# Cured country hams



## GPER (Oct 28, 2008)

I was thinking about stocking up on a few of the cured country hams They don't have to be cold until cut so they would be good to keep on hand. This is just this ham eaters opinion tips tricks what do you think.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

A true country ham that has been salted, cured an dried will keep fer a long spell. 

Ya gotta soak em come time ta use em otherwise it be sorta like lickin a salt block.

There also super expensive! Not hard ta make yer own, takes some time an a bit a research is all.


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## CrackbottomLouis (May 20, 2012)

Requires a lot of salt to make on your own from what Ive heard. Never done it myself but love the stuff. Cant wait to hear what you come up with especially if you start the process of doin it on your own.


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## Sentry18 (Aug 5, 2012)

> Cant wait to hear what you come up with especially if you start the process of doin it on your own.


Tagged for interest.


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## lazydaisy67 (Nov 24, 2011)

We have some guys come up from TN every year to hunt pheasants. They bring us 3 or 4 chunks of "good Tennessee ham" as a thank you. We are always appreciative, and thank them, but we can't eat it because of the salt. First year I just fried it up. We all took one bite and spit it out. Was so salty we couldn't eat it and threw it out. Second year I soaked it in water overnight. We threw it out. Third year I soaked it in milk. We threw it out. I couldn't even feed it to the dog. No offense to anybody from TN, but I just can't eat that ham.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

I've been playing around with salt/sugar curing pork for several months now.

The first Ham I tried was a fully cooked bone in and found that it had enough salt and preservatives in it that it needed only to be dried. Its hanging in a muslin bag now and I slice a piece off and put in beans when needed.

To rapidly draw out the moisture and reduce the chance of spoilage, I have found that you can pack them in salt for a week or so and they will come out dry enough that you can hang them up to finish without fear of spoiling.

I have also soaked Pork Butt Roasts in a Salt/Sugar solution for several days and salt packed to dry. Those came out very good, am going to do more, soon.

Today, I went to town and brought back several lean pork loin roast and they are soaking in the sugar/salt brine now. I am going to hang them to dry without salt packing in a few days.

After reading the Bacon thread, I picked up a small, lean brisket roast and it went into the same sugar/salt solution and I will see how that comes out.

I am just starting to experiment with all this but the results so far are promising and it seems easy enough unless I am missing something very important in the process.


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## GPER (Oct 28, 2008)

The grocery has them for 2.99 a pound so the one I got was 32 bucks, not too bad for having it done. From what I have read you don't eat it like regular ham. It should be sliced real thin and fried I'm thinking it will be more like a jerky. I think it would be good used in beans, rice and other dishes also.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Davarm, I have a coupla pork butts and I'd love to try your method, got specifics? And how long would that keep?


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

Cured hams are a science of their own. My neighbor is literally a master at it, and he has his own 'secret rub', which is actually what it's all about; a rub. It's not neccessary for the hams to be overly salty at all, that's the science of it, kinda like lacto fermented foods, it's not neccessary for those to be overly salty either.

I've helped him treat raw hams and the 'trick' is to literally FORCEFULLY rub the salt/sugar/spice formula as deeply as possible into the meat at the initial treatment. It will make your hands and fingers tired when done correctly. After that the hams are hung and go through a 'sweat', and then there are things that have to be done like a borax treatment [IF NEEDED] and wrapping them in cheese cloth to keep the fies away the next Spring. A year is all that's needed to make a good 'country ham'.

He is renowned in this area for his country hams. It blew my mind a year after I had helped him with these same hams when I observed him 'munching' on his 'raw' ham meat. He told me it was no different than beef jerky, it was cured and ready to eat now. Well, I still don't eat 'raw' country ham, but I realize now that *country ham requires very little cooking*. My mother used to 'cook' her cured hams overnight in a 5 gal lard bucket wrapped in quilts/blankets of hot boiled water for Christmas and/or Thanksgiving.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

We have done the cured hams but not a big fan of them ...


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

*Andi said:


> We have done the cured hams but not a big fan of them ...


Why? Were they too salty?


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

kyredneck said:


> Why? Were they too salty?


You got it ... I just don't care for the salt hams ... never have but I had to try my own which was a sugar cure ... but still to much salt for me.

