Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Country Ham

A real country ham is every bit as good as an Italian Speck! Just like Speck, it get's better with age, with a year being about minimum and 2 years being prime. I'm gonna make a couple and set them up like Capicola, in a rack with a towel draped over it so I can slice a little off whenever I walk by.

Jim, you could certainly handle making your own.

I forgot about that...

Red Eye Gravy... google it.

I can see that...

Benton hams are in Madisonville Tennessee, I don’t like country ham,but they also have some of the best bacon you will ever eat

Here's a vid on making your own from UK. The basic technique works with many cuts of hog.

I love it with fried, runny eggs.

I like it raw

Buddy in Colorado made his own. He was a nerdy fella, Professor of microbiology at CSU, he got way into it.

They’d hang in his basement for months and months. Some were pretty damn good. He didn’t smoke them though.

I love country ham but don't like Smithfield brand at all.

My favorite is turner hams from Fulks Run, VA followed by kites from over in Madison County.

For sure, I always eat as much raw as ends up in the bean pot

https://foothillscountryham.com/

Good stuff! I “fry” it in water to get some of the salt out. About once every couple of months or so is enough. As said Country ham will put your BP through the roof.

We NEVER cook a whole have, that’s what fuggin picnic shoulders are for. (My opinion)

We alwaya get our’s sliced up and then I clean-scrape the marrow, trim the bone and rind. I put up 2 this last month

Repackage it in vac seal food saver bags 2-3 slices at a time

Country ham is for breakfast around here.

Holy crap. Feeding an army?

Mrs slumlord eats a lot of country ham, she has too. Her blood pressure runs about 80 over 60

it’s therapeutic for her 😃😂

This...PaPa's meat house was a cinder block building under a huge Water Oak. He used a lot of salt, pepper and some brown sugar. Seems like we would rub the hams for days but as kids didn't mind because we knew Granny would be making us some fresh crackling. That is the best breakfast ever! No 2 slices were the same when PaPa cut it off the bone! Still love it but I am about the only one who eats it here now. Soaking in water does remove a lot of the salt but it doesn't taste as good.
Most places that sale it whole also sale individual slices if your not sure you will like it.

I do as well in small portions & thought that the threat of trichinosis was gone for the most part. But I've I've been recently told that it's still around.

I wonder how the Spaniards & Portuguese keep from getting it. Raw cured ham a big time delicacy there I think.

Slum,

That's how we do it too. Love fried country ham.


We bake a boneless one a couple times of year too to put on the slicer for sandwiches/ biscuits

Broadbent Farms in central Kentucky sells some of the best country ham I've had, since a neighbor in middle Tennessee in the town where I grew up passed on. He routinely won "Grand Champion Ham" at the Tennessee state fair in the 1960's and 70's. Broadbent's whole hams average around $10.00 a pound plus UPS shipping, $159.00 for a 15-17 pound ham, according to their website. If you buy a whole ham, you would need to have a local butcher cut it into approximately 1/4" thick slices with a band saw. Once sliced, vacuum pack the meat with a Food Saver and freeze it. Smoked, salt cured hams will keep for several months in a cool, dry environment without refrigeration. That's why hams and other cuts of meat were cured before the days of refrigeration. Whittle off a few slices, and wrap what's left in a piece of burlap or a flour sack. "Hog-killing time" was usually around the first frost of the year, and meat was salt cured and smoked so it would last over the winter. Washing the meat before cooking gets rid of the bone chips created by the butcher's band saw and removes a lot of the salt. I cook it in a cast iron skillet and use a saucepan lid to cover the meat with a few drops of water underneath to steam-tenderize it.

"Sugar cured ham" is a fairly recent invention, and spoils very quickly unless it's kept refrigerated constantly. A few generations ago that was simply not an option. Beef, venison, and buffalo jerky was another way of preserving meat in pre-refrigeration times.

For most folks, buying sliced is the way to go. Dealing with a whole cured ham that’s hard as a rock ain’t terribly easy.

That looks amazing!