China Crumpet

Christmas at the Mauritzon’s this year will be celebrated in Beijing.

This means new challenges in bringing together the traditional Swedish Christmas smorgasbord of delicacies such as pickled herring and smoked eel. In order to seek out some of these Swedish must haves, we went to IKEA yesterday, to look at our fellow Beijinger’s sleeping in the bedding section and picnicing in the kitchen section, but also to purchase some of those Christmas essentials such as herring, tubed caviar spread for the egg platter and anchovies for the classic, Jansson’s temptation.

Unfortunately, we were out of luck. While we managed to buy a new salad bowl and cutting board and stock up on tea lights, IKEA seemed to have forgotten what Swedes eat for Christmas and had stocked up on candy and beer instead of herring and anchovies. We left with a bag of dill chips, some crisp bread, Swedish cheese and, luckily, the famous caviar spread. Now however, a new game plan must be devised. I have set my mind to making a couple of soft cheeses, curing my own ham and dry curing salmon so hopefully things will be ok despite the huge gap on the fishy side of the table this year.

But for those of you who want to join me in my ham curing, I am following this recipe by Jens Linder for a traditional Swedish ham:

1 ham (4-6 kg)

For the dry cure:
4 tbs salt (without iodine, it colors the ham)
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs saltpeter

For the brine:
5 liters water
9 dl (3 3/4 cups) salt (again, without iodine)
2 tbs sugar
1/2 tbs saltpeter

Mix the ingredients for the dry cure and rub it into the ham with clean hands. Put the dry cured ham into a plastic or ceramic bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave in the fridge over night.

The next day, mix the ingredients for your brine in a saucepan and bring to a boil, skimming off anything that floats to the surface. Let cool.

When the brine is completely cool, pour it over the ham, cover and leave in a cool, dark place (like your fridge or a food cellar) for 15 days afterwhich it is (finally) ready to boil and mustard-glaze.

Good luck my friends, may your hams and mine come out brilliantly!