BS: Country Ham

Subject: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 07:10 PM

I'm going to cook a Country Ham (Smithfield) for Christmas Eve dinner. Any of you folks out there have any tips for cooking one? I will soak it at least 24 hours before cooking. Is a longer soak advisable? I'd appreciate any advice (on cooking Country Hams of course)anyone can provide. Thanks.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: artbrooks
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 07:31 PM

Doug, herself says that there should have been directions on the wrapper. According to "James Beard's Book of American Cookery", it should be "soaked 24-48 hours "depending on its age and dryness", then cooked; the skin removed; then baked. To cook cover the ham with fresh water..." and it goes on for about two pages of small print. Jenn says the book ought to be in the library.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Amos
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 07:33 PM

Jes' like ol' six-string Joe,
Tippling a hogshead up on his toe,
Oh, I don't want no spam,
But I love that country ham!!

Cheery eating!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 07:44 PM

Better make yerself some red-eye gravy wid dat, y'hear!

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: 53
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 07:46 PM

i don't know how to cook it, but i sure do love to eat it, good luck and merry christmas. BOB

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 08:28 PM

There are lots of things I shouldn't eat and don't....But once in awhile I gotta' have some salt cure!!! Soak it good, generally two days will do it, and when you bake it, save every drop of broth.....ah man that gravy!!! Christ, I can feel my blood pressure going up just thinking about it..........Slice it down and fry it up, biscuits, about three egs over easy, some taters, some grits....pour that gravy over the whole mess.........Hmmmm..310 over 180............Gotta go Doug.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 08:57 PM

As I remember the old country hams, they didn't have directions with them. The best still don't. Perhaps it is best to quote from American Heritage Cookbook for aged, country-cured hams.

If rind is moldy, scrub with a brush. Soak at least 12-18 hours in enough water to cover ham entirely. Drain, cover with fresh, cold water and bring to the simmering point only. Do not boil. Simmer 2 hours, regardless of size or weight. Cool in the liquor. When ham is cold, cut off the rind, score, stud with cloves, and glaze.
NOTE*: If worried about undercooking, allow about 20 minutes /pound but no more. The ham is done when the flat bone can be removed.
Brown sugar glaze: Mix one cup brown sugar with one teaspoon dry mustard and 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves. Add a little of the fat from the pan (enough to make a stiff paste) and spread the mixture over the fat.

Bake the ham in a preheated 400 degree oven for 30 minutes.
Serve cut in paper-thin slices, hot or cold (I like it thicker). (There are many other glazes; honey is good also). Where maple syrup is available, excellent also.
Red-eye gravy
Fry a piece of country ham, about 1.4 inck thick, drain off any excess fat, add a litle water to the drippings and about a tablespoon of strong coffee to give it color. Bring to a boil and serve with the ham, the grits, and hot biscuits.

Country people like their ham a bit saltier than city folk who are worried about such nonsense as excess salt in the diet. Beard has too many words, but soaking for 48 hours does take out more salt, and you could change the cold water once in the soaking process. NOTE: do not carry this into the simmering stage- the liquor from the simmering is important to the taste of a good ham. If you are a purist, SAVE the excess liquor to use in other cooking.

Southern Junior League Method:
(A little fancier)
Soak ham overnight in cold water. Remove ham and place in covered boiler, skin side down. Cover with fresh water and add pickle juice, pepper, lemon, onions and bay leaves.
Barely bring to a boil and cut heat to medium. The ham is done when the large flat bone can be removed with your fingers. This takes less than 15 minues per pound. Cool ham in the liquid in which it was cooked.
When ham is cool, skin off the rind and score the fat side. Rub ham with mustard and pat on brown sugar. Sprinkle with sifted bread crumbs and pour sherry over entire top of ham. Stick with whole cloves and brown lightly in 350 degree oven. Let cool 12 hours before serving.
Hope this gives you some ideas.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: kendall
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 09:40 PM

I've had country ham a few times, and everytime it was as salty as Lots wifes ass.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 09:51 PM

And I'd eat the ass out of Lot's wife! Ain't NOTHIN' like salt cure......The best!!!

