Pražská šunka

Ingredients

Brine

• 4 litreswater
• 480 gfine salt
• 40 gcuring salt (nitrite salt, 0.6%)
• 150 gsugar
• 2 tbspblack peppercorns
• 6bay leaves
• 1 tbspjuniper berries
• 1 headgarlic, halved

Ham

• 3 kgboneless pork leg, in one piece
• butcher’s string

To finish

• beechwood chips, if you have a smoker
• or 2 tbsp honey and 1 tbsp mustard, for the oven version

Directions

1. Bring 1 litre of the water to a boil with all the salt, curing salt, sugar and aromatics, stir until dissolved, then add the remaining 3 litres cold and chill the brine to below 5°C (41°F). Warm brine on raw pork is the one thing that must never happen.
2. Weigh the curing salt exactly. It is what keeps a large piece of meat safe through a week in brine and gives the pink colour and the cured flavour; guessing it is not an option in either direction.
3. Submerge the pork completely in the cold brine, weighted down, and refrigerate for seven days. Turn it daily.
4. For an even cure, inject some of the brine deep into the muscle with a brining syringe on day one. Without it a 3 kg piece cures from the outside in and the centre stays grey and bland.
5. After seven days, lift the ham out, rinse it well and soak in fresh cold water for two hours to draw back the surface salt.
6. Tie it firmly into an even cylinder with string, then cook it gently — either hot-smoked over beech at 75°C (167°F), or in a low oven at 90°C (194°F) in a covered tin with a little water — until the centre reaches 68°C (154°F). This takes about four hours. Use a probe thermometer; there is no other way to know.
7. Cool completely, ideally overnight in the fridge, before carving. Warm, it crumbles; cold, it slices cleanly.
8. Carve thin and serve with bread, horseradish and mustard, or brush the oven version with honey and mustard and glaze it for 15 minutes at 200°C (400°F).

Technique

• Curing salt is not ordinary salt and the two are not interchangeable. Use a proper nitrite blend at the stated rate and keep it away from anything else.
• Cook to a core temperature, not to a time. A 3 kg ham can vary by an hour depending on its shape.
• The two-hour desalting soak matters. Skip it and the outside is a salt lick while the middle is right.

Substitutions

• A smaller 1.5 kg piece, brined for four days rather than seven, which is far more manageable.
• Pork shoulder for a fattier, more forgiving ham.
• Liquid smoke brushed on before the oven, if there is no smoker.

Variations

• The bone-in version cooked on the bone and carved at the table is the traditional Prague ham.
• Sliced thin into a Czech obložené chlebíčky with potato salad and egg.

History

Created in Prague in 1857 by butcher František Zvěřina, whose brined and beech-smoked ham was exported across the Austro-Hungarian empire.

Frequently asked questions

What is Pražská šunka?

Pražská šunka is a charcuterie & cured from Czechia: mild brined ham smoked over beechwood, carved from the bone. Created in Prague in 1857 by butcher František Zvěřina, whose brined and beech-smoked ham was exported across the Austro-Hungarian empire.

How long does Pražská šunka take to make?

Pražská šunka takes 40 min plus 7 days brining of preparation and 4 hours of cooking. The recipe makes serves 10. It is rated hard to make.

What can I substitute in Pražská šunka?

Yes, within limits. A smaller 1.5 kg piece, brined for four days rather than seven, which is far more manageable. Pork shoulder for a fattier, more forgiving ham. Liquid smoke brushed on before the oven, if there is no smoker.

What is the most important thing to get right in Pražská šunka?

Bring 1 litre of the water to a boil with all the salt, curing salt, sugar and aromatics, stir until dissolved, then add the remaining 3 litres cold and chill the brine to below 5°C (41°F). Warm brine on raw pork is the one thing that must never happen.