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Make your own dry cured deer ham – tasty and tender

Today I show you how you can make a dry cured deer ham yourself. With a moderate effort you achieve a super tasty result.

Dry cured deer ham is a delicious game specialty made from deer meat and is a great alternative to classic ham. Curing and drying gives it a unique aroma.

It tastes best on freshly baked bread, but is also perfect on a snack platter.

If you are looking for more great ham recipes, I have my whisky ham, pork tenderloin or smoked ham recipe for you here.

Want to learn more about ham? No problem, I wrote down all my knowledge in my ham book. Interested? Then click here.

But now enough talking… 

Here you can find the complete dry cured deer ham recipe as a video or to read through.

Have fun and good luck making it!

Dry cured deer ham  – What do you need to make it?

dry cured deer ham - all ingredients

Ingredients per 1 kg 

  • 100 % venison e.g. from the leg, nut or back (1000g) Important: The piece of meat must be neatly parried and have no pockets!

Spices per KG mass

The equipment to make dry cured deer ham

Place to dry and mature the ham

To age the ham, you need an environment where both humidity and temperature are relatively constant. There are several possibilities for this. I have already matured cured hams in the fridge or cellar without any problems.

Optional: If you want to be on the safe side, then a ripening cabinet is the best choice. My recommendation: Dry Ager DX 500

Make dry cured deer ham – Step-By-Step Instructions

1. Coarsely grind all the spices in a mortar. You can also use a spice grinder for this. 

dry cured deer ham - spices

2. Pour the spice mixture over the piece of meat and distribute the spices evenly on all sides of the piece of meat. 

dry cured deer ham -spices 2

3. Place the meat in a bag. Make sure that all the spices end up in the bag. 

dry cured deer ham - bag

4. Vacuum seal the meat. 

5. Place the bag in the refrigerator for the minimum curing time (1.5 days / cm meat thickness). Turn the bag occasionally. You can also cure your piece of meat for longer, but not shorter. 

dry cured deer ham - cure

6. Pat the meat dry with a kitchen towel. I also remove most of the spices. This reduces the risk of your dry cured deer ham going moldy. 

dry cured deer ham - towel

7. Then insert a hook into the cured piece of meat. This will make it easier for you to hang it up afterwards. Alternatively, you can also tie the dry cured deer ham with kitchen twine and hang it up.

dry cured deer ham - hook

8. Now hang the ham in the fridge/cellar/maturing cabinet to dry. It is important that the humidity is 75 % and the temperature remains below 15 °C (59.0°F). My piece lasted approx. 1.5 months. 

Important: The better the humidity can be controlled, the more evenly the dry cured deer ham will dry. If it dries too quickly, this can lead to a dry edge. In this case, I recommend vacuum-sealing the piece of meat again and then leaving it in the fridge for 2 – 3 weeks.

dry cured deer ham - dry

9. Your dry cured deer ham is ready.😄  Enjoy it!

dry cured deer ham - ready

How long is the shelf life of the dry cured deer ham?

Your dry cured deer ham will keep covered in the refrigerator for about a week. The alternative is to vacuum pack the ham in portions. When vacuumed, it should keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 weeks. You can also freeze it. This will increase the shelf life many times over.


Tags

Hams


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