Today I show you how you can make a whiskey ham yourself. With a moderate effort you achieve a super tasty result.
The whiskey ham is a nice change from the classic ham. It is one of my favorites. The ham has a nice whiskey note, but is not strongly in the foreground. Simply just right!
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 whiskey ham recipe as a video or to read through.
Have fun and good luck making it!
Whiskey ham – What do you need to make it?
Ingredients per 1 kg
- 100% pork neck/top leg/back (1000g)
Spices per KG
- 29.5 g salt
- 2.5 g Cure #1
- 4 g honey
- 2 g black pepper
- 1 g white pepper
- 1,5 g bay leaves
- 0,5 g juniper berries
- 0,5 g garlic powder
- 40 ml whiskey of your choice
The equipment to make Whiskey 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 Whiskey ham – Step-By-Step Instructions
1. Dissolve the honey in the whiskey. So he is later well distributed.
2. Now you can coarsely grind all the spices in a mortar.
3. Put the spice mixture over the piece of meat and distribute the spices evenly on all sides of the piece of meat.
4. Place the meat in a bag. Make sure all the spices end up in the bag with it.
5. Add the whiskey and honey mixture to the bag.
6. Vacuum seal the meat. Usually, the vacuumer has a setting for moister cuts. If yours has this feature, adjust it. This way, the vacuumer will draw less liquid.
7. Place the bag in the refrigerator for the minimum curing time (1.5 days/cm of meat thickness). Turn the bag over occasionally. You can cure your meat longer, but not shorter.
8. Now pat the meat dry with a kitchen towel. Then insert a hook into the cured piece of meat. This way you can hang it up better. Alternatively, you can also tie the ham with a kitchen twine and hang it.
9. Hang the ham in the refrigerator/cellar/maturing cabinet to dry. It is important that the humidity is 75% and the temperature stays below 15°C. My piece lasted about 1.5 months.
Important: The better the humidity can be controlled, the more evenly the whiskey ham will dry. If it dries too quickly, this can lead to a dry edge. Here I recommend you vacuum seal the piece of meat again and then let it sit in the refrigerator for 2 weeks.
10. your whisky ham is ready😄. Enjoy it.
How long is the shelf life of the Whiskey ham?
Your Whiskey 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.