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Easter Ham: "Country" or "City?"


David Ross

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Every Spring I consider whether or not I should buy a "Country" style ham to serve for Easter dinner or if I should stick with the old standard "City" style ham.  It's a personal struggle between going with something quite different as the showcase of a meal that is very traditional.  Sort of like serving pheasant in mushroom cream sauce rather than roasted turkey for Thanksgiving.  Well, every year the rush of new ideas fades as we get closer to Easter and I end up with the less risky choice of a "City" style ham. 

 

You know the hams I'm talking about--typically cured in a sweet brine, smoked (or "smoke flavor" added), in a fairly quick, factory-style production--the "City" ham is often spiral-sliced, wrapped in purple foil and accompanied by a packet of stuff they label "brown-sugar glaze."  These are decent hams that appeal to the masses.  Easy to heat, easy to pull off slices and the leftover ham provides for scores of ham sandwiches.  You can chuck the ham into scalloped potatoes, ham and bean soup, chopped ham salad, any number of mild ham dishes.

 

But there's another choice out there that I'm going with this year, the vaunted "Country" style ham. (The ham that to this day my Mother claims is "too salty".)  Ham made the natural way for generations--salted and sugared, hung, cured, smoked in an old tobacco barn and aged to the point where just one sliver leaves you with indelible memories of how ham should taste-salty, smokey, rich, slick and porcine.

 

Being a product of the Pacific Northwest, I never acquired a taste for country ham when I was young.  In fact, I never knew that there was such a thing as "Country" ham until our family started making annual treks to Kentucky horse country every August.  It was in Kentucky, that I had my first taste of country ham.  A small slice of ham blanketed between two buttermilk biscuit pillows.  From that point on, I was hooked on country ham.  Sort of.

 

I know that a 14 pound haunch of country ham wouldn't be accepted for Easter dinner.  Even after hours and hours of soaking the ham and baking it in a brown paper bag, my friends and family would agree with Mother-"It's too salty."  But what about soaking the ham slices to leach out some of the salt, then frying them up and serving a side of red eye gravy?  A country style Easter?  Forget those tepid dishes using "City" ham, what about slow-cooked beans with country ham?  Can we go chi-chi and wrap paper-thin shards of country ham around a luscious slice of cantalope and serve it with a honeydew sorbet?  A "Country" ham certainly inspires any number of dishes that would be welcome in dining rooms in any city.

 

Well, this week I push the button on the computer and order a fine country ham from some folks down in Kentucky, along with some sausage and bacon.  What say you?  "Country" or "City" ham for Easter?

 

 

 

 

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I'm an advocate of messing with traditions. If you want a country ham, go for it! See if you can make some converts in your family.

Splitting the difference, however, I'll give a third choice (my personal favorite): can you get a traditional "picnic ham" - that is, a nicely cured shoulder? Fatty, salty, to be cut in chunks or slices at the table, none of that spiral-cut stuff. I detested ham until I experienced the smoked picnic ham. I think my issue is that most ham is too *sweet*.

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Nancy Smith, aka "Smithy"
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In the country, we ate "city" hams, but before they were city hams, all packed in water and spiral-sliced and such.  The lightly smoked hams came from the packing plant wrapped in imprinted butcher paper.  ("Coleman's Blue Band" was my grandma's go-to brand.)  No glaze packets, but baked with homemade brown sugar glaze, cloves, scored fat and the rest.  Country ham was almost invariably breakfast fare, except for when one of us begged for country ham steaks for lunch or dinner...

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Bill Klapp

bklapp@egullet.com

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I serve both. Home cured and smoked.

Problem solved!

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)
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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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I'm with Smithy.  I like the picnic ham better than the traditional ham.  Julia Child has an excellent recipe using a picnic that is slowly braised with stock, port and aromatics then served sliced along the bone in the French style, rather than toward the bone in the American manner. 

 

One of the great things about ham is that it is so versatile.  The above recipe yields enough stock (give or take) to make an excellent pea soup with dried split peas.

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Why not something completely different and get a Fresh Ham from your butcher?  We've done it several times and it was certainly a change that everyone liked.

I've learned that artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

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I'm just not a ham person. If forced, country would be my choice, but I'd rather have lamb chops, or pork roast... or lasagna.

 

To me, the spiral sliced glazed ones taste like diner/cafeteria ham.  :(

 

Country ham is fine breakfast food in small amounts as Janeer said earlier.

 

Sausage patties (never links) are better.

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I'm an advocate of messing with traditions. If you want a country ham, go for it! See if you can make some converts in your family.

Splitting the difference, however, I'll give a third choice (my personal favorite): can you get a traditional "picnic ham" - that is, a nicely cured shoulder? Fatty, salty, to be cut in chunks or slices at the table, none of that spiral-cut stuff. I detested ham until I experienced the smoked picnic ham. I think my issue is that most ham is too *sweet*.

