Kentucky's best country ham,best sausage, and ????? (Lexington, Frankfort: buy, restaurant)

[IrishTiltedKilt]

I love southen food, and am wondering what is the best country ham in Kentucky? Is country ham different from the ham that you use to make red eye gravy??? Where and what is the best ham to use for red eye gravy??? When I have had this ham before, we had to soak it and it was very salty. Is there a trick to get it less salty????

Also, we use to think that Bob Evans had the best sausage, but I haven't had it in years. Our sausage in California is awful Is there a great sausage local to Kentucky that I should scout out??????


Are there any local drinks, i.e. sodas, teas, coffees that out of state people would not be familiar with?????? I am a foodie, and always like to find new brands to try

[kygman]

Broadbent Country Hams recently moved their processing plant from Cadiz, up I-24 to Kuttawa. They have very good country ham and sausage. Country Ham, Bacon, Sausage, Ham, Smoked Bacon, Smoked Sausage, Breakfast Meats There are several. I could name a few and somebody else can come in and name more. Meacham's country ham, between Morganfield and Sturgis is good. They have had the prize winning ham at the Kentucky Derby Festival 2 or 3 times. Meacham Hams . There is another sausage company further west from Mayfield but I can't think of the name of it. Davart, or some others in the area, is Harper's the one I'm thinking of? They have good country ham.
Thsi area is known for great bar-b-que. You'll see some of that if you've moved to the area before the first weekend in August. The big Fancy Farm church picnic will feed thousands on a Saturday afternoon. That's the kick off of the fall political campaign. There won't be any business done at the capital in Frankfort. Just about everybody up there will be in Fancy Farm. For BBQ in Mayfield, we usually go to Hill's, going south of town or Midtowner restaurant going west. I'm partial to Midtowner, myself. I'll shut up and let others tell you some of the favorites. But don't forget to have an ice cold Sun Drop! It is sold in different areas of the country, but at one time, Mayfield and Graves County sold more Sun Drop than any other place in the US. Sun Drop is along the same line as Mountain Dew and Mellow Yellow.

[Davart]

There is Gorgan's, Harper's, Newsom's, William's and a few others all local/regional.

[JefferyT]

For local soft drinks there's Ale-8 1, which is sort of a ginger ale.

Its made in Winchester KY, but distributed throughout the commonwealth and parts of states adjacent to KY.

[JefferyT]

Purnells and Webers country sausages were in the Lousiville and Lexington market. Im thinking Purnells distributes wider now because ive seen them in Dayton.

[johnsonkk]

Harper's ham is Hamtastic.

Just outside of Clinton in Hickman county

[dixiegirl7]

There are a lot of good producers of country hams in Kentucky. If you buy it in the store, I like Clifty Farms, although that is made in Tennessee actually. Coon Creek is another brand sold around here, not sure where that actually comes from. Purnell's Old Folks is the best sausage, I think and it is a Kentucky product.

I don't actually soak country ham but I do wash some of the salt off of it. If you bake one instead of just frying slices, you can soak it beforehand to remove some of the salt. To answer your red eye gravy question, yes, country ham is the ham you use for that.

[Davart]

I bake my ham with a glaze of root beer, brown sugar, cloves, nutmeg and a few other secret ingredients.

[missymomof3]

Originally Posted by Davart

I bake my ham with a glaze of root beer, brown sugar, cloves, nutmeg and a few other secret ingredients.

Dang you and your secret ingredients!

[kygman]

I learned from a third grader a long time ago, the way to get rid of a lot of the salt in country ham is put the ham slice in a deep pan and pour 7 Up on it. Worked pretty good!