[Sca-cooks] Mainz Ham

[Stefan li Rous]

  Guillaume des Pyrenees commented:
 > I am looking for a source or recipe for Mainz ham. All I have so far 
is
 > that it is ham that has been soaked in wine lees (or brandy, if I 
remember
 > right) before curing.

"in wine lees or brandy"?

That pairing seems a bit unusual to me. This one where I'd really like 
to see the original description, since we don't seem to have a recipe.

I can understand the brandy. That would have a fair amount of alcohol 
and would seem to work quite well as a pickling agent/preservative. 
Wine might work, although it's alcohol content is less. But the ham is 
getting further curing. I can't see that the wine lees, containing the 
sediment, dead yeasts and other stuff would do much. Either for the 
taste or preservation. Why not use wine? You might say because wine 
lees are cheaper than wine. But this says "wine lees" or "brandy" and 
brandy wouldn't be cheap, either then or now.

Stefan
--------
THLord Stefan li Rous    Barony of Bryn Gwlad    Kingdom of Ansteorra
    Mark S. Harris           Austin, Texas          
StefanliRous at austin.rr.com
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