Every Christmas season, one of the best selling food item is ham. For many Filipinos, Christmas celebration would not be complete without ham on their tables. It’s still best to make your own homemade ham and sell them affordably to your customers.
To go into ham-retailing business, you will need only P700 to buy the ingredients and some of the tools. For the tools, you will need: gas stove, casserole, oven, bowls, 30 ml syringe, 21G x 1″ needle, knife, cotton thread or ham net, and paperlyne or cut wrap for curing and packaging.
The materials you will need are the following:
1 kg pork (pigue or kasim part)
For Pumping-Pickle (Good for 10 kg of pork):
2 1/2 cups saturated salt solution
2 1/2 cups water
5 teaspoons curing salt
2 1/2 tablespoon phosphate
1 tablet ascorbic acid
2 1/2 white sugar
1 drop oil of anise
1 drop oil of cloves
2 drops maplein
1 teaspoon smoke flavor
For dry-cure (good for 1kg):
1 1/2 tablespoons salt
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 tablespoons phosphate
For cooking:
1/2 cup anisado wine
2 cups brown sugar
Few leaves of oregano leaves
2 pcs bay leaves
2 cups pineapple juice
Procedure:
1. Separately prepare the saturated salt solution and the pumping-pickle. To make the saturated salt solution: dissolve 1 cup of salt in 4 cups water. Boil and let it cool. Meanwhile, prepare the other ingredients for pumping-pickle. Mix the following ingredients into the 2 1/2 cups water in this order: phosphate, curing salt, sugar, ascorbic acid, oil of anise, oil of cloves and maplein. Mix the two solutions together.
2. Get 1/2 cup of the pumping pickle and draw it into the syringe. Inject the pumping pickle into several points the lean portion of the meat 1/2 inch part. Massage the portion where the pumping pickle was injected.
3. Prepare the dry cure and rub it on the meat starting with the fat portion all the way to the lean portion. Wrap the ham with a paperlyne or cut wrap then cure the ham either at room temperature for 8 to 10 hours or in the refrigerator’s fresh food compartment for 5 to 15 days.
4. Get the cured ham and wash it down with running water. Tightly tie the ham to shape it using cotton thread or ham net. Set aside.
5. Prepare the cooking ingredients in a casserole. Put the meat and then cook for 1.5 hours. Once the meat is tender, take it off the stove and remove the thread. Then peel off the skin while the meat is hot.
6. To brown the ham, you need to caramelize it. Get a cup of the ham’s cooking solution adding 2 cups of brown sugar and 1/4 cup pineapple juice. Boil it until thickens, then add 1/2 teaspoon carageenan. Pour it over the fat portion of the ham.
7. Wrap it with a paperlyne or cut wrap. Store it in the fridge or immediately sell it.
If you’re going to sell ham on retail, you may slice it thinly and price it per piece or per kilo.
Where to look for supplies:
SPICES & FOOD MIXES
107 E. Rodriguez Sr. Ave., Quezon City
Tel: +632) 411-1349, (+632) 742-0826, (+632) 742-7866
Source: Mishell Malabaguio – Entrepreneur magazine 2008
