Country Ham
Posted: Mon Oct 03, 2016 3:40 pmAfter much research, I decided to buy a country ham. My thinking was that I could eat it while I made my own next year (at least that’s what I told my wife). I decide to go here to get one:
It is a welcoming place for lovers of pork. Here are some of their hams and the awards they’ve won.
They have a window display of some enormous hams (no longer edible).
The one I wanted was off to the right -
This is the label. The ham is the entire leg, hoof included. They vacuum pack it for transport or shipping.
After removing the hoof with a bone saw, I took off the front of the thigh and decided to cut it against the grain instead of with the grain as is the European tradition. Cutting through the skin is no easy task as the ham was more than a year old.
Sliced paper thin with an electric slicer gave me this:
After the initial blast of salt I found I could really pick out the sweetness as compared to prosciuttos I have tasted. Not surprising as they wouldn’t have had sugar added to the cure. Country hams here typically are done with 4 parts of salt to 1 part sugar. The ham tasted great alone or with melon. Their website:
http://www.countrycuredhams.com/
Here is a fun story about these hams:
https://www.southernfoodways.org/ham-to ... ithfields/
Here is an article that taught me to slice country ham like the European hams and to enjoy them for what they were. There are a lot of restaurants that are adopting this practice. I shared some slices of ham with people that have lived their whole lives in the South but have never tasted country ham raw and sliced thin. It was a revelation to them.
http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=4837.html
This post is useful for the flavor descriptors and profiles of some of the world’s best hams.
http://blog.edwardsvaham.com/great-arti ... m-tasting/
If you still haven’t read enough about ham, I found this book highly engaging (go figure).
https://www.amazon.com/Country-Ham-Sout ... 05YG8304Z0
It is a welcoming place for lovers of pork. Here are some of their hams and the awards they’ve won.
They have a window display of some enormous hams (no longer edible).
The one I wanted was off to the right -
This is the label. The ham is the entire leg, hoof included. They vacuum pack it for transport or shipping.
After removing the hoof with a bone saw, I took off the front of the thigh and decided to cut it against the grain instead of with the grain as is the European tradition. Cutting through the skin is no easy task as the ham was more than a year old.
Sliced paper thin with an electric slicer gave me this:
After the initial blast of salt I found I could really pick out the sweetness as compared to prosciuttos I have tasted. Not surprising as they wouldn’t have had sugar added to the cure. Country hams here typically are done with 4 parts of salt to 1 part sugar. The ham tasted great alone or with melon. Their website:
http://www.countrycuredhams.com/
Here is a fun story about these hams:
https://www.southernfoodways.org/ham-to ... ithfields/
Here is an article that taught me to slice country ham like the European hams and to enjoy them for what they were. There are a lot of restaurants that are adopting this practice. I shared some slices of ham with people that have lived their whole lives in the South but have never tasted country ham raw and sliced thin. It was a revelation to them.
http://www.cookingissues.com/index.html%3Fp=4837.html
This post is useful for the flavor descriptors and profiles of some of the world’s best hams.
http://blog.edwardsvaham.com/great-arti ... m-tasting/
If you still haven’t read enough about ham, I found this book highly engaging (go figure).
https://www.amazon.com/Country-Ham-Sout ... 05YG8304Z0
