Holsteiner Katenschinken

Appearance & taste

The ham is cut round with the aitchbone and leg bone (Hamburg round cut). Finished, it weighs about 7.5 to 19 kg depending on the pig breed and contains at most 68 % water. When cut, it is deep red and lightly marbled. It smells and tastes of natural smoke, above all beech; the fat tastes slightly nutty. The meat feels supple and firm.

The ham is sold whole or cut to order. Parts such as Pape, Kappe and Blume are also ripened in vacuum and then sold, as are slices. Besides “Holsteiner Katenschinken”, the names “Holsteiner Schinken”, “Holsteiner Katenrauchschinken” and “Holsteiner Knochenschinken” are protected.

Production

Hind legs of pigs of any origin are used. The ingredients are pork ham, smoke, salt, saltpetre, nitrite curing salt and spices. The hams are dry-cured exclusively by hand: at a constantly low temperature they lie in the curing room for three to eight weeks, are rubbed with the curing mixture on salting tables and re-salted by hand every week. Salt and spices slowly penetrate from the outside in.

The hams are then brushed or rinsed off and left to equalise under controlled cooling; during this time they ripen. Once the surface has dried, they go into the smoke, in historical smokehouses (Räucherkaten) or modern smoking chambers. Smoking can take several weeks. The fuel is mainly beech wood, at least 75 %, which smoulders slowly as logs or chips. The entire process from receiving the legs to the end of ripening takes place in Schleswig-Holstein and lasts at least four months.

Origin & history

The area is the entire federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Forests with many oaks and beeches used to provide acorns and beechnuts for fattening pigs and beech wood for the open fireplaces. The typical hall house had no chimney; hams and other meat products were smoked in the smoke of the fireplace. The smokehouses are also built on its model. Because of the constantly high humidity, ham could not be air-dried there without quickly going mouldy. Salt was available early on from sea salt or from burnt salt-bearing plants, later via the trade routes Ochsenweg and Salzstraße.

Slaughtering and smoking traditionally took place in the cold season. According to the specification, the oldest written record dates from 1608 and concerns the sending of hams to the Danish King Christian IV, then the ruler of the land. In 1742 Zedler’s Universal-Lexicon highlighted the quality and market value of ham and bacon from the region. In the 18th century they were traded for sugar and rum from the Caribbean islands. With industrialisation from the middle of the 19th century, smoking was also carried out commercially. Today, according to the specification, the ham is regarded as the most popular accompaniment to local asparagus.