What Is Cured ham and How Can I Use It?
Cured ham is easier to cook with than it looks. Here's how to choose, use, and store it, what to substitute, and 6 recipes to get you started.
Key Points
- Cured ham is pork leg preserved with salt, which firms it and turns it pink and savory.
- City ham is wet-cured and cooked; country ham and prosciutto are the dry-cured, salty kind.
- It is already salty, so season other ingredients lightly and taste before adding more.
What is cured ham?
Cured ham is pork leg preserved with salt, the curing being what turns plain fresh pork into ham at all. The salt firms the meat, deepens the color to pink-red, and gives that savory, slightly sweet flavor no raw pork has.
Most cured ham you meet is city ham: wet-cured in a salt-and-sugar brine, then fully cooked, so it is ready to warm and eat. Dry-cured hams like country ham and prosciutto are the salty, aged end of the same family.
How to Use It
A wet-cured, fully cooked ham just needs warming and a glaze, the standard holiday move. Diced, it folds into eggs, soups, and casseroles, carrying salt and savory depth through the dish, and it stuffs neatly into bites like Ham-Filled Mushroom Caps.
Dry-cured ham is treated more like a seasoning. A few thin slices wrap pork or scallops, as in Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Elderberry Syrup & Dry-Cured Ham, while a salty country ham fries up for Old-Time Country Ham with Redeye Gravy.
Either way, the cure means the ham is already salty, so go light on added salt and taste before reaching for more.
Buying and Storing
Read the label to see how it was cured. Fully cooked city ham is the everyday choice; dry-cured and country hams are firmer and far saltier, often needing a soak.
Keep cured ham tightly wrapped in the coldest part of the fridge. Sliced or opened ham keeps three to five days; a whole dry-cured ham is shelf-stable and can hang at cool room temperature for months.
For glazing a whole ham and saving the bone for soup, the parent ham page has the full rundown.
Quick facts
- In Chinese
- 火腿
- British (UK) term
- Cured ham
- en français
- jambon
- en español
- jamón curado
Recipes using cured ham
There are 6 recipes that contain this ingredient.
Whitby Queen Scallops - Deliciouslyorkshire
Restaurant and bistro Green’s of Whitby source and promote the very best of foods from the surrounding area. Situated in the busy fishing harbour of Whitby, Rob chooses seafood fresh from the quayside every morning, recently winning one of the food industry’s most coveted awards; Seafood Chef of the Year. Prime local meats and game are also a speciality. The abundance of fresh produce means that the menu changes frequently to offer the best of the day.
Pork Tenderloin Medallions with Elderberry Syrup & Dry-Cured Ham
Pork tenderloin medallions stuffed with dry-cured ham and a touch of elderberry syrup, then seared until juicy. A quick, elegant pork dish balancing sweet, salty, and savory in every bite.
Old-Time Country Ham with Redeye Gravy
Country ham fried in a cast iron skillet with redeye gravy made from boiling water and coffee. The classic Southern Appalachian breakfast that turns dry-cured ham into a salty, savory plate.
Puerto Rican Rice with Chicken
Arroz con pollo Puerto Rican style with chicken marinated overnight in adobo, sofrito, salt pork, ham, olives, capers, and peas, then simmered together into one golden pot.
Shark's Fin with Bamboo Fungus
An elaborate Chinese banquet dish: shark's fin stuffed in bamboo fungi with shrimp-coated crab claws, asparagus, bean sprouts, and crab roe sauce. A multi-component showpiece for special occasions.
Ham-Filled Mushroom Caps
Spanish-style stuffed mushroom caps filled with cured ham, garlic, parsley, chili pepper, and olive oil. A simple tapas appetizer baked in just 15 minutes.
