JPHam Sandwich

[rotuts]

I decided to take a page out of Jacques Pepins new series and make a ham in the manner he did on his new show 

 

Jacques Pepin Heart & Soul

 

he shows you what he does in the first episode.   Ive described it here :

 

http://forums.egullet.org/topic/152030-jacques-pepins-heart-soul/

 

in short he states :  less salt, more tender, etc.  its water poached, then glazed in an oven.

 

Im not a big fan of Ham sur le plate, i.e. ham slices for dinner.  Id always lobby for roast turkey instead when I was growing up.

 

I do like a ham sandwich which is different in my book.

 

I went to one of my PlainVanilla chains and found this ham on sale :

 

 

of note :   shoulder, 4.71 lbs, $ 2.29 / lbs   ( sale price ) day to day price about 3.29.  they had larger 'Berkshire ' hams for about  

 

$ 9.00 / lb.  those did not say if they were Berkshire 'A' or Berkshire 'B'  (    ) but priced in that ball-park

 

JP states in a big pot of water   170 - 180  degrees for " a good two hours " you essentially poach this. Stage 1

 

here is the ham out of the package :

 

 

it has a 'net' imbedded in the ham which you have to rip out.

 

I thought immediately of an Anova / beer cooler set up for this technique.    then I thought of the clean up      

 

So I pulled down a IKEA 'pot' I use on the induction hob, and did the appropriate instrumentation :

 

 

I like the RediCheck, it has two probes, and of course mine is in Red. its interface for setting the alarms is abysmal 

 

I rarely need the alarms, so turned them off.   the meat probe, well, went into the meat and the water probe, into the water.,

 

I tried to keep the temp at 175.  the Burton did a very nice job of this at the 150 setting after getting up to 170 on a higher setting.

 

after 2.5 hours I had some other things to do so I let the ham cool in the water, took it out, sliced some pieces off the 'cut' end

 

for a dinner sandwich and refrigerated the rest for finishing the next day/  JP did not do this.  this meat was a bit tough, and more like

 

'pork' than 'ham'  I was not encouraged at this stage.  but I was hungry, and that's what was for dinner.

 

here are the time / temp results :

 

 

the next day I replaced the ham, after I boned it out, in cold water and brought it up to 131.  this is on the table.

 

I chose to bone it out because i did not think the whole ham would fit in the BV-XL. here is the bone :

 

 

this looks to me like a femur, not a humerus.  it has a trochanter ( shaved off, difficult to see ), and a bit of socket from the pelvis.

 

but Im not so experienced w Pig Anatomy.  if it was a Leg Ham, it came from a smaller pig.

 

I used this combo for the glaze :

 

 

all from TJ's, and I had them 'in stock'  JP says   Balsamic vinegar for acidiy.  he was of course correct as usual.  Mines

 

a bit cheaper than his, and I like the TJ's green hot sauce.  I had some General Tao's  TJ's sauce so when with that instead of

 

ketchup, which I do not keep at hand.   this combo was surprisingly fantastic and will be a permeant glaze for me

 

 

I was a bit nervous at the JP temp of 400, so I chose 375 .  400 would have been fine.

 

40 min, then reglaze, 30 min more.  I glazed 3 times   you see the result above.

 

sliced :

 

 

it was delicious.  everything about it was fantastic.   the rind was not crisp, but you could suck off the fat etc.

 

it was moist, tender, still some 'ham' flavor, not 'pork' flavor, not salty at all.  it was a winner.

 

if you do large hams for dinners, or buffets, consider this technique.  use a smaller ham as I did to see what you think

 

before you divest your funds of some Berkshire 'A' or Berkshire 'B'  you will never go back to a non-poached ham again.

 

use your own traditional glaze, etc   if you want crispy rind, just broil the rind, rind side up under the broiler.

 

that's a guess on my part.

 

the sandwich :

 

 

my usual ( fresh ) home-made-machine bread, lettuce, tomato, mayo

 

fantastic is was.  what I was looking for in a ham sandwich.

 

 

 

 

Edited October 8, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Smithy]

Thank you for that report, rotuts! I confess to not being a ham enthusiast myself except for smoked picnic hams, which we roast unglazed. This might be a good way for me to like other ham treatments, since we have trouble finding said picnic hams.

What approximate proportions did you use for your glaze?

Is that Redi-Check thermometer set up particularly for a water bath? I have one (two, actually) dual-probe setups for a smoker, but I thought the probes were supposed to stay dry. You seem to have submerged the water bath sensor.

[rotuts]

I do Ive never had problems w one probe in water.

 

that's not to say i can't happen.

