Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Food, Cooking, and Game Preparation Country Ham

Not the shot full of water, and salt "Ham, and water product", we buy in the stores.

If you don't make the hams, do you remember them?

Care to tell us about them?

you can still buy good country hams in the store. We used to make them every year up on the old farms in Virginia. Slab bacon as well.
This picture is my Granddad, making Country. The farm was in Black Lick Community, Wythe County Virginia. I believe the picture was taken in the late '40s.

I love good country ham. Bentons in Tennessee has excellent hams and bacon.

Now you're really in my wheelhouse. For cooking and eating. Not making. Will have have to scan some pictures for this because we used country ham in a lot of our catering.

Salty country ham and red eye gravy!!! Oh boy!

It has been forever since I had real country ham, my Father used to buy them at a farmer's market in Orangeville, Ontario. They were delicious, and my Grandmother served her home canned mustard green beans with them, the combination was sheer heaven.

Serving a smoked pork shoulder ham at lunch today. Simmered for a while in water with peppercorns, a couple of bay leaves, and a whole apple. Then I will transfer it to the oven to finish it off. I will use the broth left behind, in it I will simmer potatoes, carrots, rutabagas and cabbage.

Going to make some biscuits as well, as everyone likes to dip them in the broth.

You must have a window open Miss Lynn, I can smell the delicious aroma all the way to here.

Actually I do !

It is finally a decent temperature outside, so I thought I would let some fresh air in to circulate for just a bit.

If you feel up to driving over, you and your Wife would be more than welcome, today, or any day you could make it.

Why thanks for the invite Miss Lynn, as soon as the cows are milked, I'll see if the old Studebaker will start.

is that someone I should know?????????????

looks like Ma and Pa Kettle to me.

Wabi' a friend in Pa. still makes them for me. Whole hams done with Morton cure in a cold garage then hung in a smokehouse over smoldering sassafras root for two weeks.

Sassafras root is also an excellent adjunct to the smoking process when making jerky.

Right next to the house in Marion, IL my Dad grew up in was their smokehouse. I remember a lot of goodness coming out of there as a kid growing up.

was driving around in Maryland once and found a local-made for my first experience with country ham...was antithetical to me...now I know better, but still don't know the best way to prepare...may not make any difference since the closest one is several days of hard riding...

I still do two each year. Rub salt on them till your hands bleed. Keep them in salt for 6 or 7 weeks, take them up and brush the salt off. Rub a mix of black pepper, brown sugar, and molasses on them. Place in heavy paper bags and then in a unbleached muslin sack. Hang with the hock up and let them drip until mid summer. We usually cut one about July and the second about October.

Soaking in water or a simple boil to draw out much of the salt before cooking is my preferred method but many hams are cured differently than others so for some cooks it's trial and error till you find what you like.

You can still buy Smithfield hams, but they sure are pricey.

My smoke house this year

I notice the hams are rubbed down and cured in a wood trough or a wooden table. Does the species of wood matter? Is one type better suited than the others?

Missouri state fair has a ham judging. Shelves about 8 or 10 layers tall, Hams nearly touching, spanning the whole end of one building. Many hundreds of perfect looking hams all in one place. Glad I'm not judging.

I make ham and bacon, but it's quite different (the taste) using wild hogs.

Better or just different?

BP...

I don't think the type of wood matters as long at it's not green. My salt box is made from plywood and the table is made from oak. My grandfather used a hollowed out beech log for a salt box.

Here's another part of a hog killing...cooking off
the lard.

It's just different, quite unlike anything else I've eaten. The meat is a little darker, and has a little "beefier" consistency.

We never did the salt rub. We did the brine. Enough salt to float an egg with a dime size spot exposed. Later went to a sugar cure with a rub and tenderquick injection. Both very good, just different.

We brine and smoke the bacon. Dry cure (rub) a salt/sugar /pink salt/brown sugar/black pepper mixture on the hams.

Had a nice slice of a last years ham and biscuits made with lard for this mornings breakfast. And, of course, eggs from our hens. Pretty good stuff.

Elwood that looks great! Envious of having the place to do that. Something I have always wanted to try. Never even had ham other than the stuff from the store.

I always have hams hanging in the smoke house. Come on over and we'll cut one.

Sir I would love too!

Here's a good link for those seeking info.

I've helped a friend for the last 25-30 years doing hams and bacon and the info here mirrors his methods.

http://nchfp.uga.edu/publications/nchfp/lit_rev/cure_smoke_toc.html

Needed to cut a ham so this morning I pulled one out of the smokehouse. It's 14 months old and is a good one. In the winter, I'll often leave it hanging in the smokehouse and slice it as wanted. Cover the cut with a little lard so the rest doesn't dry out. This time of the year, I slice the whole thing and freeze.

Damn, that's pretty ham. Drooling here. Looks like mine.

Do you gets your hams the same day the hogs are killed ( still warm as in kill your own ) or do you use ones from a commercial butcher?

Both.... We killed a hog this year and I purchased some green hams from the local packing house. The hams from the hog were cured with a salt/sugar/pepper mix that I rubbed on everyday for 15 days and then let them continue to cure for another week. The ones I got from the packing house spent 21 days in a salt box then were rubbed lightly with a salt/sugar/pepper mix and left for another week.

Benton Hams is up the road from my folks place. Best I've ever had!

If one likes it truly salty, try Felts in Ivor, Va Hard to beat a hog topped off on peanuts.

Edwards in Surry County Va makes a ham called Surryano that is a “All-American alternative to Europe's dry-cured hams” expensive but really good. I always bring hams back to friends and family in WV during the holidays. Was shocked that ham prices doubled and tripled last year after that Porcine epidemic diarrhea virus went through and killed a large number of piglets.

I'm sorry, I didn't answer your question correctly. The hams we purchased were chilled when we got them and went straight into the salt box. We didn't kill our hog for another couple of weeks. The hog meat was put on top of a shed to cool out and get all the body heat out. Those hams were trimmed and cured by rubbing rather than being put in a salt box. We never start any cure effort until the meat is well cooled and all the body heat is gone. That's why we put them on top of the shed. Lucky if a good cold rain comes that night and washes it. You want it completely chilled but not frozen. I can remember years ago, the temps would drop and it get colder than we expected and have to go pull the meat off the roof for fear of it freezing.

Elwood, do you cut down into the ham around the bone and add more cure ?

No. Never heard of such. Have heard of injecting a brine down in next to bone. Haven't tried that....get a good cure this way.

There is a meat service just down the road, they have their own actual smokehouse, The Hams, Bacon and smoked cheese are crazy good,

Store bought Hams and Bacon, not even close.

I think it's mostly time. Store stuff is someway fast cured rather than letting nature do it's thing. They fake heat and cold but can't fake the time needed for the meat to age.