Ham. Pictures of ham and instructions for cooking are in almost every home-centered magazine you find this time of year.
Ham is good. It can be used many ways in your culinary plans, including baking, braising, broiling, and barbecuing. You can find fully cooked ham, slices for sandwiches, center cuts for broiling, etc., but the best ham is a boiled fresh ham.
Almost all hams in the meat counter are cured. Sometimes the word “cured” is used and sometimes the label will read “smoked,” but both mean the ham has gone through a process that will lengthen both its shelf life and flavor.
In the “old days” before supermarkets, the grocery store or meat market owners would buy the fresh hams, sometimes called “green” hams, from the abattoir. Our state was more agrarian then, and most farm families would slaughter their own animals and the meat was used immediately or cured, the only way to keep the meat over a period of time in the age before refrigeration and freezers.
Both the meat processing companies and home owners would smoke the sausage, bacon, and hams. Often the hams were rubbed with a mixture of sugar and spices, salt, etc., wrapped in a cloth and hung in a curing room or smokehouse to age. The salt, spices, etc., penetrated the meat, thereby preserving it.
So today, we have similar products at every supermarket meat counter. Once in your kitchen, these cured hams, often with the labels “Smithfield” or “Virginia,” are most often baked and sometimes boiled. There are many glazes used: brown sugar and mustard, pineapple and honey, orange juice and brown sugar, etc. They are good, but the best ham is still the boiled fresh ham. It is also the simplest way to cook a ham.
I am already making my arrangements for my ham.
This week, I talked with the meat counter man, asking if he would have the fresh, green, uncooked hams and saying that I will want one about 12 pounds. He then told me that he would have such a ham, or order/save one for me, but that I would want to buy a half ham because the whole hams would be about 20-24 pounds.
Hmmm. That’s a lot of ham.
So I will get my 12-pound half-ham and boil it. A boiled fresh ham has a different flavor than the cured one. You can serve it sliced immediately, but the far better way is to cook it, then let it cool in the cooking water, remove and wipe it dry, wrap it in waxed paper and a dish towel, and refrigerate it until cold. Then you slice it for the best sandwiches you ever ate. Combine equal amounts of mayonnaise and mustard, and use this mixture for the bread when making sandwiches.
If you’ve never boiled a fresh ham, do so this month, but remember that a 12-pound ham won’t last long, especially during the busy Christmas season when you serve boiled ham sandwiches for …. Sunday Dinner.
Boiled Ham
1 fresh whole ham or 10- to 12-pound half ham
2 teaspoons of salt, or to taste (optional)
Water to cover
You’ll need a large pot, because the ham should be covered with water at all times.
Place the ham on a rack in the pot, cover with water, cover pot and place on high heat. Bring water to a full boil. Let boil rapidly about 10 minutes, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook about 25 minutes a pound for a 12-pound ham, or about 4 or 5 hours until the internal temperature is about 160 degrees F.
Remove pot from heat and leave the ham to cool in the cooking water.
Lift ham from cooking water, wipe dry, wrap, and refrigerate. Serve sliced for a meal or for sandwiches.