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Cured UNCOOKED Ham

elong
elong Posts: 4
edited November 2011 in Root
Hopefully a quick question here. If I am ever able to locate a cured but uncooked ham (which has not been easy) what is the best way to prepare it?

Comments

  • ShedFarm
    ShedFarm Posts: 499
    Try this thread, back from 2008. It should at least get you started:

    BJ (Powhatan, VA)
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited November 2011
    just be careful.  Celtic wolf is a bit confused.  at 180-200 you are hot smoking (cooking it). which is fine, it just isn't close to the danger zone, or difficult to do.  but it will COOK the ham.  cold smoking will not cook it.

    i guess i'd ask the original poster what they have.  is it unsmoked? or cold smoked? any flavorings, or just cured?

    me? if it is cured, but unsmoked and uncooked, i would just wait til the day you are gonna eat it, and hot smoke it to 140-150 or so.

    if it is RAW uncooked, you may want to take it to 150-160 for the texture everyone is familiar with.

    FWIW, if anyone is doing a pre-cooked hm, just take it to 130-140.  you are only really reheating a precooked ham. aside from that, it's whatever recipe you want for glazing or injecting,

    the word "ham" means a lot of things to a lot of folks.  i always ask the painful question "what do you have, and what do you want when you are done with it?"


    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • elong
    elong Posts: 4
    Thanks Stike. I am looking for a cured unsmoked and uncooked ham. Like I said they are not easy to find. I have done the reheat on the cured and smoked ham and it came out great. I was looking to try something different. My thinking on the uncooked and unsmoked is cook it at250-300 or so until is gets to temp and to maximize smoke flavor
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    they are hard to find because most folks expect smoke of some sort. you won't find it in a supermarket, i can tell you. i don't know f any readily available cured ham (pork leg), that hasn't been also smoked.

    honestly, the easiest thing is the twice smoked ham.  so-called because it comes cured and smoked, and then you smoke it again when heating.  it's also precooked usually.  so just reheat slowly at 250 or so with copious hickory smoke.  glaze etc. as desired.

    better yet, ask the butcher for a pork leg ('ham' cut, but not a cured 'ham'), and cure it yourself in a brine of salt, a little nitrite, and flavorings.then cold smoke, then ultimately hot-smoke to cook it and serve

    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • gerhardk
    gerhardk Posts: 942
    edited November 2011
    We toured a ham plant in Parma Italy and from what I learned there Parma ham is salt cured but not smoked, most better delis sell Parma ham. The whole ham would cost a small fortune though. I asked about the food safety of this and according to him they hang about a year and before they are shipped they are inspected by a government official that uses a needle made from horse bone and pearces the ham in various predetermined places and smells the bone after each insertion for an odor that indicated spoilage. I asked how many would fail the test and he said that almost all pass. The area were the hams hung was unrefrigerated and had shutters to the outside that regulated the airflow, apparently the sea air coming up the valley gave their ham special flavor.


    Gerhard

    When I get home I could post some photos from the place.

    Gerhard
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    the"sea air" thing is what they tell to the american tourists who spend 300 bucks on the ham. hahaha

    the thing that counts most in prosciutto is the ham.  superior ham, superior prosciutto.

    yes, it is salt cured.  and when cured properly, it cannot (will not) go bad.  it is utterly safe.  the more you look into it, the more you find it is utterly simple.  that's frankly what i find so amazing about it.

    wine is nothing but grapes, yeast and time.  and look at the variety and range of quality... same for hams.  prosciutto is pork plus salt.  that's it.

    that's my prosciutto in the back (in cloth)
    image


    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • OK Mr. Know it all, so the parmesan cheese whey the hogs grow up on has nothing to do with it? Gawd you are pompous

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited November 2011
    i think little steven is the kindest gentlest most wonderful eldery diminutive canadian i have ever had the plaeasure of meeting.  he really is an ambassador of the canadian culture.  a fine man indeed.


    did i or did i not say that the ham itself has everything to do with it?

    if the HAM IS RAISED ON PARMA WHEY,THEN YES IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT.

    also, finished on foraged acorns... etc. etc.

    ham first, all else is second. and by "ham" i mean how was it raised and fed. even when you think you are disagreeing wioth me you are agreeing with me.  what is it with canadians? is there 'stupid' in the water like they have flouride down here?

    god, next time i see you i am going to shake your hand with vigorous affirmation of our mutual respect anf friendship, with brotherly love, as i look you in the eye and think "he's a wonderful man".  figuratively, i mean.

