Cook's Encyclopaedia
Page 47
Haggis
Carefully wash a sheep’s stomach, soak it in the burn for an hour, turn it inside out and scrape it, then scald it. Meanwhile boil the sheep’s liver and heart (and the lungs, if you like) to harden the meat before chopping it finely with a knife. Add 2 cups oatmeal (which has been lightly toasted in a dry pan), some chopped fat or suet – 2-3 handfuls – plenty of salt, pepper and nutmeg, and a couple of chopped onions. Mix all together with some water to make a paste. Stuff it into the cleaned stomach, not too full or the oatmeal will burst the bag when it swells. Sew up the openings and any weak places, and secure in loops of string for easy handling. Pop the haggis into boiling, salted water and cook it slowly for 4 hours. Hang it up to dry. When you are ready to eat it, cook it again in salt water until it is thoroughly hot. Dish. Slash through the stomach wall and spoon out the savoury contents. Drink whisky with it. The traditional Burns Night accompaniment is mashed swede.
HAKE. See cod.
HALAL. See religious food laws (Muslims).
HALIBUT. See flatfish.
HAM. From the old English word hamm, a thigh, ham is the salted and aged back leg of the pig, unless otherwise specified, as in, say, mutton hams or badger hams. Commercially cured and pressed pork shoulder is also referred to as ‘ham’, which strictly speaking it is not. A close relative is gammon, which is the leg cured as part of a Wiltshire side of *bacon. It is not therefore matured for long enough to get much of a hammy taste, and does not keep. However, gammon is often boiled or baked and used as a mild ham, although it is most frequently sliced into rashers or cut into bacon joints.
It is probable that ham curing was originally perfected by the Gauls, who exported hams to Rome over two thousand years ago. Their products cannot have been very different from the best hams of today, as they raised pigs of the old, semi-wild ridgeback type in the forests that then covered most of France. They salted the hams for two or three days, smoked them, and finally rubbed them with oil and vinegar before hanging them up to dry. Lean, rangy, forest-fed hogs make the best-flavoured ham to this day.
Ham, like cheese, comes in a host of different types according to the way in which it is made and matured. Of first importance is the breed of pig, its age and the food it has eaten. lt also matters whether the pig has been living a sedentary or energetic life, and whether it was killed without exhaustion or fear. Pigs which have been chased round and frightened are thought everywhere to make bad ham and bacon. Experts can tell by the smell of the meat if the pig has been tired or disturbed. For once, humanity and commercial practice are in agreement. Curing may be done with many mixtures, although all are based on salt. Usually saltpetre is in the mixture and often sugar. For the rest, there is a choice of molasses, vinegar, herbs, spices, paprika and no doubt secret ingredients. The curing may be done with dry salt or brine, or a combination of the two, with varying strengths and times. Commercial hams are now usually ‘pumped’; that is, brine is forced directly into the meat through the femoral artery before the more traditional curing processes begin. Hams may be dried off in fresh air or smoked with oak, beech, pine, juniper berries, hickory, apple, sage, bay, heather, peat and even seaweed. Combinations of these will give quite different smoky tastes.
Finally there is variation in the ageing and maturation – in the length of time, the conditions and temperature involved. During this period, which may be from a few months to two years, the ham develops its hammy taste by complicated and incompletely understood processes. At best, the subtlety is like that of wine-making, and some districts excel in making superb hams just as some produce superb wines. They say it is due to the drying effect – and even purity – of the air, although one might think that both were easy to duplicate by artificial means; it is more likely the tradition of expert knowledge, love and care.
Some hams are intended to be eaten raw; others, cooked. There are also dual-purpose hams. Any ham is safe to eat raw after it has hung for several months (if not, it will also be unfit to eat cooked), but most dual-purpose hams are better cooked. The finest raw ham can equally be cooked, though it is a crime to do so except where small amounts are used as a flavouring (for instance, prosciutto crudo goes into some of the best stuffings for tortellini).