I buy smoked shoulders from Quebec, at just $2/lb. Easy to find, and always rewarding once you accommodate the difficult carving issue.

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Country ham takes some time to make.  After soaking it, boiling it and baking it, It is still to salty so I slice it and simmer it water the pan fry it.  This extra step removes the 'too salty' effect.  It is very different from city ham with a much more intense flavor.  I don't do one every year but the extra trouble is worth  it.

 

Picnic hams have bones that make slicing a problem. 

Edited by Norm Matthews (log)
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Better yet, cure a country ham that ain't so dang salty.  :smile:

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~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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Up until a few years ago, my cousins used to send me a home-cured ham every year - usually in November as it was easy to store at room temp until ready to use.

 

They do require "par-boiling" (simmering) in multiple changes of water - after being pierced all over with an ice pick - or a sharp, long-tined chef's fork if you have one.  I use my electric roaster.   Change the water every 2 hours, total 8 hours for an 18 pound ham.  Reduce the time for smaller ones.

Some people like to just soak them but this takes 2-3-4 days (depending on size) in cool water (40 degrees F.) with the water changed ever 6-8 hours.

 

Then a final (before the "real" cooking) treatment - slow simmering in Coca Cola for a minimum of an hour (put the ham in a pot and pour in the cola half way up the ham, turn it often).  Rinse and the proceed with treating the ham with a mustard rub and a brown sugar coat and then roast it until the coating is like candy and the internal temp is 120 degrees.

By this time the ham is fully cooked so it really just has to heat through and the temp will rise a bit after it comes out of the oven and is "resting."

 

If you think this sounds odd - Coca Cola will extract a lot of salt - much more than just plain water. 

Edited by andiesenji (log)
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"There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!" Terry Pratchett

 

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That would be 'uncooked' as in 'cured but not subsequently soaked/re-cooked/etc.', I presume.  As patrickamory says, like prosciutto,

Leslie Craven, aka "lesliec"
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There's another solution for country hams… don't soak it or cook it at all, take David Chang's lead and slice paper-thin like prosciutto, serve on bread. Delicious.

Actually, Patrick O' Connell of the Inn at Little Washington was serving thinly sliced cured (but raw in the uncooked sense) country ham on kiwi wedges with a lime cream sauce back when David Chang was but a wink in his father's eye.  Despite the high salt element in most country hams and the quite different tastes, country ham and prosciutto are essentially the same thing.  One difference is that trichinosis is all but unknown in Italy, while it has always been a North American concern.  However, I think that the curing of the country ham takes care of the problem...

Bill Klapp

bklapp@egullet.com

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Actually, Patrick O' Connell of the Inn at Little Washington was serving thinly sliced cured (but raw in the uncooked sense) country ham on kiwi wedges with a lime cream sauce back when David Chang was but a wink in his father's eye.  Despite the high salt element in most country hams and the quite different tastes, country ham and prosciutto are essentially the same thing.  One difference is that trichinosis is all but unknown in Italy, while it has always been a North American concern.  However, I think that the curing of the country ham takes care of the problem...

I haven't heard about fear of pork trichinosis in recent years.  The incidence is 1 in 100,000,  and mostly from bears or pigs raised outdoors.  http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5809a1.htm.

 

Salt curing will not kill the nematodes, but slow smoking, as in traditional Smithfield hams, should be effective. 

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4 to 5% salt and ample time (among other methods) will control trichinae in hams.

 

Treatment is a requirement.

 

"§ 319.106 “Country Ham,”

(b) The product must be treated for the destruction of possible live trichinae in accordance with such methods as may be approved by the Administrator upon request in specific instances and none of the provisions of this standard  can be interpreted as discharging trichinae treatment requirements."

Edited by DiggingDogFarm (log)

~Martin :)

I just don't want to look back and think "I could have eaten that."

Unsupervised, rebellious, radical agrarian experimenter, minimalist penny-pincher, and adventurous cook. Crotchety, cantankerous, terse curmudgeon, non-conformist, and contrarian who questions everything!

The best thing about a vegetable garden is all the meat you can hunt and trap out of it!

 

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I like the suggestion of a "Country vs. City" ham meal.  But I just realized that Easter is on April 20 and I'll still be in a no-weight bearing status from my recent ankle surgery.  It's pretty hard to hobble around the kitchen on my scooter right now, but I'll get a ham pictorial going soon.

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This morning I ordered a "City Ham" from Meachams Hams of Sturgis, Kentucky-

http://www.meachamhams.com/

 

I also ordered a whole "Country Ham," Sausage and Country Bacon from Father's Country Hams of Bremen, Kentucky

http://www.fatherscountryhams.com/

 

Probably won't have my Country vs. City ham challenge ready for a bit, but I'll keep posting photos of my progress. 

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