Christmas Hamlets – To Eat or Not to Eat Will Not Be a Question

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I had been fantasizing for weeks about doing a whole,home-cured ham for the holidays. I always get lots of requests for this kind ofthing, and was fully prepared to give it a go, but then a strange thinghappened, I heard the word “Hamlet.” 

It was on TV, and completely unrelated tocured pork, but for whatever reason the word made me think of cute little,individually sized hams. That’s all it took, and off I went trying to figure out howto make this thing happen. I knew I wanted a process that wouldn’t require thepink curing salts used in commercially produced hams, not because they areunhealthy, they’re not, but because it would be hard for some of you to find.

I’ve read things in the past about using celery’s naturallyoccurring nitrates to accomplish the same thing, so that’s what I used, and asyou’ll hear me say several times in the video, I was thrilled with the results!While not exactly like a classic city ham, this was very close. The firm, moisttexture was great, the salt level was spot on, and since we used loin insteadof leg, there’s even a little less fat.
I’m afraid I won’t be able to help much with questions abouthow to do this with bigger or different cuts, as this was my first foray intohome-cured ham, so if you are going to attempt this, please go to a goodbutcher to get the exact same size “chops” that I used. If you do, and followthese simple steps, I think you will have a holiday meal “to die for.” Sorry, but you didn’t expect me to do this entire post without one forced reference tothe play, did you? Enjoy!

Ingredients for 4 Hamlets:4 thick-cut (10-12 oz) center cut, boneless pork loin“chops”For the brine:1/2 cup *kosher salt plus 1 tablespoon (*if using fine table salt, you’d only need barely 1/3 cup)3/4 cup packed brown sugar1 tsp finely ground black pepper1 tsp allspice1/2 ground cloves1 bay leaf1 1/2 cups boiling water to dissolve salt and sugar3 celery stalks (about 2 cups chopped)1/2 yellow onion3 cloves garlic2 cups cold water to puree vegetables in blender, plus addenough cold water to make 2 quarts total volume of brineBrine for 48 hours before roasting
For the glaze:1/4 cup packed brown sugar2 tbsp Dijon mustardpinch of cayennewhole cloves as needed
Roast at 325 degrees F. until an internal temp of 145degrees F. is reached.Pin It Now!