The Filipino Mom Blog

So now I’ve made public my attempt at the Christmas ham this year.

So this better work… Or else!

Aside from being a tradition begun by Mama that I want to keep alive, making my own Christmas ham has its many advantages. For starters, it’s less expensive. The 5.6-kilo fresh ham (pigue in Filipino) that I bought yesterday cost Php816.00 (or about USD16.50 only!). Commercial hams nowadays cost as much as Php850 per kilo!

Home-made ham is healthy. Mama never used nitrates (salitre in Filipino) and prague in her hams, and I will never too. Anyway, my ham won’t be stored for too long. It’s going to be gone shortly after midnight of December 25th! So there’s no need for other preservatives - good old rock salt has always been enough to do the trick.

In the past, I have dry-cured my hams, just as Mama did. My cure consisted of rock salt, brown sugar, ground black pepper, and cinnamon.

Approximate cure proportions for a 5-kilo ham:

1 cup salt (I don’t like it too salty so I’d put in about 3/4 cup)

1/2 cup brown sugar (I like it sweet, so I adjust this to 3/4 cup)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 tsp. ground pepper

*Mix all of these together.

I massage the ham all over with the cure. The ham is always deboned so even the crevices where the bone used to be get some cure massage. The ham is kept tightly covered in the ref in a plastic container.

Curing time depends on the meat size. Two years ago, I cured a 3-kilo ham for a month, and we ended up with a very salty ham. (The meat was pink and tender though - saving grace! haha) I should have soaked the ham in cold water first before cooking to remove the excess salt.

According to this site, ideal curing time is 1.5 days for each pound of meat. So for a 5-kilo (11-pound) ham, 16 days is ideal. 

Very important during curing:

1. Do not freeze the meat as thawing will change the meat’s chemistry.

2. Do not store outside the ref -your meat will spoil. I find the middle shelf of the ref ideal, where the temperature ranges from 2-6 degrees Celsius.

3. Tumble the meat around everyday, so not just one part gets soaked in the liquids that draw out during the curing period.

4. Make sure all utensils (including YOUR HANDS) are clean to avoid contamination and possibly spoiling the ham.

Make no mistake, friends. I’m not a ham expert. My techniques are a combination of online research (Google is my best friend!) and handed-down tradition. Feel free to experiment and adjust the proportions to your taste.

I hope this post is not too late for those who would like to join me in my attempt.

By the way, I am doing a wet-cured ham this year -  my first one! I will do a separate post in my blog.

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No, I did not make that ham in the photo (how I wish mine could be that pretty). It’s from Getty Images.