BTW Doug, Smithfield is pretty reliable as far as quality goes.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Sorcha
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 10:14 PM

I like true Westphalia better. Hard to get outside Gemany, though.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: 53
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 10:25 PM

HOW ABOUT SOME RED EYE GRAVY TO GO ALONG WITH THAT MMMNNN GOOOOOD. BOB

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Dec 01 - 10:55 PM

53, see if you agree with the red eye method I posted above with the country ham receipts.
A well-cured, dry-smoked Spanish ham in thin slices goes well with melon. Good for a light lunch. Westfalian is very good, but not in the same league as the old salt-cured country hams; it is available through some of the German butchers here. There are all of the Italian hams as well.
If the country ham is going slightly jelly-like in the center- the best, especially hot with the red eye and hushpuppies or biscuits.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 12:33 AM

I've been craving some good old Country Ham just like my grandpa use to cure and smoke the way they did it in Tennessee, where he came from. I'm hoping this Smithfield will at least be close. Spaw, like you, I crave a salt fixin' from time to time, and this one ought to do it.

Thanks to you all for your suggestions, and especially to Dicho who went to a great deal of trouble in my behalf.

And Red-Eye gravy? Of course! Got to have it with the ham along with some hot biscuits. Then for breakfast, eggs scrambled with a few slices of that good country ham.! I'm not sure I can wait!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 12:27 PM

Kendall: I knew you were old, but I had no idea you were old enough to be acquainted with Lot's wife's ass. It was good of you to share with us how it tasted too!

The ham is still soaking. I probably will have no grass left in my back yard from all the salty water I have been dumping in it.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 12:43 PM

Don't remove all the good salt!

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 12:53 PM

No, no, never fear Dicho! There'll still be enought to send my BP skyrocketing, for sure!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Morticia
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 02:40 PM

Doug, please excuse my ignorance but what is country ham and how does it differ from ordinary ham? Is it that it is smoked or salted or what?

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 04:00 PM

Country Ham is salt cured Mort.....Quite literally packed in salt during the curing process. It's known as "Country Ham" because it was the most common and least expensive method used by rural poor folk who processed their own meat. Sugar curing is a more expensive process and the ham doesn't last as long either without refrigeration.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DancingMom
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 04:11 PM

OH, my goodness!

Country ham with scrambled eggs and gravy

Homemade biscuits

Fried apples.

Happy childhood Christmas at Grandma's memories. Thank you.

Sharon

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: GUEST,Desdemona
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 04:13 PM

I'm getting thirsty just reading about it---enjoy ('tis only once a year, after all!)!

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 04:53 PM

My son-in-law has a bacon settle. This is a bench with a high, thick back. Panels may be removed from the back, and the bacon slabs are hung on hooks inside. These were used in England and Scotland, and were also built along the east coast of North America in the 17-18C. I don't know how the bacon slabs were prepared.
Catspaw, any information on this?

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 04:55 PM

Exactly, Sharon! Fond memories of childhood and Christmases past. Now if I just had a roll of Grandpa's smoked pork sausage too. Mother and the aunts, and Grandmother too, of course, sewed the sausage sacks form muslin weeks before the hogs were killed. It was said that Grandpa knew it was time to slaughter the hogs when he threw a bucket of water into the sky and it turned to ice on the way down. The men and womenfolk worked from early, early morning to late, late night, and the women's hands grew red from the red pepper mixed with the ground pork to make sausages.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: GUEST,John Gray / Australia
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 05:45 PM

Are Country Hams a commercially available item, or do you have to "salt them down" yourself?
After several years of bloody chewy,dry turkey ( no, they weren't overcooked ) I'm cooking a goose this year. I've never cooked one before so it should be fun. I've hit the web and snatched several good recipes on how to cook a goose.
I'll have the battered , deep-fried, vegemite sandwiches ready in case it's a disaster.

JG / FME

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 05:48 PM

And they used it "all except the squeal." Skin was baked and turned into "cracklin's" (now commercial pork rinds). Head cheese, pickeled feet, leaf lard and rendered lard......Mr. Sorcha's uncle still does a mean Smoke/Salt cure. Haven't been "home" to taste it for years........I do love real ham.

We are lucky enough to have several packing houses nearby who cure their own hams. Not as good as Uncle Charlies' though.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 05:56 PM

Sorry Dicho, I don't, but that sounds interesting.

The Hams are available John but I have no idea about Oz.....But with today's stuff going everywhere, why not. Generally you ordr them from someone like Smithfield who specializes but they are often found in butcher shops and other places simply hanging in a bag. It was a pretty common sight in the southern US to see signs saying hams for sale and a row of them hanging on someone's porch...these same folks often sold chenille bed spreads. I reckon that's an era gone by what with today's FDA restrictions and then everyone's "healthy" eating and all.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Sorcha
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 06:03 PM

A memory---when I was a kid (late 50's-early '60's) we didn't get ham very often and when we did Mom baked a big one that was supposed to last for several meals. You know, baked ham, ham with scalloped potatoes, fried ham, etc. However.............

