¿Quieres aprender cómo cortar un jamón entero en casa?
It is the season par excellence of ham, and in order to share this culinary delight, we need to learn to cut it like a professional.
That's why we have prepared a whole guide so you can do it from home without having to spend even more money taking it to a delicatessen.
Cutting ham is a very pleasant activity, it transmits peace and serenity, and you will look great in front of your acquaintances.
Before starting, the first thing is to have all the necessary utensils on hand. If you want to cut a ham well, it is essential to have some tools.
Ham holder.
They may give you a ham holder with the purchase of your ham, but these ham holders are horrible, the ham will not stop moving and you will not be able to make regular cuts. Today you can find very good offers on ham holders that will last you several Christmases. You don't need to invest in a large ham holder, the main function of this utensil is stabilize the ham.
Isabel Arenas- Professional Ham carving: Ham cutting knives.
Slicing knife.
Among the knives for cutting ham, the most common is the ham knife, it has an approximate length of 30cm with a sharp blade and ends in a pointed or rounded shape, but this does not affect the cut. Its function is to slice the ham.
Drill or Chaira.
Is used for sharpen knives. Your knives have to be very sharp if you want to guarantee fine and delicate slicing. To use it, what you have to do is move the knife from top to bottom in a back and forth motion. When you're done, don't forget to clean it well and put it away.
Boning knife and lace.
The boning knife we need it for clean the ham and remove the fat crust and mark the beginning of the cut. Its blade is wide at the beginning and thinner at the end. It is the first knife we will use, and possibly the last.
The lace knife It is the smallest of all and we will use it for border the bones and peel off the meat to remove the whole slices with the slicing knife.
These are the necessary utensils to be able to cut Iberian ham or any other type of ham at home. You can also use some special tongs to place the slices on a display plate. These elements are not necessary but being so economical they are worth it. You will look like a professional when it comes to cutting ham.
Before placing the ham, remove all elements such as ribbons, labels, seals... Restaurants or delicatessens keep the labels so that we can see the origin of the ham.
Now you must place the ham in the ham holder in the correct way. A very common question is whether to place the ham with the hoof facing up or down. This depends on how long you are going to consume the ham. If you are going to consume it during the holidays, in a period of no more than 3 weeks, the recommendation is place the ham with the hoof facing up, since this cutting area (La Maza) is the freshest and juiciest.
, since this cutting area (the ham) is the freshest and juiciest. Once opened and started, the maximum period to consume the ham is a month and a half, don't forget it.
To start cutting a ham at home, we will use the boning knife to mark the cutting area. We have to locate a small protuberance called the “hock”, and two or three fingers from it we make a deep cut of about 45º until we touch the bone.
With the same knife, we will begin to clean the ham by removing the yellow fat rind. Do not remove too much, only the part that you plan to slice as this rind protects the ham. Remember not to leave any trace of this bark in the cutting area, as it is very bitter and will give your slices a rancid flavor.
Reserve two long slices of these white fat slices to cover the cut area when you are finished.
Once the cleaning is done, we begin cutting the ham.
Do you want to know how to cut ham? To do this, we will use the ham knife. Start cutting from the highest part of the piece until you approach the bone with a firm hand.
When you are going to slice, do not forget that your hand must always be located above the area you are slicing, since the ham knife is very sharp.
We will cut the first slice of ham forward, for convenience, and the rest we will cut towards us, as in the following image.
Remember to always keep the hand holding the ham away from the path of the knife.
We will be removing the slices of ham one by one, at first we will get shorter slices, but little by little they will become longer. The important thing is that they are thin and achieve a cut parallel to the femur, although this is only aesthetic, the size or thickness of the slices depends a lot on the consumer. The important is that can be eaten without problems.
As we progress we will remove more ham-fat and the ham bones. We must mark them with the Lace to separate the slices from these parts well and obtain a greater amount of product. Careful! If you accidentally cut off part of the bone, you may find bone chips in your loaches.
You may find some reddish or brown lumps on your ham, don't worry, they are lymph nodes that have become inflamed, and are not harmful to your health. You can easily remove them with the boning knife.
It's time to turn the piece over and start cutting the countermaza or stifle. Start from the highest part of the ham, parallel to the cut you made in the club. You will quickly find the bones of the stifle and the kneecap, you just have to surround them with the Lace and continue laminating.
There will come a point where the bone will not allow you to remove more slices, It's time to stop slacing. There is still a lot of product that you will have to remove carefully, you can cut it into cubes to make a multitude of recipes, and you can use the bones to make broths at home.
The trick that this professional has given us is amazing. Let's talk about a method called "The Third Cut of Ham". It is a technique that professionals use to get the most out of the ham, and to do it we must first have cut the entire area of the club and the stifle.
With the third cut we can laminate the strip of ham that remains above the femur. Yes, you heard right, that area can also be cut, although you will need to get a tilting ham holder.
Isabel; Before having the afinox that I have today, I have cut many hams with other cheaper but good quality ham holders, like the one you see below.
If you are dedicated to cutting, this ham holder is an investment that your cervical spine will thank you for.
Let Isabel Arenas explain it to you in 1 minute.
You already know the technique of The Third Cut and you can implement it at home. We encourage you to try it since the slices are really attractive and the final plating is incredible.
And as a last tip, if you want to cut perfect slices, you just have to let the knife feel underneath the sheets while you cut.
This way they will be thick enough to appreciate all their flavor and thin enough to melt in your mouth...
As you can see, the ham can be used completely.
To plate ham like a professional we will use some plating tongs and a display plate. We can also plate with a fork and common plates, but it will not be as aesthetically pleasing.
We will present the ham plate by placing the slices in a single layer from the outside in, partially covering one slice with the next and with the part of the fat facing the inside of the plate. The amount of slices that we should add to the plate so that they are visible and their quality can be appreciated is 20 or 25 slices, about 100 gr.
We can make different shapes, but the most common is the spiral.
If you need to preserve some slices of ham, just squeeze them into cling film and cover them with a cotton cloth. We must prevent them from oxidizing with air and light.
A very common trick is to preserve several cuts of white fat (not yellow), make a ball with them and put it in the refrigerator. When we need to preserve slices of ham we only have to spread part of that fat ball on the ham and cover it with film. This is the best way to preserve ham at home.
If you prefer to use oil, use sunflower oil to avoid mixing flavors.
And if you are going to leave the ham outside the refrigerator, remember to take the temperature into account. Do not leave it near the oven or any appliance that gives off heat.
If you intend to freeze ham, experts recommend that you do not do so unless strictly necessary, since it will lose much of its texture and flavor.
Some of you are wondering if it is possible to do this. Well yes, it is possible, but it is not easy.
Taking into account the variety of ham holders that we can find at a very good price, anyone would say that it makes no sense to cut ham in this way, but we must be open to any possibility.
If you are going to do it by hand, place the piece of ham on the board and slice carefully using the ham knife.
If you are going to cut the ham by machine, you just have to place the piece, activate the machine, specify the thickness of the slices, and slice carefully.
Would you like to be a professional ham cutter?
We hope that the guide has helped you and you can enjoy this delicacy at home 🙂.
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