Hubby and the son both liked it but not me ... I'm a give me "my meat and taters" but it needs to be fresh. (or frozen/canned)


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Andi, I make a ham yall would like, not a country ham, but mighty tastey an it ain't salty. 

The recipe was adapted from one a my grandpa's. Good stuff an sells well round here. Not like anythin ya can buy in the store.


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## *Andi (Nov 8, 2009)

And that recipe would be ??????


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

*Andi said:


> And that recipe would be ??????


Ditto, I'm new at this but interested.


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

A family secret. Sorry guys, but in the world a smokin, some thins just don't get out.

When I get back from town, I'll put up some "idears" on how ta do a town ham.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

*Andi said:


> You got it ... I just don't care for the salt hams ... never have but I had to try my own which was a sugar cure ... but still to much salt for me.
> 
> Hubby and the son both liked it but not me ... I'm a give me "my meat and taters" but it needs to be fresh. (or frozen/canned)


OK then, I suppose 'American Prosciutto' is just not for everyone. 

My wife's not a big fan either.



kyredneck said:


> .... He is renowned in this area for his country hams. It blew my mind a year after I had helped him with these same hams when *I observed him 'munching' on his 'raw' ham meat. He told me it was no different than beef jerky, it was cured and ready to eat now*.....


Excerpts from 'Taste My Prosciutto,' He Said With a Drawl'

[pro·sciut·to (pr-sht)
n. pl. pro·sciut·ti (-t) or pro·sciut·tos 
*An aged, dry-cured, spiced Italian ham that is usually sliced thin and served without cooking*.]

"..."If you put a big, thick, salty slab of country ham on the plate here, people don't know what to do with it," said David Page, the chef and an owner of Home, a restaurant in the West Village in Manhattan, who toured Kentucky back roads for artisanal country ham (and bourbon) in November. "But *when you shave it thin and describe it as American prosciutto, they begin to understand what it is*."

Mr. Page *wraps tissue-thin, uncooked slices around sweet pickled watermelon rinds: a Southern rendition of Italy's prosciutto and melon*...."

"*The biggest difference between country ham and prosciutto is how they are eaten*. Since country hams have always been cooked in the Southern states where they are cured, *most country-ham producers do not consider them ready-to-eat meat like prosciutto*. Thus, the Agriculture Department requires that labels on uncooked country hams contain safe-handling and cooking instructions.

Nancy Newsom Mahaffey's country-ham business in Princeton, Ky., run by her family for 86 years, is old-fashioned: she salt- and sugar-cures just a few thousand nitrate- and nitrite-free hickory-smoked hams a year. Wolfgang Puck, Emeril Lagasse and other chefs have used her sweet-smoky speck-like hams.

"My first market is Kentucky, which I consider a compliment," Ms. Newsom Mahaffey said, "but my second is California." For that second market, and for *chefs who intend to use her ham uncooked*, Ms. Newsom Mahaffey recently started *selling her hams as Gourmet-Aged Prosciutto Ham*, even though the label says the customer has to cook it."


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

....AND, this thread got me wanting some country ham, so I called my neighbor (who also owns a grocery) who cures hams and he's got 4 yr old hams for 3.00 a lb., I think I'm going to indulge myself, and certainly am I going to try it thin sliced and raw like prosciutto.

Has anyone ever canned country ham? You know, like sliced and dry canned? Could it be done like those 'canned hotdogs'?


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## LincTex (Apr 1, 2011)

kyredneck said:


> Has anyone ever canned country ham? You know, like sliced and dry canned?


I am gathering because of the way it is salt cured, there is no "Need" to "Can" a country cured ham; it is already preserved sufficiently.

Perhaps a wet "city" ham could be canned?

LOL, here ya go:


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

LincTex said:


> I am gathering because of the way it is salt cured, there is no "Need" to "Can" a country cured ham; it is already preserved sufficiently.
> 
> Perhaps a wet "city" ham could be canned?
> 
> LOL, here ya go:


Country ham once sliced will mold very quickly, just like jerky (mold is the major component of the unattractive outside of a country ham). The hams are commonly sold whole and sliced at the grocer per the customers specs. In the past I've packaged the sliced ham into portions and frozen, now I'm thinking canning the portions instead.