Both my dad and I were "nightcrawlers" and when mom baked a ham we would often meet accidentially at the fridge at 2 AM. We would sit on the kitchen floor in our jammies (with the fridge door open and only the light from the fridge)and pull chunks of ham off with our fingers. Of course, we were all innocent the next day........I swear it tastes best eaten that way.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 23 Dec 01 - 06:12 PM

Here's someone who ships worldwide...Appalachian Traveler

Basic idea of how it's done....Click Here

Dicho.....I am not familiar at all with the bacon settle...Seems to be a storage cabinet and seat combo and more popular in Europe...Bacon Settle

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 24 Dec 01 - 12:00 AM

Check with regulations on import of meat products into your country before you order. Canada forbids any meat products that lack approval and Australia may have tight regulations as well. The rules are under the Dept. Agriculture here. The rules are not just for health and quarantine reasons, but to protect Canadian producers from competition. Sausage, etc. from Europe is confiscated. Don't tell anyone, but I know "someone" who occasionally brings in a piece of a ham with a mis-labeled declaration slip.
The simple method Catspaw found is worth a try and would be a lot cheaper as well.
Yep, Catspaw, that bacon settle you found the picture of is similar to the one my son-in-law has, except his opens from the back. As a piece of furniture only, it is useless- and large- the width is six feet plus.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 24 Dec 01 - 12:41 AM

I read that article on curing hams, Spaw. Grandpa stored his in a wooden barrel. I think it's rather easy to spoil a ham, isn't it?

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Dec 01 - 02:17 AM

Yeah, it is before they cure, that's why they always waited so long to slaughter hogs, the temp had to be pretty consistently low and in the south, that didn't happen til late October....and even then it was still a little risky.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 01:11 AM

I am pleased to report that the Country Ham was great! I followed the directions Dicho provided, and it turned out perfectly. Too salty for my grandkids, but what do they know?

Thanks for all the suggestions and comments.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 01:36 AM

Glad you liked it, Doug. Now a confession. My wife, from Georgia, is the country ham devotee. I like it, but prefer a little less salt myself.
A postscript about recipe books. There has been a tremendous change in recipes since WW2, with people being sold on "healthy" life styles. There is increasing resistance to the new eating regulations, however. One of our main sources for recipes is the old Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School cookbook, 8th Ed., pre-1948, edited by Wilma Lord Perkins. Subsequent editions have lower calorie recipes and many of the more elegant dishes were removed altogether. Our copy is falling apart, so I have been looking for a replacement from the used bookstores. A good copy of the Perkins 9th edition (the last good one) lists at around $100.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 03:06 PM

How right you are Dicho! I still have the cookbook given to my wife at our wedding shower fifty years ago. The cover is gone, pages are missing in the Index, it is dogeard from so many years of use, but is still a great cook book. It is a Good Housekeeping Cook Book and it taught my wife everything about cooking. It even discusses how to dress game and fowl because in those days one could not just step into a supermarket and purchase the different varieties of chicken cut up as they are today. My hunch is it was printed in the mid to late 1940's.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: gnu
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 06:03 PM

No talk of the fixin's !!! Green and wax beans, fresh. Carrots, cleaned by rubbing them on the green grass of the lawn. Turnip, with the worms freshly cut from the bottom of the roots. Potatoes slightly rubbed clean under running water so as not to disturb the skins. Beets with the greens on. Corn with the ears on. All done on the first broth... the first boil... after one overnight soak of the meat. After the first broth, all is rinsed and potted again for the final byle. Oh, me son ! Fit for them what wears the crown !

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Helen
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 07:08 PM

We win a ham every now and then around Christmas time, at our local club. Each time it has gone off in the frig within a couple of weeks, and then we found out that they aren't double cooked, and that most people who win them cook them in the oven, with a nice glazing, e.g. apricot jam, with cloves stuck in, etc.

The last one we won was a few weeks ago, so hubby decided to smoke it in the barbecue, along with a chicken.

The ham was wonderful. Best I've tasted since I was a kid. So now, we've taken up smoking. (He's smoking half the turkey which we won on Friday, right now.)

Also, when I was a kid we lived next door to a baker and one year he offered to bake our Christmas ham the way he always did it - encased in heavily salted bread dough. Yum! Never tasted anything like it, before or since.

Helen

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Sorcha
Date: 25 Dec 01 - 10:20 PM

Spaw, you better check in over at Tweed's Place--he's giving away ham!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 26 Dec 01 - 12:43 AM

Wow, Helen, that ham cooked in salted bread dough sounds delicious!

