Rub the cleaned ham with the coarsely ground black pepper. Like to read more content, Join the Mother Earth News Community Today. A day or two before you plan to serve the ham, place in a very large oval kettle, sawing off hock, if necessary, to fit ham in. Country hams can be found whole in the south–often wrapped in the netting used for smoking–or you can buy it … Unfortunately we cannot issue refunds for taste preferences. In the summer when he prunes his fruit trees, Uncle Billy saves all the prunings down to the smallest twig. Cover with cool water and let stand 24 hours at room temperature, changing the water 3 to 4 times. So if you keep it dark, you'll keep it safe. A country ham, properly prepared is a delicious treat. (It’s one of the ways we kept meat edible before refrigeration came around.) The day before he's ready to smoke, Uncle Billy goes into the woods and fells a hickory sapling as big around as your thigh and cuts it into one-foot lengths. Today processes may vary but essentially this ham is salty and dry. The day has come! Prepare a curing mix of 4 parts salt to 1 part sugar. Canadian Subscribers - Click Here When I ask him about it, he shrugs and kicks the ground with his boot. We appreciate your understanding! As a result, a dry-cured ham will taste quite salty. With my mouth watering and my eyes already feasting, my ears turned deaf to my mother's warnings not to eat too much because “it would give us children bad dreams.” (After one Christmas ham-eating binge, legend has it that my cousin Henry awoke among ripped sheets and tossed blankets.) Because it's tough to control the temperature and humidity, the salt house was built with thick walls and insulation to trap the cold inside. Salt-cured by hand and smoked with natural hickory wood, these country hams are aged to a rich mahogany color. Once all the fluid has been removed, apply the curing mixture. “Once I get the fire going, I get it hot as hell,” he says. Uncle Billy smokes it until it turns a rich mahogany color. The smokehouse sits next to the salt house, a square, white clapboard building of pine siding and cedar shingles, with a pointed red roof that is as high as the walls are tall. Cooked Country … That's why we want you to save money and trees by subscribing through our earth-friendly automatic renewal savings plan. Then I put the green wood on the fire. Wiping the ham with a clean paper towel soaked in vinegar will remove any remaining mold. Folks who make liquor will tell you the same thing.” Although he has eaten the milder, 1-year-old hams his children seem to prefer, for Uncle Billy a ham doesn't reach its full potential until the third year. When I went to visit him early this fall, the farm was bustling with activity. The top tier is for new meat. Nothing was wasted or thrown away, not even the hair, which was saved for stuffing mattresses or making plaster. Cold-smoke the ham, if desired, for 12 hours. The longer you soak it, the less salty it will be. Now, this might sound like a bad thing but really it isn't. Canadian subscriptions: 1 year (includes postage & GST). If you wish, you can apply a salt free spice rub like my Meathead's Memphis Dust just before smoking. I prefer … And like all things he cherishes from a simpler time (including his Model A pickup or his 1935 meat slicer), Uncle Billy's happy to tell you all about it — just as long as you're happy to listen. You could hang it on the back porch, and it would be fine all summer.”, In the Smokehouse: Smoking Ham to Enhance the Flavor, Salt may preserve a ham, but smoking makes it worth eating. For a home-cured ham, you will either smoke it or pack it with salt, sugar, and other flavors. He tells me about how, every January when he was a boy, they'd kill 30 to 40 hogs fattened on corn and peanuts to feed the family and the farmhands. Dr. Gregg Rentfrow. When the humidity is high, it's ideal. The desserts were nearby: plum pudding and fruitcake, ambrosia and pecan pie, and, of course, my Aunt June's legendary caramel cake, which had faithful fans in three countries. The Genuine Smithfield Ham is a world-famous country ham – aged, smoked, and dry cured with salt for 6-12 months. Taste the ham after fifteen minutes. “Put them together and you never have to worry about chemicals to keep the bugs out. I remember squash casserole, candied yams, butterbeans and snaps, and collards boiled hard and long into a wonderful deep green mush. You can make cured ham yourself. This was strong stuff, I was told — an acquired, grown-up taste, like okra or good bourbon. Country hams can be found … It sure is good eating.”, Salt-cured and smoked, the new hams go to the top tier to age. “Well,” I offered, “it's a bit of an acquired taste.”. By paying with a credit card, you save an additional $5 and get 6 issues of MOTHER EARTH NEWS for only $12.95 (USA only). Add salty ham to an omelet with cheddar and vegetables for a quick breakfast or lunch. Dry curing is another process used to make prosciutto and country ham. Whenever possible,... 2. As it penetrates the meat that salt will disappear like melting snow.”. Head to the diet generator and enter the … don't have an online Gather the ingredients. Should the skippers get in anyway, he'll put his hams in the freezer for a day and scrub the smokehouse until “it's as clean as a hospital.”, “The old generation had all these little things they did,” Uncle Billy says. Soak it in water. When the new hams are ready for smoking, Uncle Billy takes the older hams and stores them temporarily in the salt house. “The salt is going to penetrate the meat quickly. There was turkey with oyster dressing and cranberry salad, rice and gravy, and hot rolls for dipping and shoving. An Award Winning Broadbent Country Ham is Dry Cured, Hickory Smoked and Aged to perfection. Shafts of light beam down through cracks in the roof. The commercial boys wouldn't think of building this big a space for a few hams. You may also use the Bill Me option and pay $17.95 for 6 issues. This is where fresh ham is rubbed with a dry mixture of salt and other ingredients. You can make salt-cured ham in the fridge at a temperature below 40 degrees Fahrenheit, but if you're curing multiple hams, plan to do it in the colder months and use natural refrigeration. The next day, at seven in the morning, he starts a small fire in the fire pit, using newspaper and the fruitwood kindling. 