To keep whole hams at home, simply hang them in free air in a cool, dry place. The temperature should be between 0°C (32°F) and 15°C (60°F).The problem in most houses is finding a suitable spot, since cellars are too damp and attics vary from too hot to too cold. In old farms, the best place was the kitchen ceiling, away from the stove. Whole hams for long ageing are best hung where an eye can be kept on them. Cracks may be filled with a mixture of salt, fat and pepper – the last helps to keep away flies. A white powdering of mould is part of the normal ripening process – like the rind of a cheese – but if the ham grows long whiskers or green mould, it is too damp. Hams are sometimes wrapped in calico, which is coated with several layers of limewash, or they are enclosed in stockinette, or even packed in boxes filled with dry wood ash and kept above floor level. Once the ham has been started, the cut surface should be kept covered with paper. Ham that has been bought sliced must be kept in the cool part of the refrigerator and well wrapped to prevent drying out. It does not improve with keeping.
Before cooking, all hams – except ready-to-bake commercial hams and very lightly-salted hams like Jambon blanc – need to be soaked in cool fresh water to remove some of the salt. The soaking time varies with the saltiness of the ham and its size, which may be from 2 kg (4½ lb) to 12 kg (27 lb). There may be manufacturer’s recommendations to follow, or the shopkeeper may offer good advice. If you have to guess, you should taste the water after 15 minutes of cooking, and if it is too salty for comfort start again with fresh cold water. Although some correction is possible, a bad error of over-saltiness, especially with a big ham, may be beyond recall. Home-cured hams, farm hams, Smithfield and Virginia hams – hams made by old methods – are soaked overnight. It is easier to bone ham after soaking than before.
Before cooking, hams should be trimmed, which, in practice, means cutting off any bits you would not like to eat. Hams are always started in cold water and brought slowly up to temperature, which should be ideally 77°C (171 °F), at which there is least shrinkage. They may go 5°C (9°F), even 10°C (18°F) higher, but must never boil. Average cooking time is around 50 minutes per kg (25 minutes per lb), but it may be more or less according to the size and type of ham. You should cook the ham until the small bit of chump bone can easily be pulled out, or, more precisely, until you get a meat thermometer reading of around 65°C (150°F) in the centre of the thickest part. Ham should be allowed to cool in its liquid until it is easy to handle; the skin should then be pulled off. The fatty surface may be covered with breadcrumbs or glazed, according to preference, though ham is widely thought to taste better without a covering. Part of the fat is sometimes pared away, but as some people like the fat, it is best to leave it on.
Some 20% of the weight of a ham consists of inedible bone and trimmings, while 20% is often lost in cooking. As a further 20% is sometimes lost by evaporation during long ageing, the amount of cooked ham you finish with might be only 40% of the weight of the original leg – one reason why ham can be an expensive food. Even the pumped, under-aged hams of ordinary commerce usually give only 60-70% of their original weight in cooked meat.
British and Irish Hams
There are many traditional cures – almost every county has its own. They range from hams, like Cumberland hams, which are simply dry-salted for three weeks and then hung in the kitchen rafters to mature, to hams with sweet Suffolk and Devonshire treacle cures, in which vinegar or beer are used.
Many country hams are only locally available. The now famous collection of recipes made by Farmer’s Weekly, Farmhouse Fare, contains details of many of these, as they are still made on some farms up and down the country. Britain lacks the habit of eating raw ham. Irish hams are usually peat-smoked, which gives them a characteristic flavour.
Wiltshire ham or gammon. If the ham (gammon) is removed from a Wiltshire side of bacon, it may be boiled to produce a mild-flavoured joint. It will lack the strong ham taste that is obtained by long maturation. Gammons of this sort are made from young, quickly-grown bacon pigs, and although tender, lack flavour. The mild cure makes them unsuitable for hanging and keeping; they are really bacon rather than ham.
