“Ham”

About a month ago I picked up a 2.5kg pork loin because it had a good discount. I didn’t have plans for it, though, and was heading out of town for a few days. I could have cut it up and froze it, but decided to try something new.

I decided to cure it like ham. It’s technically not ham because ham is made from leg or shoulder. That’s why I called it “ham.”

I weighed the meat at 2500g and calculated the correct amount of cure and salt. The cure I have is 5%, not the more common 6.25%, so please don’t use my recipe without modifying it. My calculations gave me the following recipe:

2500g Pork
8.75g Cure (0.35%) (Regular Prague Powder #1 should be 0.25%)
50g Brown Sugar (2%)
62g Kosher Salt (2.5%)

I mixed up the cure, sugar, and salt and spread it all over the pork. I placed the pork in a ziplock bag and squeezed out all the air. I placed this in the fridge and left it to cure for a month. (I flipped it periodically to ensure the cure was spread evenly.)

Today, I removed the cured pork from the bag. I rinsed it off. I placed it in a roaster with about 2 inches of water. I put this in an oven which was pre-heated to 275F. I baked it for about 6.5 hours.

I removed it from the roaster, sliced it, and ate it. It tasted like ham.

This is pretty much the blandest “ham” possible. It’s entirely edible, but not exciting. I could have added additional spices to the cure. I could have smoked it. I could have finished it with a glaze. I will definitely do this again but will add something interesting next time.