Nutrition
| Per 100 g | Per 1 oz (28 g) | |
|---|---|---|
| Energy | 373 kcal | 106 kcal |
| Protein | 53.7 g | 15.2 g |
| Fat | 14.1 g | 4 g |
| saturated | 4.6 g | 1.3 g |
| Carbohydrate | 3.9 g | 1.1 g |
| sugars | 3.9 g | 1.1 g |
| Fibre | 0 g | 0 g |
| Sodium | 3093 mg | 877 mg |
Estimated from the ingredients, for the finished dried product. Actual values vary with the produce you use and how far you dry it.
Ingredients
- 2.2 kg lean precooked sliced ham
Instructions
- Choose the leanest slices on the platter and cut around any fat edge. Ham fat does not dry — it melts, spreads across the tray and coats whatever is near it.
- Cut the slices into strips of about 19 mm to 2.5 cm wide. Deli ham comes thin already, so strip width is the only dimension you control, and narrow strips finish faster than wide ones.
- Blot every strip between paper towels before it goes on a tray. Cooked ham is cured in brine and its surface is wetter than it looks.
- Lay the strips flat without letting any corner fold over. A fold traps brine and gives you a soft patch in the middle of an otherwise crisp piece.
- Dry at 63 °C for 6 hours, opening the machine two or three times to blot the surfaces again. Fat keeps rendering out all the way through the run, and leaving it there is what makes a batch taste stale within a fortnight.
- The strips are done when they are stiff, glassy at the edges and snap rather than tear. Cool one first, because ham stays flexible while it is warm and almost everybody pulls this batch early.
- Let them go completely cold and then break them into pieces. Cold strips break cleanly; warm ones only bend.
- This is cured meat with some fat still in it, so store it sealed in the fridge for a month or the freezer for six rather than in a cupboard. If you are taking it walking, vacuum-seal a day at a time and accept a couple of weeks.
