiling ham described here.