York ham has a dry salt cure; it is matured 3-4 months and may be lightly or heavily smoked. A mild, pale pink ham, always cooked and, at its best, regarded everywhere as the finest type of cooked ham. York hams are not made in York – the cure is a popular one which is used all over the world. Unless otherwise instructed, soak the ham for 6-24 hours and cook it 15 minutes per 450 g (1 lb). Epicure ham is similar to York ham; No. 1 is heavily smoked and No.2 is lightly smoked.
American Hams
The best hams in the US are reckoned to come from Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, North Carolina and, above all, Virginia, where the famous Smithfield ham is made. Run-of-the-mill ham, however, is made by the quick-cure injection method and is not very noteworthy. Hams of all types, ready to boil or bake, can be bought complete with instructions on the pack.
Kentucky ham. Made from Hampshire hogs, range-fed on acorns, beans and clover, and finished on grain, these have a high reputation. They are dry-salted and smoked over apple and hickory for 30 days, after which they are aged for 10-12 months.
Smithfield ham is defined as being made from peanut-fed hogs from the peanut belt of Virginia and North Carolina, cured and processed in Smithfield, a small town on the James River estuary in Virginia. The pigs, at best, are allowed to range in the woods for some months and are turned into the peanut fields to root before being finished on corn. Smithfield hams are dry-salted with a mixture which includes pepper, and then heavily smoked with apple and hickory. They are aged for a year or more. Smithfield ham is eaten baked or boiled (rarely, if ever, raw), served hot or cold and often glazed with a sweet glaze such as jam, sugar or honey. Unless otherwise instructed, soak the ham overnight and cook 20-30 minutes per 450 g (1 lb).Virginia hams are traditionally made from razor-back hogs. Queen Victoria used to have six hams per week sent to her from Smithfield – or were they for Albert?
Tenderized hams and precooked hams. To be baked at 160°C (325°F) for 20 minutes per kg (10 minutes per lb).
French Hams
France produces excellent hams with many regional types of jambons de campagne (country hams) both unsmoked and smoked. Jambon d’York is also made and sold all over the country. Cheaper ‘hams’ are made by boning, rolling and pressing the shoulder (épaule roulée) or salting the forehock (jambonneau).
Jambon blanc, jambon de Paris or jambon glacé. Unsmoked ham, lightly cured in brine, always eaten boiled and usually cold. Cook for about 40 minutes per kg (20 minutes per lb) without prior soaking.
Jambon de Bayonne. The centre for this most famous French regional ham is at Orthez, about 40 miles east of Bayonne. This ham is always eaten raw, never boiled, but is sometimes used as an ingredient and flavouring in cooked dishes. As it is smoked (at a low temperature) to a golden brown colour, it has a smoky flavour, though not aggressively so, and in this respect is unlike the raw hams of Spain and Italy which are unsmoked.
Jambon de campagne. Local ham, made all over France. These hams may be smoked or unsmoked, and many are eaten raw as well as cooked, or used as an ingredient in cooking. Often mentioned in French cookery books, is the ham from Morvan (south-east of Auxerre) and those of the Auvergne and of Alsace and Lorraine. Such hams should still be made by honest salting or brining, and not by the injection method, although this is increasingly used in France as elsewhere for the sake of economy. Injected hams do not need such long soaking as traditionally made ones.
Jambon de Toulouse. A fine, unsmoked ham eaten raw or cooked, or used as an ingredient in cooking.
Italian Hams
Ham, especially raw ham, is very popular in Italy, and the best Parma ham is probably the finest of all raw hams, unless you prefer a smoky flavour. It is the Italians who created what is perhaps the world’s finest summer hors d’oeuvre: raw ham with green figs.
In addition, Italy produces good cooked ham (prosciutto cotto), often boned and pressed into shape, as well as the redder and less tasty pressed shoulder (spalla), which is forced into a rectangular mould. Other Italian ham products include *coppa and *culatello.
