Most Finns buy their Christmas ham frozen. So now it’s time to thaw the ham.
Finns still like to roast their Christmas ham themselves. Tommi Anttonen
When thawing, the most important thing is to remember that the ham should never be thawed at room temperature. So now you can’t straighten the bends, otherwise the ham may taste bad.
If for some reason the ham has been thawed at room temperature by mistake, which should not be done under any circumstances, the situation may still be salvageable.
Marketing director of HKScan Finland Mikko Järvinen advises to fry the ham like frozen ham at a low temperature of less than one hundred degrees.
If the ham is frozen on the inside and melted on the outside, it will release a lot of liquid in the oven at over a hundred degrees, so the end result will not be good. There is also a risk that the surface of ham that has been at room temperature for many days starts to spoil.
The ham should be thawed at refrigerator temperature – either in the refrigerator or outside if the temperature is consistently between -2 and +5. Fluctuations in temperature are not good for ham, so the refrigerator is the most optimal place for thawing.
Thawing times
A 10–12 kg ham requires 4–5 days to melt.
A 6–8 kg ham requires 3–4 days to melt.
A 2–4 kg ham requires 2–3 days to melt.
Traditionally, the ham is baked the night before the eve. Of course, the baking time depends on your own time, Järvinen reminds.
If you put the thawed ham in the oven in the evening, it should be brought to room temperature the same morning.
The story was originally published on 20 December 2021.