Húsvéti sonka tormával

The story

Ham is the center of the Hungarian Easter table. On farms the best ham from the winter pig slaughter was set aside and smoked slowly so that it would be ready when the Lenten fast ended. On Holy Saturday evening, March 27 in 2027, many Catholic parishes hold a Resurrection procession, and families coming home from it sit down to a supper made up mostly of ham and eggs. In many communities the ham also goes into the covered blessing basket, the szentelőkosár, with eggs, braided kalács, horseradish, salt and sometimes wine, and the Budapest site 444 lists ham, eggs, kalács and horseradish among the foods on most Easter tables. The ham is a raw smoked leg. It is soaked overnight to draw out salt, then simmered gently for hours with bay leaves, peppercorns and garlic, and left to cool in its broth. Many families boil the Easter eggs in the same liquid, and the salty broth is saved for soup. Freshly grated horseradish, torma, is the essential partner; in a 2023 price survey 444 found whole roots in only three of the nine Budapest shops and markets it checked and called them rare and expensive. Cook the ham on Saturday and serve it cold on Sunday morning with kalács, radishes and green onions.