Ingredients
What to buy
- kumpiak, ready cured
- whole, on the bone or off
- or sliced at the counter
- smoked or unsmoked
- from a Belarusian, Polish or Eastern European shop
- see the note on why no method is given
To serve on a board
- black rye bread
- butter
- horseradish, freshly grated
- mustard
- gherkins and pickled mushrooms
- sliced onion
To cook with
- in cabbage soup
- or in a bean and potato pot
- the bone especially
- in scrambled eggs
- in a potato babka
Directions
- Salt must penetrate the entire thickness. Cold weather was the refrigeration.
- Slice it thin and across the grain. It is dense and firm.
- Chill the piece before slicing. Use the sharpest knife you have.
- Take it out of the refrigerator twenty minutes before serving. Cold cured meat tastes of almost nothing.
- Grate it in a ventilated place with your face away.
- Salt, smoke and gelatine all come out of it. Do not salt the pot until the end.
- Add more potato or more water. Adding volume is what actually helps.
Technique
- The atlas gives no curing method, deliberately. Curing a whole ham uses nitrite salts in small precise quantities; cold smoking holds the meat below about thirty degrees for hours or days, which is exactly the range where bacteria grow, with only the salt and cure holding the line; a whole leg takes months and salt must penetrate the full thickness, with the bone end the classic failure point; and it is eaten without cooking, so nothing later corrects an error.
- Cold smoking flavours without cooking; hot smoking cooks. The two are confused constantly and the atlas keeps them separate.
- Spoilage deep at the bone is not visible from outside — it is found by smell when the ham is cut, by which point it is months of work lost and a real hazard.
- Judge a piece by firm deep colour, a clean smoky meaty smell, and white or cream fat. Yellowing fat on cured pork means it is oxidising — rancidity beginning, which tastes of old paint. Sliminess, coloured or fuzzy mould, or a sour or ammoniac smell all mean leave it.
- Slice it thin and across the grain. It is dense and firm: thin across is tender, thick along is chewy. Chill it first or ask the shop to slice it.
- Take it out twenty minutes before serving. Cold cured meat tastes of almost nothing until the fat softens.
- Do not salt a pot cooked with it until the end. The ham releases a great deal of salt into the liquid, how much varies enormously between producers, and salting early gives an inedible soup.
- If it does come out too salty, add more potato or more water — both add volume. The old trick of a raw potato absorbing salt does not work as claimed: it absorbs salty water rather than salt itself.
- The bone is the valuable part for cooking. A smoked ham bone gives a soup its whole character in salt, smoke and gelatine, and it freezes well.
- Grate horseradish in a ventilated place with your face away. The fumes sting far more than onion.
- Buy from a proper shop with refrigerated display and labelling. A ready-to-eat product that is never cooked depends entirely on how it was made.
- Store a whole piece wrapped in paper rather than plastic — paper lets it breathe where plastic makes it sweat.
- Cured meats contain nitrites and processed meat has documented health associations, with public health bodies advising moderation. The atlas records that as fact and makes no dietary recommendation.
- Advice on ready-to-eat cured meats in pregnancy varies by country, concerning listeria and toxoplasma; cooking it thoroughly addresses both. The atlas leaves that to a doctor or midwife.
Substitutions
- Polish szynka or any dry-cured smoked ham substitutes.
- Speck or prosciutto substitute on a board, at some cost in smokiness.
- A smoked gammon hock replaces the bone for soup.
- Unsmoked kumpiak is cleaner and lets the pork through.
- Salo, cured pork fat, serves the same place on the board.
- Bacon lardons stand in for the diced ham in eggs or babka.
Variations
- Palendvitsa is the dry-cured tenderloin from the same tradition.
- Kryvianka is the blood sausage from the same winter slaughter.
- Salo is the cured fat.
- Polish szynka wiejska is the closest cousin.
- A juniper-smoked version is made in some households.
- The bone goes into kapusniak, the cabbage soup.
History
The Belarusian farmhouse ham, salted and cold-smoked after the winter pig slaughter, then hung in the attic to dry.
Frequently asked questions
What is Kumpiak?
Kumpiak is a charcuterie & cured from Belarus: whole salted and smoked ham, dried and eaten in slices. The Belarusian farmhouse ham, salted and cold-smoked after the winter pig slaughter, then hung in the attic to dry.
How long does Kumpiak take to make?
Kumpiak takes 10 minutes of preparation and none of cooking. The recipe makes buy 60 g per person. It is rated easy to make.
What can I substitute in Kumpiak?
Yes, within limits. Polish szynka or any dry-cured smoked ham substitutes. Speck or prosciutto substitute on a board, at some cost in smokiness. A smoked gammon hock replaces the bone for soup. Unsmoked kumpiak is cleaner and lets the pork through. Salo, cured pork fat, serves the same place on the board. Bacon lardons stand in for the diced ham in eggs or babka.
What is the most important thing to get right in Kumpiak?
Salt must penetrate the entire thickness. Cold weather was the refrigeration.
