How to make
For this homemade ham I use a ham cooker and ham cooker bags, but if you don't have either, you can use meat roasting bags and do the steaming itself in a pot.
Take the pork leg, cut it into large pieces, clean all the veins from the meat nicely.
In a deep bowl, add all the spices without the gelatin and mix them well.
First, add a package of gelatin to the meat, mix well, then add the spice mixture.
For about 15 minutes, mix the meat with the spices and the gelatin by hand so that absolutely everything good gets inside the meat.
Use the ham maker, put the bag inside and add the meat inside, pressing well so that there is no empty space. Here I want to mention that the gelatin is added to collect the meat and when it is steamed, there are no holes between the meat.
Close the bag well and put the lid on the ham cooker and leave it in the fridge for 24 hours to marinate the pork. After 24 hours, remove the marinated meat from the refrigerator.
In a pot, which must be deep, put the ham cooker and add warm water (around 40-50°C) inside.
Turn on the stove on the lowest setting and measure with a water thermometer constantly, it should reach a water temperature between 160°F (70°C) and 180°F (80°C) and this temperature should be maintained for about 120 minutes.
After about 120 minutes of maintaining this temperature between 160°F (70°C) and 180°F (80°C) with a meat thermometer, measure the temperature in the middle of the ham, it should be above 160°F (70°C). This means that the meat itself is steamed and the ham is ready.
To make the ham last longer in the refrigerator, it is good to do a shock cooling with ice cold water, then pour the excess water from the ham cooker and put it in the refrigerator for about 10 hours.
After 10 hours in the fridge, you can take the delicious appetizer out, take it out of the plastic bag and cut it into pieces. This retro homemade ham can be vacuum packed in bags for longer consumption.
