Mail-Order Virginia Country Hams

[Anna N]

 I was gifted some lovely products from Father’s and today I tried the Bacon Seasoning for the first time.

Here.

 I’m surprised my neighbours were not breaking down my doors to reach that lovely smoky, porky smell.

 

 

 

 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

I realize Parma is not in Virginia but I am minded ParmaShop has some lovely looking Parma hams on sale.

 

[Kerry Beal]

 

Also a lucky recipient of some Father's Country Bacon Seasoning.

 

 

Made some very smoky baked beans. Very smoky!

[rotuts]

those BB look deliucious

 

would you share your Rx ?

[Kerry Beal]

6 minutes ago, rotuts said:

those BB look deliucious

 

would you share your Rx ?

I bastardized my usual recipe - I'll include it here though 

 

Baked Beans 

Recipe By: Kerry 
Serving Size: 12 

Ingredients: 

- 1 lbbag dried navy beans soak and cook 
- 2 tsp salt 
- 1/4 tsp pepper 
- 1 cup brown sugar 
- 1 cup chopped onion 
- 6 tbsp bacon drippings 
- 2 tsp prepared mustard 
- 4 cups tomato juice 
- 4 cups bean water 
- 1/2 lb bacon cut into chunks 
- 1/2 canned ham cubed 

Directions: 

Soak beans overnight, or do quick soak.  To quick soak, cover beans with cold water, bring to a boil, boil one minute, cover and let sit one hour.  Cook beans for about 30 minutes or until tender.  Fry bacon and reserve fat.  Combine all ingredients and bake at 325 for 6-8 hours, topping up with water if get too dry.  Can also cook in crock pot.  
 

Sent from my iPhone

[rotuts]

for 1 lb bag of dried beans

 

how much F's Baconseasoning did you use , fat + Meat ?

[Kerry Beal]

24 minutes ago, rotuts said:

for 1 lb bag of dried beans

 

how much F's Baconseasoning did you use , fat + Meat ?

I used about 3 big chunks - too much I'd say - one would have been sufficient. 

Edited May 26, 2018 by Kerry Beal (log)

[SLB]

How does the bacon seasoning compare to the hock-jus for seasoning?  Has anyone here had both?  

 

My tentative operating assumption is that the bacon seasoning is stronger.  

 

I use pork stock a lot, smoked-hock-based for mild and smoked-neckbone-based for strong. 

 

On that -- I would LOVE a tip for where to find some neckbones of the quality of the hams in these threads.  I'm going to call the purveyors on the list to see, but any leads would be appreciated.  

[rotuts]

the hocks from Fathers , after cooking in the iPot 

 

are hammy and the stock not too salty there is some smoke, but its not powerful

 

the bacon seasonings are very very smoky.

 

interesting idea :  to call Fathers and see what happens to the next , jowl etc

 

if you do , please post here.

 

Ive called them, a couple of times and they were very helpful on the phone.

 

it did not occur to me to ask about smoked necks etc.

[btbyrd]

If you want a funk-punch umami bomb, go with the hock stock. If smoke is what you're after, go for the bacon, end slices, or bacon seasoning.

[Hassouni]

Benton's bacon grease makes for the dopest, smokiest, richest, most bomb-ass Mapo Doufu in the world. Just thought I'd share my recent (albeit "duh"-obvious) discovery

[rotuts]

@Hassouni

 

you bet 

 

I use every once of Benton's bacon

 

Father's Hocks and BaconSeasonings is different

 

in a complimentary sense  

 

Id advise you try it

 

shipping cost is an issue

 

so get 2 sets of each and take your time.

[SLB]

Very useful feedback.  

 

I can't wait for my hocks to get here.  

[lindag]

I think  I'm being enabled again.....

Suddenly I need pork hocks and bacon seasoning!

[blue_dolphin]

Suffering from hock-envy and bacon seasoning FOMO, I recently caved and placed an order with Father's.  It was shipped last Monday and arrived today so it took a full week.  

The smoky, porky smell has completely infiltrated the entire house and the volume of pork products I received sort of amazed me.

I ordered one package each of hocks and seasoning meat, 1 lb of hickory smoked bacon, 1 lb of bacon end slices, a 2 lb slab of bacon and a small package of their sliced prosciutto.

