Westfälischer Schinken

Cured ham has been made in Westphalia since the early Middle Ages and was already traded through Cologne by the 12th century; for centuries it has counted among the best-known German hams. The tradition rests on the region's oak forests, where pigs were fattened on acorn mast (Eichelmast), and on dense beech woodland that supplied the smoking wood. The bone-in ham was entered in the EU register of Protected Geographical Indications as 'Westfälischer Knochenschinken' on 25 November 2013. By custom the hams were cut in May 'when the cuckoo called', which is why the spring pairing of ham with white asparagus became a Westphalian institution.

Sliced paper-thin across the grain, the meat is a deep wine-red shading to near-mahogany at the edges, rimmed with firm white fat. It is dense and slightly chewy rather than melting, drier than an Italian prosciutto, and tastes of salt, smoke and a faint sweet resin from the juniper. Laid on a slab of dark, moist Pumpernickel with cold butter, the sweet-sour rye and the salty smoke set each other off. A good slice is supple, not brittle, and not greasy.

Curing is preservation by water removal and salt. Rubbed repeatedly with a salt-and-nitrate mix (sugar is usually added), the leg loses moisture by osmosis while the salt and nitrite suppress spoilage bacteria and fix the meat's stable pink-red colour. After the salt has equalised through weeks of resting, the ham is cold-smoked: held below about 25°C, well under the temperature that would cook the meat, so the beechwood smoke only flavours, dries and further preserves the surface, depositing phenols and other antimicrobial compounds. Juniper wood or berries in the fire add resinous aromatics. Long maturing then concentrates flavour and firms the texture as more water leaves.