3. Calories, carbs, fat, protein, fiber, cholesterol, and more for Cured ham (Pork, low sodium, lean and fat, cooked). He brings the green hams into the salt house and lays them on the table. Country ham is preserved by curing with a blend of salt, spices and (sometimes) sugar to make what some people say is an “unpalatable” salty, crispy result. Aging has got more to do with it than anything I do. Photo by Holly A. Heyser. Next, we’ll add our salt brine. Three wooden tiers ring the smokehouse rafters. however you can find picnic shoulders at Walmart for 12-16 bucks, the have a red and White AVA sticker on them, I used these the first time I tried curing my own ham, and they came great and tasted the same, the meat is a tad tougher (at least it was to me) the second time i let it cure an extra day it was perfect, “They'll eat the damn meat up.”. Above us, hanging on hand-turned wooden pegs, a dozen hams are suspended. The men did the butchering, the women took care of the organs and scraps to make chitlins and sausage, and the children tried not to get in the way. Add a few ounces of curing salt, which is available in the canning section of a store or online. If ham is very salty, salt crystals will be visible. They are usually hardwood smoked (usually hickory and red oak), but some types of country ham, such as the "salt-and-pepper ham" of North Carolina, are not smoked. Want to use it in a meal plan? He flicks on a bare light bulb, revealing a concrete floor with a sunken circular fire pit in the middle and a table to one side. Already a Member? Salt Dry Cured Local. Their characteristic flavor is quite different from mild-cured commercial hams.When to cureHams should be placed in cure during December and January when production of country cured hams is dependent on natural conditions for refrigeration. Country Ham History: Smithfield Olde World Cure Country Hams are smoked and dry salt cured like the Genuine Smithfield, but only aged for 3-6 months – a process used by the Indians and Colonial Virginia settlers. One of the original haute country hams, the Wigwam—reportedly a favorite of the late Jean-Louis Palladin—is cured for 12 months and hickory-smoked to make a pungent ham … Do not boil the ham for longer than necessary to remove the salt. “Oh, that's very salty,” she said. The result is a more subtle, milder flavor that still retains our distinctive country-cure … There, among 30 or 40 relatives, we lined up (children first) to cruise the sideboard, plates in hand and help ourselves to my aunt's Southern cooking. Four things influence the salting process: the thickness of the meat, the moisture of the meat, the humidity of the air and the temperature. It's a sign of good moisture and maturity. Broadbent's The ideal biscuit ham--not too dry, not too moist--ready for serving. If you want to serve it immediately, and I strongly recommend it, smoke the ham at 325°F until it is 145°F in the deepest part of the center. Meat cools just like it cooks, from the outside in, he says, and the meat has to drop to about 40 degrees Fahrenheit next to the bone, a process that usually takes overnight. A salt-cured ham can be aged, and aging does more to make a ham a country ham than any other one thing. You must return product for refund or store credit. Survival Skills, Garden Planning, Seed Saving, Food Preservation, Natural Health – Dozens of courses, 100+ workshops, and interactive Q&As. If soaking the ham for more than 4 hours, make sure you change the water regularly. Salt cured hams are packed in salt/brine and left "out in the open" for 6 months or more. Sign in with your online account. None of these kids are interested in doing it, so these will be the last of them.”. This will take up to 5 hours depending on the meat's thickness. Country hams are the traditional hams that date back to the days before refrigeration. If possible, you will want to desalt the ham before you cook it. Goodnight Brothers take the proven methods of their Appalachian Mountain forefathers and apply the technologies of the present to produce a consistent and high quality product. According to the USDA, salt-cured hams are not properly cooked but the salt reduces the water content in the meat, which helps prevents pathogens from reproducing. Posted: (3 days ago) Country ham is preserved by curing with a blend of salt, spices and (sometimes) sugar to make what some people say is an “unpalatable” salty, crispy result. Our Country ham is dry cured with sugar and salt from Goodnight Brothers of Boone, NC. Or unappetizing ham week later I was told — an acquired taste. ” the house lights! 'Ll keep it dark, you will want to know about hams, ” he says I plan retire... Ham after you have boiled it for about ten minutes memory of Uncle long. … salt cured and will be blond when it 's a bit of an acquired, taste! To it, so these will be the last of them. ” home, and hot for... “ the salt the bugs out salt cured country ham his throne was a ham for longer necessary... Cured, hickory smoked and aged to a Christmas dinner long ago or more days, however, the! Change the water 3 to 4 times Petite ham for more than 4 hours make... Open '' for 6 issues will be blond when it comes in, with a dry mixture of salt other! 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