Also though, this time around, I'm having the hams (I'm buying two, a Robinson ham, and one of his home cured) deboned only so I can use my slicer at home to slice it to varying thicknesses.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Immolatus said:


> Davarm, I have a coupla pork butts and I'd love to try your method, got specifics? And how long would that keep?


The way I am doing the pork buts is as follows.

I sit a pot of water on to boil(enough water to completely cover the pork butt) and dissolve as much 50/50 salt sugar mixture in it as it will take. When the mixture stops dissolving and starts gathering on the bottom of the pan, its "enough".

I let the water cool then put the butt in. It will try to float so I put a glass plate over it to hold it under.

I then let it soak until it is "Struck Through(per Orange Judd Cook Book 1914 edition)", that means until the solution completely soaks into the meat, about 2 days.

When you take it out of the "water", it will feel firm, similar to a cooked roast. Let it drain until it stops dripping, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Completely cover the roast in salt and allow it to draw out the moisture for about a week.

A this point, I brushed off the salt and am letting them finish drying in open air until you can pinch the meat between your fingers and no liquid squeezes out.

I then put it in a muslin bag and store it in open air.

The hams I've done this way have dried very well and according the cook book, they should keep for several years at least.

We thin sliced several "slivers" off one of the roast last night, it looks and tastes like Prosciutto.

The "Orange Judd Cook Book 1914 edition has quite a few "Butchering Time Recipes" similar to this for preserving "Farm Meat".


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## OldCootHillbilly (Jul 9, 2010)

Davearm: Wanna add a bit a security ta that process? Inject some a yer solution inta the thickest parts a the meat. Thata way it be workin from both sides.


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## Immolatus (Feb 20, 2011)

Uh, forgive my ignorance, but 

Cooked first, or no? I assume not, right?


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

OldCootHillbilly said:


> Davearm: Wanna add a bit a security ta that process? Inject some a yer solution inta the thickest parts a the meat. Thata way it be workin from both sides.


Thanks Coot, like I said, I'm new at this and will take all the help I can get. I have several of those "BIG" food syringes that should do the job nicely.



Immolatus said:


> Uh, forgive my ignorance, but
> 
> Cooked first, or no? I assume not, right?


Nothing to forgive, It's a good question!

The answer is "No" not cooked first. The meat goes into the Sugar/Salt Solution raw just like you're making Jerky.


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## BillM (Dec 29, 2010)

Take a slice of good country ham and microwave it for 35 seconds on high.

It will be ready to eat and will not be tough or too salty.

When I was a boy, John F Kennedy came and made a speach in Bowling Green.

The Chamber of Commerce presented him with a Country ham.

In his autobiography, he relates giving the ham to a Secret Service officer , telling him that it must be spoiled as it was molded.

The officer, ( a virginian) laughed and told him it was alright, you just had to scrape the mold off.

He was still sceptical so the officer took it for himself.


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## longtime (Nov 22, 2009)

GPER said:


> I was thinking about stocking up on a few of the cured country hams They don't have to be cold until cut so they would be good to keep on hand. This is just this ham eaters opinion tips tricks what do you think.


If you have not eaten one, I would buy one before stocking up. I can't handle the taste.


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## kyredneck (Aug 12, 2012)

kyredneck said:


> ....AND, this thread got me wanting some country ham, so I called my neighbor (who also owns a grocery) who cures hams and he's got *4 yr old hams for 3.00 a lb*., I think I'm going to indulge myself, and certainly am I going to try it thin sliced and raw like prosciutto.
> 
> Has anyone ever canned country ham? You know, like sliced and dry canned? Could it be done like those 'canned hotdogs'?


Correction, he said *'whole year' ham NOT four year ham*. Anyway got both hams today, gonna try thin slicing some prosciutto style shortly, gonna try it on my prosciutto eating middle daughter and her husband just to see if they can tell the difference....


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## GPER (Oct 28, 2008)

longtime said:


> If you have not eaten one, I would buy one before stocking up. I can't handle the taste.


I have never had anything from a pig I haven't liked yet. If it would get to the point that the stores had been closed for a week. I'm sure the ham would be a great meal.


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