Ingredients:
3 kilos (pigue or hita) pig’s leg
without the bones; select one with the skin and fat intact
9 tbsps. sugar
8 tbsps. salt
1-1/2 tsps msg or vetsin
2 tsps. prague powder (instead of
saltpeter or salitre)
Cooking Instructions:
Mix all dry ingredients in a
bowl.
Rub these seasonings well into
the meat. Set aside the seasoned meat in a glass bowl. Cover and refrigerate
for one day.
Tie the ham tightly into a ball
with string (I use cotton crochet string). Remove/Drain the meat juices that
were left in the glass bowl and set aside for injecting.
Using a huge syringe (you can buy
the largest syringe at Mercury drugstore for less than 20 pesos), inject the
flavored meat juice all around the ham in small doses.
Set the ham aside in the glass
bowl (covered) inside the refrigerator. Repeat the injecting process every day
until no juices remain.
Keep the ham inside a plastic bag
in the freezer for a month or more.
To cook the ham
Add enough pineapple juice to
cover the ham at about 3/4’s level (not quite to the top of the ham).
Add the following: brown sugar (just
enough to sweeten the pineapple juice mixture), bay leaves, and crushed garlic.
Cook the mixture in a heavy,
teflon-type pot over a low fire until the meat becomes tender. Watch out that
the meat doesn’t get burned. You can prevent over-browning by turning the meat
from time to time.
Cool the meat and slice into
pieces.
Source: kusinamasterrecipes
