Does country ham exist in Colorado? (home, store, move)

[CAVA1990]

Originally Posted by wanneroo

Well you learn something new every day.

I'm not too much into overly salty stuff but I would try it and see. The local Mennonite store has country ham luncheon meat but I always got the maple cured ham instead.

I'll bet out there when you say ham, a lot of people think of Honey Baked Hams. I find it odd that there's actually some of those stores here in VA, the land of great ham. Sort of the coals to Newcastle deal. Although there's a thread on the NM forum about lines out the door at the new Chipotle in Albuquerque.

[VenusAllen]

[quote=livecontent;22319112]There is much more to a country cured ham than salt. It is liberally salted and cured for many months. However, in preparation the ham is cooked before eating. You will see restaurants slice and serve salt cured hams but it is fried before service. Yes, that preparation is salty.
No there isn't. Other than being hung up in the smokehouse, that's it. And any preparation of country ham will be salty, you may have it confused with another type.

The more common retail hams are wet cured,injected with a cure and methods exist to inject and cook and smoked (sometimes hot or cold), but they are fully cured, cooked and ready to eat.
You are spot on, and this is why I have such disdain for "city ham". Too many of them are nothing more than an amalgamation of pig parts and liquid which are formed into a block, not unlike Chicken McNuggets or Spam. Country ham is nothing but a big ol' hunk o' pig rendered of its moisture.

When I was a kid, in New York, salt cured hams were regularly available in grocery markets. Preparations first called for boiling the ham, to remove excess salt and to initially cook it. After it was baked. These hams required cooking.
I've heard of people who boil the salt from country ham, too, but I never understood the point, the salt is what makes it a country ham. Boil that salt out and guess what you've got?

[livecontent]

[quote=VenusAllen;22326796]

Originally Posted by livecontent

There is much more to a country cured ham than salt. It is liberally salted and cured for many months. However, in preparation the ham is cooked before eating. You will see restaurants slice and serve salt cured hams but it is fried before service. Yes, that preparation is salty.

Originally Posted by livecontent

No there isn't. Other than being hung up in the smokehouse, that's it. And any preparation of country ham will be salty, you may have it confused with another type.

The more common retail hams are wet cured,injected with a cure and methods exist to inject and cook and smoked (sometimes hot or cold), but they are fully cured, cooked and ready to eat.
You are spot on, and this is why I have such disdain for "city ham". Too many of them are nothing more than an amalgamation of pig parts and liquid which are formed into a block, not unlike Chicken McNuggets or Spam. Country ham is nothing but a big ol' hunk o' pig rendered of its moisture.

When I was a kid, in New York, salt cured hams were regularly available in grocery markets. Preparations first called for boiling the ham, to remove excess salt and to initially cook it. After it was baked. These hams required cooking.
I've heard of people who boil the salt from country ham, too, but I never understood the point, the salt is what makes it a country ham. Boil that salt out and guess what you've got?

I was not trying to criticize. I was just pointing out the difference from my professional trained formal educated prospective including formal training in the food art of Charcuterie. In addition, I have specific knowledge that I have gained over the many years that I have professionally bought food products and my understanding of food specifications.

I wanted it understood that there are some country hams, and labeled as such, that are not ready to eat and if people relied on your simple statement, they may get very ill or die. I have made the point there are label requirement which you should read and will disclose if the ham is ready to eat or not.

Also, if you buy a ham from some independent farmer/producer who is producing and selling hams that are evading specific Federal and/or State requirements for food safety--be warned and be careful.

If you have read my whole post, you would have seen:

The common country hams that I have seen are not ready to eat and must be cooked. However, there are cooked country hams that are ready to eat and available.Sometimes they are smoked but it more commonly is a cold smoke and usually just for flavor--again I would cook before eating. Hams are required to provide full disclosures and cooking instructions which can vary from producers--you cannot make an assumption that a country cured ham is ready to eat--there are much variabilities and styles that exist in curing hams.

You last statement shows a limited knowledge as you really do not get the point: as some hams, now and in the past, are boiled and roasted because they need to be cooked before eating and are NOT READY TO EAT--which is a federally defined term.

In addition, there were some hams that were very heavily salted for preservation and were commonly produced in the far past and in the time of no refrigeration. They could not be eaten without soaking and boiling because the level of salt would have made the consumer very ill. It would be similar to heavy salted cod or from my ethnic history, Baccala---heavily salted but not dried as the cod. I was talking about a time well before you may have been aware. In my early years, over a half century ago, those hams did exist in New York because New York had many people who produced and consumed food from the Old World. I doubt you will see them today in the United States.