 

The bacon end slices look quite nice, not that different from the regular and much nicer than the bacon ends I've purchased elsewhere. 

One hock and one package of seasoning meat seem like they might have a poor seal so I'll use them first.  There's a couple of good sized grease spots inside the box so I hope I've correctly identified those two as the culprits.

 

[rotuts]

Ive ordered from Fathers' several times

 

i had two packs were not completely sealed.

 

I the packs move around while shipping which causes this

 

I resealed or you can just freeze those.

 

Im very impressed w the ' value ' Ive gotten from fathers   :m Bacon seasonings and Hocks.

 

I also love Benton's bacon and have a few packs from when my sister used to send them to me.

[btbyrd]

Father's packaging kind of sucks. The last order I placed for a dozen hocks saw half a dozen unsealed. Some of the unsealed bags had been double sealed. I did my best to reseal them all with my chamber vac. Some hocks have now been triple sealed. It's mostly an issue with the harder, irregularly shaped products that bang around inside the box, but I've had issues with other products as well. It doesn't bother me with the ham so much, since it's super old and funky and oxidized anyway. But a bad seal can allow younger products like bacon to go rancid more quickly, and rancid bacon is no bueno. Especially when it's super smoky and otherwise beautiful country bacon. At any rate, they should revisit both their vacuum packing procedures and their box-packaging procedures. Seal it up better and keep it from banging around in the box. 

 

+1 to bluedolphin's recommendation of the end slices. They're very close to regular non-end bacon, and are only slightly irregular. Perfect for sandwiches in BLT season. And it's just fine to eat fried on its own as normal bacon unless you need perfect looking strips on the plate. If you're not particular about how your bacon looks, save the bucks and go for the ends.

[rotuts]

nice tip on the Ends.

 

Ill include them in my next order

[SLB]

My Father's hocks are on the stove.  I got a late start today -- World Cup/boozy brunch, and then a, uh, recovery nap -- but we're going with the pressure cooker.   Can't wait. 

 

I ordered the hocks, the "prosciutto", and a pile of snacks:  the ham and bacon jerkies, and a very large quantity of the cracklins.  I favor high fat snacks.

 

Of the snack products, the cracklins are fine if oily, but I'm not sure they are worth the shipping.  Both jerkies are tasty, and not super dry.  The bacon jerky is, in particular, to die for. 

 

But I hear it's all about the ham, so I'm very excited about these hocks.  

[blue_dolphin]

If others are inspired to order Father's products and live somewhat distant from them, I'd recommend waiting until cooler weather. 

My order, placed in May, was shipped promptly but was in transit for over a week.  It wasn't hot here, but the uninsulated box had clearly been exposed to very warm temps.  Everything inside ws quite warm to the touch and the bacon had that translucent, liquidy appearance you get when you try to warm a pack in the microwave and way overshoot the time. The shipping box was soaked through in several areas with fat that had leaked out from 2 poorly sealed bags. 

Nothing was actually rancid but I'm sure this sort of handling can affect the quality and shelf life of the products.

[lindag]

9 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

If others are inspired to order Father's products and live somewhat distant from them, I'd recommend waiting until cooler weather. 

My order, placed in May, was shipped promptly but was in transit for over a week.  It wasn't hot here, but the uninsulated box had clearly been exposed to very warm temps.  Everything inside ws quite warm to the touch and the bacon had that translucent, liquidy appearance you get when you try to warm a pack in the microwave and way overshoot the time. The shipping box was soaked through in several areas with fat that had leaked out from 2 poorly sealed bags. 

Nothing was actually rancid but I'm sure this sort of handling can affect the quality and shelf life of the products.

I hope they will make good on your order.

 

 

[SLB]

11 minutes ago, blue_dolphin said:

If others are inspired to order Father's products and live somewhat distant from them, I'd recommend waiting until cooler weather. 

My order, placed in May, was shipped promptly but was in transit for over a week.  It wasn't hot here, but the uninsulated box had clearly been exposed to very warm temps.  Everything inside ws quite warm to the touch and the bacon had that translucent, liquidy appearance you get when you try to warm a pack in the microwave and way overshoot the time. The shipping box was soaked through in several areas with fat that had leaked out from 2 poorly sealed bags. 

