It has been some time since the last update; four hams cooked and passed on to the client so it would seem that they are happy with the outcome as they have not put me on their black list (not sure if they have one or go by the rule of just not phoning you back)
All things aside the ham itself has a great taste
‘but’ to me there seems to be something missing and as Tom and I were going over the cooking process and the outcome the discussions centred on the cooking and spices..
My cooking process had not changed but to me (my taste) I felt that the ham had come out dry(ish) to where I felt that it should be; the cooking process was as always in a pre-heated (gas) oven as I do all my Gammons. In the roasting pan full of liquid on a 300 degree F temperature, cooked to an internal temperature of 140 degrees F when it was taken out of the oven and left on the side for half hour when the temperature was checked again and showed 165 degrees F which is where it had to be to be fully cooked. This process was and is exactly the same as we do for our cooked Gammons which turn out super moist. – These hams were as different as chalk and cheese.
The other concern that I had was that there was no distinction between the spices, yes you could tell the spices but to me there was not the same as the Suffolk where it left you wondering what that hidden spice/flavour hiding behind the array flavours, the consensus was that flavour was muddy and I felt that spices needed to be increased in certain cases.
The following is the cooked Irish ham; notice the lower edge showing classic signs of being over cooked and hence being on the dry side on tasting.
This is the cooked Irish ham sliced
As always we do not toss out the liquid we cook the hams in; we save and recycle (it’s the green thing, or in our case adding flavour on flavour) and use in our pork pies
With that being said it is now on to the next;
the following is Part I of Part II
– more to come