I did a glaze composed of brown sugar, ground cloves, ground mustard and a bit of oil to make a paste.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: paddymac
Date: 26 Dec 01 - 12:58 AM

All this talk about red-eye gravy and biscuits reminds me to pass on a tip for biscuit lovers who don't make their own. The super wal-marts and other places sell bags of pillsbury frozen biscuts that go from freezer to table in 35 minutes - and, man, are they ever good. It takes at least that long, and a lot more work and mess, to make them from scratch.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 26 Dec 01 - 03:34 PM

Paddymac: You are absoulutely right! They are very good.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 26 Dec 01 - 05:58 PM

Oh yeah.....THIS I gotta' try......Mainly because I don't believe either one of you!!! Now I like ya' both a lot, when it comes to biscuits.............I mean I have actually had people extoll the virtues of "Whooomp Biscuits" and I ain't never had a good one yet. So I'll try this for myself if you don't mind.

Spaw(:<))

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 27 Dec 01 - 12:18 PM

Fair enough, Pat, but be sure to let us know what you think after you do! :>) Paddymac and I both need something to grin about!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 27 Dec 01 - 01:47 PM

They are better than whoomp biscuits, Spaw. Now, if they can just pre-fab some microwave-able lumpless stackable milk gravy, we'll be set.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: gnomad
Date: 27 Dec 01 - 03:32 PM

Sounds like a lot of people are enjoying the hams, but it has brought up a question I've pondered off and on for a while:

What do the Americans mean by a biscuit?

I know it is something different from what we Brits mean, and the evident enthusiasm for them makes me want to have a go too. Descriptions and/or recipe would be much appreciated.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: GUEST,Kentucky Pat
Date: 27 Dec 01 - 11:34 PM

Country ham is usually accompanied by Southern Beaten Biscuits. Our original family recipe called for beating the dough 1000 licks with an axe handle. The updated recipe follows: 2 cups all-purpose flour, pinch of salt, sugar and baking soda, 1/3 cup cold milk, 1/3 cup cold water. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Put dry ingredients in bread machine. Add the lard and whirl a few seconds until the dough looks mealy. With the machine running, add milk and water. Let the mixture go through the first kneading cycle. Then immediately reset the machine for another "first" kneading. The dough will look shiny when the machine has run long enough. Roll dough out on floured board.Make it 1/4" thick. Cut out biscuits with a whiskey jigger. Use a fork to make a cross in each biscuit. Place biscuits 1/2" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes at 350 until risen, then increase heat to 400 degress and bake biscuits for another 10-15 minutes, until biscuit tops are slightly browned. (Biscuits can be frozen for up to 6 months and warmed back up with just 1 minute in a microwave.)

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Dec 01 - 12:42 AM

Here is a biscuit recipe that is typical of those made without a mixer. This is a richer recipe than the usual beaten biscuit recipe. From American Heritage 1964.

SHORT BISCUITS
2 cups all-purpose flour (or pastry flour)
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 cup cold butter
Milk
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Add butter (straight from fridge) cut into 4 or 5 pieces, and work into flour mixture with a pastry blender or 2 knives until butter is about the size of peas. Add cold milk, a little at a time, stiring it with a fork. Use only enough milk to hold the dough together. The less you use the better the biscuits. (We use low fat milk, 2% butterfat milk)
Now work the dough together with your hands until you have made a ball and all the flour is worked in. Roll dough about 1/2 inch thick on a lightly floured board, cut with very small biscuit cutter (we like them about 2 to 2 1/2 inches in dia.), and place on an ungreased cookie sheet. If you have the time, refrigerate the biscuits for an hour or so. Bake in preheated 450 degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until biscuits are lightly browned. Serve hot with fresh sweet butter (or apple butter or ?). Makes about 20.

The closest I have found to American biscuits are some of the simple scones from Scotland.
I will follow this with a beaten biscuit recipe from the same source.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Dec 01 - 01:18 AM

(Left out an r from stirring, but the Short Biscuit recipe is all right otherwise) The following is close to Kentucky Pat's recipe but without the bread machine.

BEATEN BISCUITS

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons lard
1/3 to 1/2 cup water and milk, mixed

Sift dry ingredients together, then cut in lard until mixture appears mealy. Add liquid a little at a time to make a stiff dough. Kneed thoroughly, then beat with a heavy mallet for half an hour or run through the coarse chopper of a meat grinder until dough is elastic. Roll 1/2 inch thick and cut with small biscuit cutter.
Prick tops with fork tines and bake on a cookie sheet in a 325 degree oven for 35 to 45 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes about 2 dozen.
We rarely have these- I can't remember the last time. Generally we go for buttermilk or short biscuits to save time and to avoid tennis elbow.