Nothing was actually rancid but I'm sure this sort of handling can affect the quality and shelf life of the products.

 

I agree totally.  I decided not to order bacon because I just couldn't see how that was gonna work.  

 

And yes, their sealing could use some higher-tech.  

 

Edited July 15, 2018 by SLB (log)

[blue_dolphin]

6 minutes ago, lindag said:

I hope they will make good on your order.

 

 

They're pretty clear about the products not needing refrigeration so I didn't complain about it and chalked it up to a learning experience.  Given the shipping cost of close to $35, I sort of expected a insulated shipping box or cool packs might have been involved but I didn't ask ahead.

The hocks and bacon seasoning seemed to fare the best so if that's what you're after, it may be OK.

[rotuts]

I didn't know what thread to put this is

 

I chose this one as Father's ends and pieces were mentioned here.

 

I decided to re-supply my Ham / Bacon ends and pieces 

 

last year i went w Fathers , and was happy with their product.

 

this year I decided to try Broadbent , as it has had some recent excellent  reviews

 

Benton's ,  is my Country Bacon ' Home ' , [ as my sister sent me some of their wonderful stuff a while ago , which i still use and enjoy ]  

 

at

 

https://www.broadbenthams.com/Seasoning-Sampler_p/productinfo/527/

 

I got the seasoning sampler x 2 , as shipping is a significant charge for all of the Country Pork products

 

this is what I got :

 

 

Country Bacon seasoning  ends , front and back

 

 

 

Country Ham smoked seasoning pieces  ( 2 lbs packs )  the R item is not as fatty as it looks here

 

 

Ham Smoked seasoning pieces , premium   very little fat

 

 

and smoked hocks , > 1 LBS each

 

when the box arrived , this AM , the neighborhood did not smell that smoky .

 

all the packs came intact  .  a few of the Fathers hock had popped a small leak in transit  , easily emitted w my Chanber Vac Sealer.

 

I open one of the packs from Broadbent :  plenty of smoky goodness Ill say.

 

I very happy w this sampler.   i didn't compare weights and prices between F's and Broadbent.

 

I think  that Broadbent does a better job w their sealer , and might be using use thicker plastic in their Vac'ing.

 

I can't be sure of the later as I have not measured this plastic for thickness.

 

anyway , I happy Im trying this.

 

I spoke to them over the phone, and they assure me if I cut a piece of their Country Bacon Pieces to the ' bacon cooking ' thickness

 

it would be identical to their bacon slabs and vac'd cut bacon.

 

I think your cannot go wrong with either Fathers or Broadbent for these trimmings.  Broadbent included lean ham pieces.

 

to be clear , there are 6 packets / single order   2 orders  = 12 packets

 

all are a pound except the country ham seasoning pieces which is 2 lbs / pack.

 

you get two 1 lbs Hock packs and two 1 lbs country bacon pieces  = over 7 lbs / order.

 

please also note :  that a double order of this sampler is an awful lot of smoky goodness.

 

I plan to pass around a few packets to friends to try

 

and can always re-seal packs as i have a Vacmaster

 

and freeze the rest for years of use.

 

 

Edited January 26, 2019 by rotuts (log)

[blue_dolphin]

Thanks for that, @rotuts.  Some of the Father's prices are a little lower but, at least for me, Broadbent's shipping is much less.  For example, last year, I ordered $69 dollars worth of stuff from Father's and the shipping was $32.83.  Broadbent's shipping on a $69 order would be $18.90.  

	Fathers	Broadbent
Hocks	6 x 1 lb/$16	4 x 1 lb/$16.90
Bacon Seasoning	6 x 1 lb/$10	4 x 1 lb/$16.90

 

Father's offers some smaller package sizes that are handy for me

	Fathers	Broadbent
Bacon end slices	1 lb/$5	5 x 14oz/$26.90
Slab bacon	2 lbs/$20	4-5 lbs/$29.20
	8-9 lbs/$69

 

I'd like try some of the Broadbent's Applewood or Maplewood slab bacon but a 4-5 lb slab will last me forever.  Hmmmm.  What to do?