Get Started

To go into the business, you will need about P700 to P1,000  to buy the ingredients and some of the tools needed that you may not already have in your kitchen.

YOU'LL NEED THE FOLLOWING EQUIPMENT, TOOLS AND UTENSILS:

• gas stove
• casserole
• oven
• bowls
• 30ml syringe (P32.50)
• 21G x 1" needle (P2)
• knife, cotton thread or ham net (P60)
• paperlyne (P40) or cut wrap for curing andpackaging.

YOU'LL NEED THE FOLLOWING INGREDIENTS:

• 1 kg pork (pigue or kasim part), P170 per kg

For the pumping-pickle (good for 10 kg of pork):

• 2 1/2 cups saturated salt solution
• 2 1/2 cups water
• 5 teaspoons curing salt, P20 per 500 g
• 2 1/2 tablespoons phosphate, P40 per 250 g
• 1 tablet ascorbic acid (500 mg), P1.53 per tablet
• 2 1/2 tablespoons white sugar, P19 per 500 g
• 1 drop oil of anise, P20 per 15 ml
• 1 drop oil of cloves, P20 per 15 ml
• 2 drops maplein, P20 per 15 ml
• 1 teaspoon smoke flavor, P60 per 60ml

For the dry-cure (good for 1 kg):

• 1 1/2 tablespoons salt, P15 per kg
• 1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 tablespoons phosphate

For cooking:

• 1/2 cup anisado wine, P31 per 350ml
• 2 cups brown sugar, P30 per kg
• a few leaves of oregano, P6 per 20g
• 2 pcs bay leaves, P4.50 per pack
• 2 cups pineapple juice, P60 per 1.36 L

What each ingredient does for ham:

• Curing salt, which is pink in color, is used to preserve and fix the color of the meat while being cured.
• Phosphate, used to make the meat tacky (slightly gummy to the touch), relaxes the meat muscle to increase its water-holding capacity, thus locking up the spices. This contributes to the tenderness of the meat.
• Ascorbic acid, an antioxidant and anticarcinogenic, accelerates color fixation while curing.
• Oil of anise is the ingredient responsible for giving your ham that licorice taste.

PROCEDURE:

Step 1: Select good quality meat: kasim (for the so-called picnic ham) or pigue (for boneless ham) are good because these parts have no bones and have the biggest chunk of lean meat. Kasim is from the pork's lower half shoulder, while the pigue is the pork's hind part.

Step 2: Prepare the saturated salt solution. Dissolve a cup of salt in 4 cups of water. Boil this for a minute and then let it cool.

 Step 3: Prepare the other ingredients for the pumping pickle. Mix the following ingredients into the 2 1/2 cups of water in this order: phosphate, curing salt, sugar, ascorbic acid, oil of anise, oil of cloves and maplein.

Step 4: When the salt solution has cooled down, mix the two solutions together. This pumping pickle is good for 10 kg of meat.

Step 5: Once all the ingredients are dissolved, get 1/2 cup of the pickle and put it into the syringe or brine pump. Make sure that there is no air inside the syringe.

 Step 6: Carefully inject the pickle into the lean portion of the meat in several points 1/2 inch apart. After each injection, slightly massage the meat to evenly distribute the pumping pickle in the meat. Set aside.

Step 7: Mix the ingredients for the dry cure. Rub the dry cure mixture on the meat, starting from its fatty portion all the way to the lean portion. Afterwards, wrap the ham with the paperlyne or cut wrap. The actual curing process now starts--you can cure the ham either at room temperature (typically 71 to 83 degrees Fahrenheit, or 22 to 28 degrees Celsius) for 8 to 10 hours or inside the refrigerator (35 and 38 degrees F, or 1.7 to 3.3 degrees C) for 5 to 15 days.

Step 8: After curing, wash the ham thoroughly with running water for two minutes to remove the excess pickle. Drain it and make sure to wash the excess pickle and dry cure away.

Step 9: Get the cotton thread or the ham net, and tightly tie the ham to shape it. Set aside.

 Step 10. In a casserole, put the pineapple juice, brown sugar, anisado wine, bay leaves, and oregano. Put the ham into the mixture and simmer for 1.5 hours or until meat is tender. You'll know when the meat is tender enough when its skin could be peeled off easily.

Step 11. Once the meat is tender, take it off the stove, and cut and remove the thread. Peel off the skin while the meat is hot. Peeling the skin when the meat has cooled would take more effort.

Step 12. By this time, the color of your ham would still be light. To brown the ham, you need to caramelize it. There are several methods of caramelizing ham: using a blowtorch, broiling it in an oven for 20 minutes, using a turbo-cooker, or pouring hot syrup over the fat portion. For the first three methods, you just need to rub brown sugar on the fat portion and then proceed to caramelize it.

Step 13: Once you're satisfied with the color and the taste of the ham, you can wrap it with paperlyne or cut wrap and put it inside the freezer for future consumption. You can also immediately sell it.

COSTING:
To get your production cost, remember that the pumping pickle is good for 10 kilos of meat, so you have to divide that into 10 before adding the unit cost of the other ingredients. 

Then add the other materials you used for curing and packaging as well as the electricity you used. On top of this production cost, add a 50 percent profit margin. You could sell your ham at the same price or much lower than commercial ham sold in the supermarkets. If you're going to sell ham on retail, you may slice it thinly and price it per piece or per kilo.

Handy Tips

• Instead of using oils, you could also use ham spice (which costs P50 per 1/4 kg) to flavor your ham.
• Do not put the meat inside the freezer while curing; too much cold will slow the penetration of the spices into the meat. Put the meat in the fresh-food compartment of the refrigerator instead.