BUTTERMILK BISCUITS

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (or sour cream)

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together into a bowl. Add buttermilk or sour cream and blend with a fork until you have a soft dough. Place on a lightly floured board and roll 1/2 inck thick. Cut with a small biscuit cutter, place on a cookie sheet and bake in a pre-heated oven at 425 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes or until tipped with gold. Serve piping hot with butter, jam, honey, etc. Makes 12 to 15 (You may want to double the recipe!)

I indicated 2 to 2 1/2 inch size in the first recipe- 2 inch is large enough for the cutter.

The American Heritage cookbook has a note quoting the Marquis de Chastellux, who wrote of his travels in America (1780s). He remarked on the speed with which a tavern prepared them, "little cakes - galettes- which are easily kneaded and baked in half an hour...I always found them to my taste whenever I met them."
If you have a variety of cheese, thin slices of ham, jams, honey, butter, etc., you can sample more if the biscuits are small.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: gnomad
Date: 28 Dec 01 - 03:29 PM

Great responses, many thanks to Pat and Dicho, I can see similarities to a plain British scone, and look forward to trying these recipes.

My question originated in a film (western) remembered from childhood, in which a voice off said "These biscuits are soft!" with evident approval, which was a real puzzle to a Brit, cos our biscuits MUST be hard.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: catspaw49
Date: 28 Dec 01 - 03:43 PM

Gnomad.....Several years ago we were just getting to know each other and talking about this subject. A scone is basically a biscuit (pronounced biz-kit) of course, but I wondered then how some good ol' boy would sound saying, "Hey Ma.....Gimmee sum mor uv thet thair red-eye gravy an sum scones."

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 28 Dec 01 - 03:48 PM

Take American biscuits, let them dry out for a couple of days, and you have a substitute for conkers or a small ball for cannon. Or use them to prop up a short table leg. Biscuits are wonderful when fresh and hot. The dough can be stored in the fridge overnight or frozen for short periods; but the biscuits are never as good as freshly made.
I tend to agree, gnomad, some form of scone was probably the origin back before the 17th C and the recipe brought to America by early colonists. Hmmm- very easy to make and cheap. Prison and shipboard use for enforced migrants sent to the colonies?

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: artbrooks
Date: 28 Dec 01 - 11:23 PM

An American biscuit (aka "biskit") is a soft roll (does "roll" have a separate meaning in the UK?) about 2/3 the size of a man's fist. It is ideally used as a delivery medium for home-made jelly/jam or butter (real butter, no substitutes please). It is unfortunately often served with greyish white gravy, allegedly chicken flavored.

BTW, nobody has yet noted that the real country ham has to be catspaw.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: paddymac
Date: 29 Dec 01 - 02:45 AM

I, for one, am anxiously awaiting our beloved 'Spaw's new recipe for crow biscuits. It will probably turn out to be something like sausage biscuits, but perhaps more humble.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Kaleea
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 12:53 AM

Good Old Fashioned Country Ham hanging in my grandparents' smokehouse--now there's a wonderful childhood memory! No other so-called "ham" tastes the same. My mother told me that when she was a child, she wished that she could afford to take peanutbutter sandwiches to school like some of the other girls. As she told me this, when I was in elementary school, she reflected that she wished she had that good old fashioned ham her Daddy made instead of the cheap peanutbutter she used for our sandwichies. I suppose the other gal's grass is always greener.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 30 Dec 01 - 01:25 AM

Yes, Kaleea, I suppose you are right. I visited Thomas Jefferson's home, Monticello, several years ago and the smokehouse there still had that wonderful aroma of country hams. There is no other aroma like it.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 12:57 AM

.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Peg
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 10:46 AM

since the thread is being refreshed, may I invite you all to try baking your next ham Vermont style: that is, studded with cloves and with REAL maple syrup (Grade B if you can get it) poured over the top...absolutely amazing...

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: Dicho (Frank Staplin)
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 12:38 PM

Vermont style sweet and sour? Just kidding.
What type ham, country salt cured, dry smoked or the usual sugar cured?
We have always used dark brown sugar, ground cloves and dry mustard in the fat (whole cloves studded as well). The maple would be a good substitute for the sugar.
Good salt-cured ham must be imported here (Canada west); only the sugar-cures (or Italian varieties at Italian markets) are available here over the counter.

Subject: RE: BS: Country Ham
From: DougR
Date: 16 Jan 02 - 01:12 PM

If ever I decide to dedicate almost a whole weekend to preparing and cooking a country ham, I'll try it your way Peg. Sounds good.

DougR