Corned Ham - A Southern Holiday Tradition

[fifi]

If it's completely covered?  If the sink is a fairly standard kitchen size, I think it ought to be changed hourly or so for the first 4-6 hours.  Every two-ish hours for the next 6-8, and then the final one, change when it occurs to you.

. . . . .

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Oops. Better go change the water.

The clock is ticking.

Plans have changed. I won't be back to a computer until Monday evening. Pictures then.

[Ktepi]

My corned ham lacks photos, but with the lighting in my kitchen you wouldn't be missing a whole lot.

It came out excellently -- albeit too dry on one side, which was my own fault because I was on the phone (it was Christmas after all) at the critical end, and wasn't as vigilant as I should have been. This is the problem with cell phones, isn't it? You can't cradle them against your shoulder to free up a hand.

Not only is it not overpoweringly salty, it's less salty than most country or city hams. It's just porky, like a great pork roast.

The drippings were deep and brown, and in the end I decided to try something sort of odd, instead of Linda's desalination technique: I poured the fat off and added just enough water to deglaze the pan, and no more. The result is a thick sauce that's almost a paste, and it's immensely salty -- but instead of using it as a gravy or ordinary sauce, I'm using it the way you'd use Worcestershire, soy sauce, or other highly flavorful, highly salty condiments. I spread a little on an unsalted hamburger just now, leaving off any other condiments besides some sliced habanero (I thought the spice might distract from any oversaltiness), and it was great -- the saltiness was no more noticeable than on a bacon cheeseburger, and this meaty flavor came through that reminded me of the Ferdi poboy at Mother's.

If it goes as well with potatoes as I'm expecting it to, the sauce-paste might be the best part of this, but I'm a fan of those kinds of intensely flavored gravies.

The skin, too, is amazing. I did a hell of a lot of skin-on pork roasts of one sort or another before moving to Indiana (where it doesn't seem to be a popular cut; I had to special order the ham), and I cook with pork belly more often than I should, so I've had a lot of pork skin. The only time it's been even close to this good was the skin of the cheeks and jowls on the pig's head I roasted earlier in the year.

[fifi]

Ok . . . So I am tardy. I just got around to putting up the pictures of my adventure. It came out great but there are some things I would do differently.

First, remember that I did a smaller hunk, a little over 11 pounds, named Elmer Fudd. Here he is just before I added some more salt after day 1. He is resting peacefully in my grandma's jam pot.

Here we are ready to go into the oven after an over night soak in about 3 changes of water. Elmer has been transferred to the big Magnalite roaster since I read in Bill's book that he cooks it covered. As you can see, and will see more later, this negates my carefully planned skin carving. The skin pulled back anyway. I probably should have tied it.

Elmer has reached the 195 degree F nirvana after about 5 hours at 300 degrees F. I used 300 as a compromise between my usual 250 and Bill's 325. Besides, we were getting hungry. Note that there is quite a bit of liquid in the bottom of the roaster.

We transferred him to a roasting pan for browning just because it seemed like a good idea at the time. We also cut the skin off and put it in the bottom of the pan to crisp up.

It took about 45 minutes at 375 to achieve this:

It was served pulled pork style and everyone agreed that it was the porkiest pork that they had ever had. The cracklin's kept disappearing. The saltiness of the meat was perfect. The liquid in the bottom of the roaster was really salty.

What would I have done differently? I would have looked for a fatter pig. The meat was a bit on the dry side . . . not objectionable but drier than the pork butt that I am used to. I also would probably ramp the oven up a bit higher to brown it. I think faster browning may help with the moistness factor.

Would I do this again. You bet! In fact, I am. I have a little piece of pork butt, about 4 pounds, in the fridge right now that is going on day 4. I haven't decided yet but I may put it into a 250 F oven without the cover and see what happens.

[CtznCane]

I only bought a small 6Lb piece of meat to start with and plan to put it in to start corning in the next day or so. One question is, is Kosher Salt okay? As for fifi did you make your cross hatch pattern before corning it or afterwards?

[fifi]

Well, the cross hatch pattern thing and how we got there is kinda complicated.

When I first started the corning process, I incised the skin in a chrysanthemum petal or fish scale pattern, whatever. The idea was to have that come out during the cooking.

Then, I actually read the recipe and found that the main cooking was done in a covered baker. Because of that, the original cutting of the skin made no difference. (Though I do think it helped with salt absorption during the corning.) So, when we prepped it for browning, we took the skin off and put it in the bottom of the baking pan to crisp. Looking at the layer of fat, we decided to score it to "make it purty."

Kosher salt is what I used.

[CtznCane]

Well, the cross hatch pattern thing and how we got there is kinda complicated.

When I first started the corning process, I incised the skin in a chrysanthemum petal or fish scale pattern, whatever. The idea was to have that come out during the cooking.

Then, I actually read  the recipe and found that the main cooking was done in a covered baker. Because of that, the original cutting of the skin made no difference. (Though I do think it helped with salt absorption during the corning.) So, when we prepped it for browning, we took the skin off and put it in the bottom of the baking pan to crisp. Looking at the layer of fat, we decided to score it to "make it purty."

Kosher salt is what I used.

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So is the verdict in on the second one yet? Mine has been corning in the fridge for about 11 days now so gonna soak it overnight in the sink and cook it tomorrow.

[fifi]

The smallish piece of shoulder I did came out just fine. I corned for about 7 days. That decision wasn't from any scientific decision making. It just fit my schedule. It had a nice fat cap so I did the roasting uncovered in a roasting pan on a rack. That worked for the smaller piece. It was a nice firm texture with a very porky taste. (That is a good thing.)

The only thing I should have done differently is to soak it in cold water for a full 24 hours and change out the water more often. It was in a fairly big container but I only soaked for about 18 hours and changed the water twice. It was a bit salty. When you are dealing with osmotic processes you just have to learn by experience.

Now that I have learned a bit about the porky flavor and texture, I am probably going to start experimenting with seasonings.