 

the monitor probably works better out of the water

 

 

 

the proportions were just guess work.  then taste  I had to make 3 small batches and I used more than I initially thought.

 

JP was right :  you need some acid w ham.

 

my balsamic was TJ's   Id bet his was not.

 

I doubt I could taste the difference after the 375 - 400 heat.

 

I liked the Tj's GG sauce.    I usually add stuff to bottled sauce : generally ( Penzey's ) granulated garlic and granulated onion.

 

this time I either forgot, or wanted to try the JP 'trio' even though two of my three were different.

 

Ill be making this again.  Ill not debone, do several   ( probably not Berkshire A nor B ) and do them in a large beer cooler :  more water

 

and finish them off on the Weber using the dial-thermometer on the front as a ref.  might even add some wood chips.

 

I do not have a large over as I have not gotten around to replacing the ovens ' gas-ingniter '

 

14,95 at Amazon, a coupe of 'snap-in pigs, one screw.  a bit awkward for me to crawl in there where the broiler pull out stuff is.\

 

 

not impossible, removing the oven bottom pan etc

 

to get this done by a 'professional' in my area  > $ 200.   seems a bit excessive.

 

nicely lower salt  which was my goal and very tender and still ' ham tasty '  not  roast pork tasty

[rotuts]

one last thought :

 

as I mentioned, the slices i used for the first day's dinner sandwich ( not pictured , but looks more or less the same ) was the cut end out of the water bath at

 

2.5 hours.  not very 'ham-ey' more 'fresh pork-ey' and still a bit tough

 

it didn't impress me much.

 

the final ham the next day was very different and more or less outstanding and what i was looking for.

 

chunks of that second ham would go very nicely in home made 'ham type' casseroles  :

 

Mac & Cheese & ham,

 

scalloped potatoes with ham bits

 

etc.

 

that was a hope I had.

 

I can easily fit three of these sized ham's in the large beer cooler I use for SV Productions.   Id set the Anova for 178  and leave them in there for at least

 

3 hours, then bone out and finish on the Weber w smoke chips.

 

then vacuum bag in various ways and freeze for future ham sandwiches and various delicious Ham-ish casseroles.

 

Id not might the clean up for that amount of future delicious-ness.

[rotuts]

I was thinking about a TurkeyML tonight   Mashed pots, gravy peas

 

but i went back to the refrigerated JPHam :

 

 

another sandwich

 

how ever  the bits you see just vanished and I had to cut more

 

it reminded me of my mothers Cumberland Sauce

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=cumberland+sauce&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

 

she made this with the hams she baked.  generally for a crowd  i.e. students that came over

 

go figure

 

the ham back then came out of a large can  '' Ham shaped "  that needed a 'key' to peal it open

 

baked and served

 

I could see the bits you see above  esp. the fatty bits  dipped in Cumberland sauce.

 

yum

 

her version probably did not hav e pot

 

but it did have currant preserves.

Edited October 8, 2015 by rotuts (log)

[Smithy]

I remember those canned hams from my childhood, and they put me off ham altogether, until I discovered roast picnic ham sans cloves. Your ham above looks like ham is supposed to look. Good on you! Hooray for JP, too!

[cyalexa]

JPHam bone.jpg

 

this looks to me like a femur, not a humerus.  it has a trochanter ( shaved off, difficult to see ), and a bit of socket from the pelvis.

 

but Im not so experienced w Pig Anatomy.  

 

 

 

Can't tell for sure from your pic but if I had to guess I would call it the shoulder joint. The humerus has a structure called the greater tubercle which is sort of where the trochanter is on a femur. The socket is the glenoid cavity of the scapula. The acetabular fossa of the pelvis would, I think, be deeper and incomplete in the center. An educated guess but keep in mind that the education occured many, many years ago!

[kayb]

Being from the land of all things pig, I can recommend to all of you two sources for two different kinds of ham:

 

1. Petit Jean Meats Smoked Picnic Hams. Available in a variety of styles -- cooked, uncooked, bone-in, boneless, sliced, unsliced, peppered, unpeppered, whole, half. Pricy, but worth it. Best smoked picnic I've had. Available here. I can also testify to their bacon and "smoked beef," i.e., pastrami.

 

2. Broadbent Country Ham. My first experience with these came when I bought one at a charity auction. Phenomenally wonderful example of "American proscuitto," that marvelous, salty, long-cured ham. However, after dealing with a whole country ham -- which is a metric s***load of ham -- with less-than-stellar knife skills, I have opted, since then, to order their sliced packaged ham. I prefer the breakfast slices, myself; the center-cut "dinner steaks" are just too doggoned big. I dearly love it. Available here. There is nothing better on a fresh hot biscuit, with sorghum molasses and butter.