Prosciutto crudo. Traditionally, the hams of Parma were made from pigs at least eight months old and were salted only in the winter. Before slaughter, pigs for the best ham must be rested for some 24 hours, especially if they have made a long journey. The hams are dry-salted with sea salt for 25-30 days, then wiped clean and hung in the crowded curing rooms so that fresh air reaches the hams from all sides. (Curers are continually opening and closing windows according to the weather and the breezes.) If the skin dries too much, or the hams crack, repairs are made by rubbing them with a little fat or plugging cracks with a paste of fat and pepper. The maturation must be for at least 8-9 months and may be as long as two years in exceptional cases. The average ham (cured in winter) is ready in the following July and August (when figs and melons are ready to eat with it). So much attention and the great loss of weight from evaporation during hanging make prosciutto crudo expensive. The most famous comes from Langhirano near Parma, but that of San Daniele in Friuli, near Udine, has its own cure and is almost equally famous. (In Sardinia and Maremma, hams are made from wild boar, these are easy to recognize because they are black and bristly.) Raw ham is eaten finely sliced as an hors d’oeuvre with good butter or green figs or melon.
German Hams
Germany makes some delicious hams, and is especially renowned for types which are subtly, yet strongly, smoked. The most famous is Westphalian ham, but there are many other excellent local hams, mostly named after their town or district: Hamburg, Mainz, Stuttgart, etc.
Lachsschinken. Literally ‘salmon ham’, so-called from its salmon-pink colour, this expensive German smoked-pork product is not strictly a ham, as it is made by lightly curing and smoking the loin of pork, which is cut into joints and rolled in sheets of bacon fat to conserve moisture and flavour. It is always eaten raw, cut in thin slices and served as an hors d’oeuvre with brown bread and butter, accompanied by horseradish sauce. In French charcuterie, it is called filet de saxe. A similar product is made in Poland and widely exported.
Westphalian hams are taken from mature pigs which have been well rested before slaughter. The hams are cooled and the blood massaged out before they are dry-salted (with an 8:1 mixture of salt and saltpetre) for up to two weeks. They are then put in a 20% brine for another two weeks, washed and packed down to ripen for yet another two weeks, and sometimes for as long as a month. Finally, they are scrubbed in lukewarm water and hung up to smoke and dry, a process which traditionally takes several weeks, but which commercially is nowadays often cut to little more than a week. Smoking is done at a very low temperature over beechwood sawdust mixed with juniper twigs, with juniper berries thrown in from time to time. The finished Westphalian ham has a lovely dark chestnut colour and a strong, but subtle, smoky taste. lt is eaten raw in thin slices either alone or, at most, with brown bread and butter, and fresh black pepper. Some recommend it with melon or green figs in the Italian manner, but the smoky taste is better without such accompaniments.
Spanish Hams
Some of the cheaper commercial types of Spanish cooked and pressed ham are gelatinous, tasteless and best avoided. Hams of slightly better quality may be labelled jamón de York, jamon cocido (cooked ham) or ja
món en dulce (sweet), but they are not the best that the country has to offer. Of much greater importance is the jamón serrano (mountain ham) which is eaten raw in sandwiches or as an hors d’oeuvre. In fact, it is in many ways similar to Italian raw ham, though with a character of its own. Correctly, and at its best, jamón serrano is made from hams taken from the black Iberian (Ibérico negro) pig, which has been allowed to run free in the forests, getting plenty of exercise and staying lean. The Red Iberian pig (Ibérico colorado) runs the Black a close second, but is slightly lazier (and so fatter). Experiments have also been made at crossing other breeds of pig with wild boars in order to produce little fat and fine flavour, but the modern tendency to make cheaper (though far from cheap) jamón serrano from white hybrid pigs is increasing. It is frowned on because fat has to be cut off, which it never is when hams are made from traditional breeds – and because curing is also reduced to 4-6 months. The result is very naturally not so fine tasting. A real jamón serrano from an Iberian pig will weigh 6-8 kg (13¼-17½ lb), while a fake usually runs only 4-5 kg (9-11 lb).