Dry Cured Hams - European Style

Europe has very many widely differing cultures, whose development has been affected by agreat number of different factors. One important factor, of course, is the climate, which varies considerably both in Europe and on the continent proper. Climatic conditions have also been responsible for shaping meat processing techniques in different parts of Europe; the dry curing of meat, for example, has been particularly widespread in the warm countries of southern Europe. The final product has been basically the same: the aim has been to produce a microbiologically safe and stable product that consumers can keep for long periods without cold storage. Because of the cultural and climatic differences mentioned above, the experience gained over centuries has led to the achievement of this aim using slightly different combinations of curing, temperature, time and smoking. Principles used to achieve these various shelf-stable products are shown in Table 1. Such principles as (1) low initial temperature of meat; (2) using a dry mixture of nitriteinitrate, salt and/or seasoning; (3) repeated application of this mixture over a period of time and; (4) drying or drying and smoking, are used.