Even More Pork
November 23rd, 2009UPS Brings a Box of Nirvana
My Scott Hams country ham arrived from Kentucky! I also ordered a big jar of sorghum. I can’t wait to try this stuff. Maybe tomorrow.
For some reason, they only sent me 9 1/2 pounds on an order for a 16-18-pound ham. They’re looking into it. I guess they’ll issue a credit or send more ham. I am looking at their site, and I’m seriously tempted to order more stuff. They have dried apples! Not the white city kind. The brownish country kind. I’m going to ask if they use June apples. If so, I’m buying. They also sell jowl bacon, which I’ve never tried. How can I resist that?
I’m reading up on curing country hams. I think I can do this. All I need is cold and a ham. I have a beer cooler I keep at around 35 degrees, and I can put Damprid in it to keep the moisture down. That should work great.
According to the University of Missouri extension site, all I have to do is apply the cure, keep the ham dry and cold for about seven weeks, smoke the ham a little at 85 degrees (I have the technology), and then let it age in the beer cooler!
I’m trying to remember what my grandmother used on her hams. I know she used molasses, pepper, and salt. I think she also used sulfur, but I’m not sure why.
Here’s something funny. When I was a kid, I found saltpeter in her kitchen cabinet. I didn’t know they used it on hams. The grandkids thought she was putting it in my grandfather’s food.
The big drawback to curing my own ham is that I would have to wait a minimum of a year before I could eat it. But it would cost about a dollar and forty cents per pound, including the curing ingredients.
The great thing about this is that I could start doing one ham per year, and I could space them out so I had a two-year-old ham ready for eating every fall. My grandmother used to age hers two years. They were the best I’ve ever had.
Mike called to tell me his idea for deep-fried hamburgers, and I told him about the ham and the jowl bacon and sorghum. Now he’s all excited.
He says to use a Showtime oven for the turkey. He claims the texture is unlike any oven turkey he’s ever had. Believe it or not, my dad has such an oven. So I’m putting him in charge. I’ll prep the turkey, and he can take it from there.
Having given up gluttony, I’m not sure how Thanksgiving will go. Small portions, I guess.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:15 PM
the sulphur was to kill any fly eggs that might have been laid on it whilst curing.
November 23rd, 2009 at 5:27 PM
Mike is right about the oven. I discovered a rotisserie unit for the Weber kettle grill a few years ago. Having used it to cook a turkey- it is hands down my favorite way. Less cleanup too. Happy Thanksgiving.
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:31 PM
Try using this for the concentrated apple flavor you are looking for
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/shop/items/boiled-cider-1-pint
Also, I find this place sells fantastic pork products…
http://www.smokehouse.com/burgers.nsf
November 23rd, 2009 at 7:34 PM
I don’t want to be an old granny about this but…
Remember what Jimmah Cartah said about lusting in his heart,
well, I think you are lusting after food in your heart.
I jest, of course, there has just been so much of the obama/carter comparisons in the news lately the phrase came easily to mind. I like you enthusiastic posts about food prep.
Go to my blog to see latest mind boggling idea.
November 24th, 2009 at 1:57 AM
Hey I bought one of those ovens for six bucks at a yard sale and it works fine. Couldn’t hold too big of a turkey, but the chicken I did was fine. Maybe a 15 lb turkey would fit.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:45 AM
Check out The Foxfire Book, if your library doesn’t have a copy you can buy a copy here http://www.foxfire.org/thefoxfirebook.aspx The book is the first in a series of books that came about as part of a project to interview Appalachian mountain people about their way of life. The books have tons of recipes and descriptions of methods to do things that we don’t much do any more.
You can also check out the River Cottage Cookbook by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, he’s an English foodie who has gotten seriously into locally produced foods using heirloom breeds and small batch production methods. He’s not some kind of closet PETA freak though and has actually raised and slaughtered animals. The book has a lot of recipes for the parts most people throw away these days and a pretty decent section on preservation methods.
November 24th, 2009 at 10:47 AM
I love the Foxfire books. I looked for a ham cure recipe in the Foxfire cookbook, but it doesn’t have one.
November 25th, 2009 at 2:56 AM
We have the whole set of Foxfire books. I was mostly interesting in the spinning and weaving/knitting/dyeing stuff. Really wonderful that they made them before everybody died off.
Have any of you ever seen Carla Emery’s Country Living book? Now, she may have a cure recipe. I don’t remember. Its been since the 80s that I was reading that. But she has a lot of meat handling information.
Carla went kinda nuts and is dead now. But the book is great.