Only_Oli (The O_Zone)

I am continuing my experiments in spices and cooking temperatures as well as a method for cooking such as sous-vide or slow roast etc…

Latest is normal roast in the oven with a temperature probe inside the ham to check “when” it is done rather than relying on weight etc…Target temperature was 63 Celsius.

Interestingly, once the ham was removed from the oven, the temperature continued to rise for a little while. As a consequence, a 63 Celsius in the oven ends-up being more like 65/66 once out. This is very different compared to sous-vide cooking which only cooks at the exact temperature.

In the oven the “180 degrees” outside of the ham, slowly make their way to the center until the center is at 63 degrees.

In sous-vide the whole ham will cook evenly to the 63 degrees.

This ham was made with some spices and 2 table spoons of brown sugar to coat the ham. Delicious…

I have made some “Jambon a l’eau”, with the new meat slicer it is easy to make very thin slices which make a very nice aperitif for “after work” recovery.

I buy a gammon which I cook in a big pan with unsalted water, an onion, a few cloves, a carrot, a celery, a couple of leaves from the laurel tree of the garden.

I cook 1 hour per kilo of meat. I have tested the temperature of the centre of the gammon and it reaches roughly 55 degrees celsius.

[Update]

I have now made 3 or 4 hams. I have found that the cooking must be very gentle with the water just barely boiling. Wait 1 hour per kilo of meat.

I am now trying a “final roast” method. When I put the ham in the oven for 30 minutes on 230 degres celsius with either maple syrup or other spices to coat the outside of the ham.

Will report here if it worked…

For Archive : How to make “Cured” Ham:

Just savings quickly some details to make cured ham for a different type of recipe.

Need 3 days of curing in salt for every kilo of meat

To make saucisson you need at least 2 to 3 % of salt per weight of meat.

I knew the best brand for a meat slicer was Berkel, but their machines are simply too expensive for a home user, until very recently when they introduced the Homeline. It is still very expensive so it took me a long time before I committed to the purchase…

Just received my machine this week and had to wait for the weekend to be able to try it out.

First impressions are that this machine is incredibly well designed. Feels very solid and the blade, motor, traveller are all extremely well balanced and simply function as expected.

It has a very professional feel, but the look is nice.

The downside, the machine is still huge for a home kitchen and very heavy (required to make get the rigidity necessary for thin straight cuts).

However making thin slices of saucisson or thin slices of cheese make everything taste a little different and special, a big success with the family…

I love slow cooking food but it is too long to wait !…Here comes the fast slow cooker, essentially a pressure cooker mixed with a slow cooker or the opposite… 🙂

Perfect to make ribs….or bolognese sauce…