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Years ago when I lived in the eats,we called them Virginia cured .They were very salt and needed soaked before cooking.We would see them hanging from the eaves of roadside shops. Quite a few years ago, I traveled to Huntsville, AL and had some .,just like I remembered .Salty as all get out. These Smithfield hams we get are not as salty and most smoked cured hams I have bought are not either.


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Nothing finer than a slice of country ham, 2 eggs over medium and a plate of grits with red eye gravy for breakfast. It also makes a fine sandwich on toast with mayo and a thin slice of tomato.
This past May, I was in Richmond VA, for my daughter's wedding. After the wedding, I spent about 3 weeks at home in the Wilmington, NC area. While I was there, I gorged myself on seafood, barbecue pork sandwiches and country ham breakfasts.
When I headed out on the drive back to ND, I had 2 gallons of freshly shucked oysters, packed in ice, in the trunk of the car. Just outside the town of Maxton, NC, I stopped at this little fruit stand, I had been doing business with for more than 20 yrs. and loaded up on boiled peanuts and country ham.
The boiled peanuts lasted me almost all the way back to Williston, ND and I divided the oysters and ham with a Sioux friend of mine who lives out on the prairie, northeast of Poplar, MT.
I'm still eating on the country ham. I save it for special occasions, when I can sit down and savor it.

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Start with a Clifty Farm ham if you’ve never had country ham. They are about $2 a pound at the local grocery stores here.

They aren’t what the old folks had in their smokehouse, but for the price, they aren’t bad.

Last edited by gregintenn; 01/16/22.
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Next time you have a nice bit of ham, try my Dad's favorite sandwich: white bread, ham, and grape jelly. Salty and sweet go so well together you'll appreciate this combo a lot. Strawberry or blackberry jam work just as well.


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Soak it in water for at least a day and change the water out several times prior to cooking it.

I’ve always had it baked in a roasting pan. A piece cut off while it’s still hot is absolute heaven. Cold and on a biscuit is pretty damn good too. Especially on a sweet potato biscuit.

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Originally Posted by RockyRaab
Next time you have a nice bit of ham, try my Dad's favorite sandwich: white bread, ham, and grape jelly. Salty and sweet go so well together you'll appreciate this combo a lot. Strawberry or blackberry jam work just as well.


I've done that many times - very good.


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Originally Posted by wabigoon
Reading the Little House in the big woods book, I wondered how hams could hang from the rafters, and not spoil.


I’ve seen them hang for several years in an attic, covered in green/yellow mold

Not a dayum thing with them.

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There are a couple of varieties of bugs that will eat into a country ham around the hip joint area. Short of that, a properly cured ham will last a long time if left hanging and not cut.

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its good for cooking with something else. makes great bean soup or ham and cabbage, etc. i don't go out of my way for them but i have been given them before. real salty and dense so its not to my liking just cooked like a ham steak. if you got BP problems you better double your dose.


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Skippers?

That's what I remember my grandfather worrying about when they killed hogs and hung meat. They used some pink salt and regular salt then black pepper. He would smoke some but not all of it. It ended up wrapped in cheese cloth or back then in plant bed cloth. Don't remember any of the details being very young.

Still love it but don't eat it nearly as much as we did growing up.

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I cured ours for a while. As stated, they are salty. We made our own. bacon, too. cured with salt and sugar, then cold smoked with apple wood in a setup I made from an antique refrigerator. Going to build a real good smokehouse here on the farm this year or next, and we will be back in the bacon. You can’t get good bacon at the store. Ham either.

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Country ham varies by region.
What most are talking about (Virginia hams) are cured in dry salt.
Pretty much mummified.


Our country hams l(and bacon) were cured with a salt brine in a wooden barrel.
Enough salt dissolved to cause a dime sized piece of egg to float
above the water. Can't remember how long they soaked.

Pulled out, dried off for a day, then smoked with hickory.
Hams and bacon were left hanging in the smokehouse,
you went out and hacked off what you wanted.

All butchering was done in late fall, early winter.

The cured meats would get mold by spring, and sometimes
maggots near the joint. It was just cut off, the rest was fine to eat.
Not sure how long into summer th ey would keep, it didn't matter.
This was about curing meat to have it when you wanted it, through
the winter. Come summer, there was a lot more food available.


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Cracker Barrel will sell you a small quantity of their version of country ham.

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Originally Posted by mikeinid
Cracker Barrel will sell you a small quantity of their version of country ham.

It ain’t bad.

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I love country ham. I buy one every year before Christmas and have it sliced. Country ham on a good homemade biscuit is real treat, especially with a bit of blackberry jam.


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Straight out of the bag, they're too salty for my taste. Love 'em, though. I usually soak them a bit before cooking as part of the trim process. Then slice and store. Typically pan fry for cooking.


As slum said, they are for breakfast.


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Kentucky Gun Company sells packaged country ham, it isn't cheap, but you can try a small amount before committing to a whole ham. Hardee's Restaurants used to sell country ham biscuits (and probably still do), or their Carl's Jr. stores out West.

Here's a link to Kygunco's website.

https://www.kygunco.com/category/meats-and-gourmet/baked-country-ham


My grandfather's country ham was the best I've ever eaten, maybe because Grandma fried the slices in a cast iron skillet on an old woodstove in the kitchen. I was too young to pay attention to how he cured them, sadly enough. He did all his own hog butchering.

Last edited by ratsmacker; 01/17/22.

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Italian Hillbillies like ham too.


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I let a country ham hang for 2 years one time and it got way to salty and tuff to eat as it was so I ground it up in a food processor and made ham salad out of it. That turned out very well.

Last edited by pullit; 01/18/22.

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I would smoke my hams with cat piss flavored sagebrush. Cause I’m from Out West and I think I’m a know-it-all bad ass that lives in a tin shed and pulls my internet off of the ionosphere.


How do some of you foucks say that with a straight face??? 😃🤣


And I don’t get my sagebrush smoking shake from no Walmarts either..I bag it myself. Herrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!

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