    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • I think that was totally uncalled for. There are no good hogs produced in the USA? Didn't say anything about that did you? I, for one, just get sick of your constant berating of the common man. You can try and punch me anywhere you like but bear in mind, I am a pretty small target. So hope you are on a dew-bedecked Virginia hillside when you take the shot

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • gerhardk
    gerhardk Posts: 942
    Most pork that I have been around in my lifetime, what amazed me the most was that there was only refrigeration at the beginning of the process when it was salted once it was hanging it was room temperature.

    Gerhard

    image


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    image

    image

  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    edited November 2011
    a couple hundred years ago when you killed a pig, and you knew you sure as heck couldn't eat the thing in one day, you had to find a way to keep the rest.  it was going to spoil. so they had to come up with a way to keep it.  salt... salt and time

    salt it, and it's good to go.  country ham is nothing more than prosciutto, but with smoke and sugars in the cure.

    to be truthful, you don't even need to refrigerate while it is curing.  much prosciutto is made at room temp.  and the reason we have "city hams": versus "country hams" (which are salt cured), is that in the days before refrigerated rail cars were available, they'd take a bunch of hams and toss them into a barrel with brine.  as the car traveled from the stock yards east (or west, too, i guess) to say NYC or San Fran, the hams would cure.

    if you want to do a cool party trick, buy a ham at the grocry store, unwrap it, and hang it in your basement.

    anyone here tell me why it isn't safe to do that? because it is.

    take it from a guy with more meat hanging in his basement than he has in his freezer or fridge.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    HEY HEY HEY... @ littlesteven.  how in the everloving heck do you have 16k posts here and i only have 12k?

    i'm like 17k over at the new old original previous unoriginal breakaway original forum.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • gerhardk
    gerhardk Posts: 942
    edited November 2011
    you sh!thead canadian dwarf b*st*rd...

    did i or did i not say that the ham itself has everything to do with it?

    if the HAM IS RAISED ON PARMA WHEY,THEN YES IT HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH IT.

    also, finished on foraged acorns... etc. etc.

    ham first, all else is second. and by "ham" i mean how was it raised and fed. even when you think you are disagreeing wioth me you are agreeing with me.  what is it with canadians? is there 'stupid' in the water like they have flouride down here?

    god, next time i see you i am going to punch you in the throat.  figuratively, i mean.

    Stike I don't see why anybody would have a discussion with you, abrasive beyond belief.  This forum would be a better place without your attitude.

    Gerhard
  • I noticed that. Perhaps they deleted a quarter of your **** posts when they changed over

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    well.  steven and i are good friends, and i am sorry if i slipped into a little too much familiarity. i could have sent that to him in a PM, you are right.

    but i  am pretty sure i do bring a benefit to the forum.  thanks for tossing out ten years of advice and help because you got miffed on a little in-joke between friends.

    if you will notice, there are usually about two posts a day here at the "new and improvd forum".  except for the past couple days, when i have answered about thirty questions.  questions which have been answered a million times already at the other forum

    if i am abrasive, i'd say, sure  i'll give you that.
    but go ahead.  ask a question and see who helps you. chances are it will be one one of those abrasive types who you don't care for.

    please feel free to let eggzilla know you' like me banned.  i'd get a little more work done if they'd cancel my membership

    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • @Gerhart. I don't even know this person. Joking just there. Dude knows what he speaks of and I have tasted his product and he knows of what he speaks. What is with all those hams? Did you get that from the internet or am I truly in love with you?

    Steve

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • stike
    stike Posts: 15,597
    he said he went to parma, did you skip that part?
    good grief.

    dear friend, steven, a man whose throat i would not punch even if goaded into it by a stout hillbilly or spry italian attorney.
    ed egli avea del cul fatto trombetta -Dante
  • Sorry my dear friend. Unfortunately I do not have the time to peruse these discussions as you do. I am easily confused also.

    Steve 

    Caledon, ON

     

  • MCR
    MCR Posts: 270
    edited November 2011

    Nice thread, Thanks to ShedFarm for the link and to Stike for the info.

    The timing is perfect! Last June, I purchase 2 pigs. We share some common goals and projects, together.  I feed them, they eat, I feed them, they get bigger, we are going to make bacon and ham together and them I eat!

    Steven, Nice to see you're back.

    Marc