I was just trying to be helpful. Take what I say and learn or ignore it at your own peril.

Livecontent

[VenusAllen]

[b][quote=livecontent;22330519]

Originally Posted by VenusAllen

I was not trying to criticize. I was just pointing out the difference from my professional trained formal educated prospective including formal training in the food art of Charcuterie. In addition, I have specific knowledge that I have gained over the many years that I have professionally bought food products and my understanding of food specifications.

I wanted it understood that there are some country hams, and labeled as such, that are not ready to eat and if people relied on your simple statement, they may get very ill or die. I have made the point there are label requirement which you should read and will disclose if the ham is ready to eat or not.

Also, if you buy a ham from some independent farmer/producer who is producing and selling hams that are evading specific Federal and/or State requirements for food safety--be warned and be careful.

If you have read my whole post, you would have seen: The common country hams that I have seen are not ready to eat and must be cooked. However, there are cooked country hams that are ready to eat and available.Sometimes they are smoked but it more commonly is a cold smoke and usually just for flavor--again I would cook before eating. Hams are required to provide full disclosures and cooking instructions which can vary from producers--you cannot make an assumption that a country cured ham is ready to eat--there are much variabilities and styles that exist in curing hams.

You last statement shows a limited knowledge as you really do not get the point: as some hams, now and in the past, are boiled and roasted because they need to be cooked before eating and are NOT READY TO EAT--which is a federally defined term.

In addition, there were some hams that were very heavily salted for preservation and were commonly produced in the far past and in the time of no refrigeration. They could not be eaten without soaking and boiling because the level of salt would have made the consumer very ill. It would be similar to heavy salted cod or from my ethnic history, Baccala---heavily salted but not dried as the cod. I was talking about a time well before you may have been aware. In my early years, over a half century ago, those hams did exist in New York because New York had many people who produced and consumed food from the Old World. I doubt you will see them today in the United States.

I was just trying to be helpful. Take what I say and learn or ignore it at your own peril.

Livecontent

I, like you, meant no harm.

[livecontent]

[quote=VenusAllen;22331817]

Originally Posted by livecontent

I, like you, meant no harm.

I know that--I just get too specific and obsessive about food--A fault of a loud New Yawker, who thinks he knows it all, but does not. It can be often said, you can take a New Yawker out of New York, but you cannot take the New Yawk out of the New Yorker. I am very glad you brought up the idea of Country Hams. You will never find that quality of an authentic Country Ham in Colorado.

Livecontent

[dynimagelv]

Out in the country.....ALL ham is country ham

[md21722]

There are a few Cracker Barrel restaurants in Colorado. Does that count?

One other person brought up grits. While they are traditionally found in the South, I have been served grits in Brooklyn before!

[strawberrykiki]

I'm not a huge ham person, but I'm from VA and country ham was always apart of our holidays meals. I haven't seen any out here and I sure do miss it!

[CTC]

Originally Posted by CAVA1990

I think it's a regional thing. You're as likely to find grits in CO as you are a country ham.

like finding green chile in VA!!!

[AnnieA]

there is a company in NC that is curing hams the old fashioned way. They can't ship the hams but you can buy the sliced pieces at a country store. There was a two part article about it in the Charlotte Observer a year or so ago.

On the eastern shore, out toward the Outer Banks, they were still curing meat the way it was done in england. It is called "corned meat", heavily cured with salt. I bought some pig tails in a little store one night on my way to the Banks. The clerk said that was the only kind of cured meat anyone in the area used. Some time later, I was reading in Nat Geo or Smithsonian about this being the way the original settlers cured their meat and the tradition had continued.

By the way, I used the pig tails to cook with turnip greens and turnip roots and they were the best I have ever made or eaten.....ambrosia to a southerner......

One of my daughters that lived in MD asked me what i wanted for Christmas several years ago. I said a real country ham. She sent me a smithfield that was huge. I didn't know how to cook it and ended up giving it to an acquaintance. I wish I had not done that but, it appeared to be awfully complicated to prepare it from the instuctions on the wrapping.

I have eaten many homemade biscuits with red eye gravy, country ham and grits.....I'm starting to salivate...LOL>