Ziggy Jakubowski will not admit to any favouritism for the smallgoods he makes. “I love all my products, they’re beautiful,†he says whenever anyone spoilt for choice between the different hams, sausages, schinken, smoked pork neck and more on display in his own shop in Moonah asks for a recommendation.
Ziggy studied food technology in his native Poland but did not take up butchery until he moved to Sydney 20 years ago. “I learned some of it from the books and the rest by experience,†he says.
He moved to Hobart with his then wife nine years ago and immediately set up shop in Moonah. Within a year, he was moving towards specialising in smallgoods. Now you will not find a chop or steak in the place. Including those sold through our shop, Ziggy will make about 200 hams on the bone and 100 boneless hams in just a few weeks before Christmas. The rigmarole of making hams, sees many butchers get them ready over months and store them frozen for Christmas, but Ziggy simply clears the decks of other work and devotes all his time and space to ham production.
The legs are first cured in brine for 24 hours and then made tender and flexible by being tumbled for 15 minutes every hour for 10 hours. Next, the hams are smoked overnight over a combination of Tassie oak and European beech chips, and the next day they are cooked - leaving you only the Christmas Eve job of decorating and glazing the ham.
Glazed over
Remove the rind from the cooked ham, leave the fat in place, but trim if desired. Score fat in diamond pattern with shallow cuts.
Orange and mustard
Mix a generous ¼ cup of grain mustard with 1 cup fresh orange juice and rub into the fat. Pour half to one cup white wine over the ham. Bake at 180C for 1-1¼ hours, basting often. Lower the heat as soon as the ham starts to colour.
Virginia style
Combine ¼ cup of brown sugar and ¼ cup dry mustard and rub into scored fat. Stud with whole cloves. Mix 1 cup pineapple juice with ½ cup sherry and baste the ham often with the glaze. The ham can be decorated with slices of canned or glacé pineapple before baking. Bake as above.
Apricot glaze
Mix 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup cooked apricots, pureed, and spread over ham. Insert 1 clove into each diamond. Bake at 170C for about 45 minutes, basting occasionally until golden and crisp.
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