I vote for Ham.
There are a handful of things I will not discuss. One of those is politics, not unless of course I know that I can trust you with my thoughts and not be attacked or ridiculed or spark some hot debate or fevered discussion. There are so very few people I know with whom I can disagree and still remain friends. Most people on the opposite side of my political leanings turn into snarling cut throats out to prove something to the world, as if the world was actually listening; as if it were of moral obligation to rip my own ethics and morality to shreds.
So, do you know what I will discuss? Food. Always. Food will bring us together. I would wager many a hearty spat was settled over a filling, comfortable meal. (Speak that last sentence like a pirate, it carries more weight.)
Today, I vote for HAM. Three cheers for ham. And now, in well informed and eloquent discourse I will discuss why my chosen candidate is a good one albeit a work in progress.
Ahem…
Over the past few years the husband and I have gotten into frying a Turkey for Thanksgiving. He does most of the work and stands over that hot oil watching the temperature until the bird is done, but we are both fans of the finished product, a juicy bird full of flavor. It also doesn’t take as long as roasting it and it seems to keep it moist rather than drying it out. Obviously, right? Because it’s dunked into hot oil and left there for eternity to cook?
Anyway, when Easter rolled around last year we volunteered to bring the ham to our family gathering because we’re meat eaters, by golly. Who doesn’t love sweet, juicy ham? It goes with eggs or in a sandwich or aside some devilled eggs, mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.
I didn’t really want to pay for a honey baked and as usual, started to explore my options. When faced with a hefty price tag or an item that looks almost too convenient I see it through the lens of “could I do that myself and for cheaper??” Sometimes my husband calls this taking my favorite long cut as opposed to a short cut. My kids even ask me now if I’m taking a long cut. Whatever, family, respect the process, we’re on a journey for Pete’s sake.
My husband had the idea of deep frying a ham. I think that we both envisioned a huge piece of bacon, actually. Who doesn’t like bacon? EVEN BETTER THAN HAM! Especially in bulk.
So, first step was finding a fresh ham. Fresh ham is just fresh meat, not cured, smoked or cooked. This was a lot harder to come by than I had thought it would be. I checked with a meat market I have used in the past and they didn’t have fresh ham. I called local grocery stores and most of them had NO IDEA what it was I was talking about so I guess there’s not a big demand for fresh ham and you might want to find an actual butcher shop if you want to try this.
I found my ham at Central Market. During Easter time I was actually able to buy a half fresh ham for about $30. When I bought one recently to cure the cost was quite a bit higher at $3.89 per pound and I paid about $56. Now, I don’t really like Central Market and the food snobs that stream in and out of its doors on a Saturday in Southlake, Texas but it was worth it. I called ahead and they pulled one out of the freezer for me and cut it when I got there.
Our ham frying experience last Easter was actually underwhelming. We ended up with what tasted like a giant pork chop and NOT in fact a giant slab of bacon. It was good, but not as good as we had hoped. The next idea was to actually cure a ham. This would give us that sweet, salty taste we were hoping for.
Now, curing a ham requires either a dry, smoking process or a wet curing process. Since I only wish I had a smokehouse out back behind our ranch house on our 400 acres (totally kidding, maybe someday but we live in suburbia here) we went with the wet cure because what I have is a garage fridge. First of all, you have to get this special salt called Prague Powder. It’s a pink salt that you can get at your butcher shop, if you are lucky enough to have one. I ordered mine on Amazon. (http://amzn.to/2daC79I) It’s called Insta-Cure #1. #1 is for wet curing and #2 is for dried meats.
We bought a food grade 5 gallon bucket from Lowe’s with a sealing lid. Then we made our brine. We looked up a few how-to blogs online from a couple of different places.
For our brine we put the ham in the bucket then poured in water until it covered the ham. We counted how many quarts we put it. The recipe we followed was each item per 2 quarts and we ended up with 8 quarts so it was 4 times what the recipe called for. I also added some extras like molasses. Our recipe went like this: 3 tablespoons of Insta-Cure, 2 cups of salt, 1 cup of molasses, ¾ teaspoon ground cloves, 3 cups of brown sugar and of course our 8 quarts of water. All of this was poured, with the help of 3 kids, into the bucket and stirred. Then, we added the ham and sealed the lid. One of the websites suggested putting a plate or something heavy on top of the ham so it would stay submerged into the brine. The curing process should take 1 day per 2 pounds. Our ham was 14.5 pounds so I left it in the garage fridge for 8 days. On the 9th day I took it out and replaced the brine with clean water and let it set most of the day. Then, I trimmed the skin off. Creepy.
My husband was out of town so I decided to roast it instead of fry it. The next time we try it we’ll fry it and I’m sure I’ll be anxious to share that experience too.
This one was roasted at 325 degrees for 30 minutes for each half pound until the internal temperature was 150 degrees. Now, I put it in a pan and covered it with foil and put it in the oven. Having not thought about the fact that it was going to take 7 hours for it to cook I actually put it in the oven around 6 at night. I did some cleaning after I put the kids to bed and then I just set my alarm to check the ham (at 1:30am). I actually woke up earlier than that because the house was filled with roasted meat smell and I was worried that it was overdone. At about 1:00 I pulled out the ham and checked the temperature. It was WELL OVER 150 degrees. I’m not sure what I’ll have to adjust on this, the temp or the time or both, but it was far too done. It fell apart as I tried to cut it, which is good, but it did dry out around the edges. This is why I don’t have an after picture; it just wasn’t a very pretty ham.
This is something new to us but we like to try things and do things ourselves. We’re interested in the actual process. I also think the more you learn about the process of making something that you use and especially consume you can be more discerning about what you buy and more cautious about what you eat.
This may not be exactly how the pioneers did it, which is what I’m after most of the time, but it gives me something to go on and I’m excited to try it again. More to come, I’m sure!
Just as a side note, I really did not want to cheapen the look of this website with sidebar ads, etc. However, if you have anything you need to order, and it doesn’t have to be Insta-Cure #1, from Amazon today and start from our link, it benefits our little family, all of our efforts and adventures. Thanks! http://amzn.to/2daC79I
