Good Ham is no Luxury

I am still thinking about country ham.

Hams have gone up a lot in price, like everything else. A ham that used to arrive at your door, sliced and sealed in bags, for $65 will now run you twice that much in one piece. Also, a company’s ability to promote itself can affect prices whether or not the product is better. It seems likely that shopping around can pay off.

Another factor: the single most important variable in ham quality is aging; older hams are much better. Aging a ham costs money, so older hams cost more. What if you can find a mediocre young ham for a good price and then age it in your pantry, dramatically improving the quality?

Any cured ham will continue to age safely in your kitchen, as long as you don’t keep it too cold.

I decided to go through some of the best-known online ham suppliers to see what I could learn.

1. Benton’s. A Tennessee company. From their site: “Benton’s Smoky Mountain Country Hams are slow cured using salt, brown sugar, and sodium nitrite and typically aged 9-10 months, though hams are available 1 year and older.” You can buy them smoked or unsmoked.

A whole smoked ham (15-17 pounds) costs $88, and in my case, the total with shipping is $123.23. That’s a little over $8 per pound, including bone and some bits you will want to cut off and throw out.

A two-year ham costs $275 before shipping.

2. Broadbent’s. Kentucky. They say they use a special curing mixture, so that means sodium nitrate is involved. Any ham producer that only uses salt will say so; it’s a bragging point. Broadbent’s makes vague references to smoking, and it appears this applies to their hams as well as their bacon; my best guess. They say their hams are aged 6-9 months, so call it 6.

They sell hams aged a year or more (call it a year) for $199.90. They say these hams are prosciutto-style, and they are smoked. The ad says “American Dry Cured Ham,” and I don’t know what that is. It must not be country ham.

A whole ham (16-17 pounds) costs $85.90, and to put it on my front porch, the cost is $108.30.

3. Burger’s/Clifty Farm. To me, “Clifty Farms” has always meant cheap, immature hams. The kind of ham Cracker Barrel serves. A tasty product, to be sure, but it’s at the bottom of the country ham hierarchy. I recall the name of the business differently. I believe it used to be “Clifty Farms” with an “S,” so maybe there has been some reorganization.

Burger’s used to be an independent business known for serious country ham, but now their website features two types of ham: Clifty Farm and an upscale product called “Attic Aged.”

The claim for Attic Aged ham: “Each fresh ham is rubbed with salt and brown sugar and aged over 210 days and hickory smoked.” So 7 months, which is pretty good. Clifty Farm hams are aged three months, and they use sodium nitrate.

The price for a 15-17-pound Clifty Farm ham is $105.00, shipped. The price for an Attic Aged ham, shipped, is $120.00. Impressive. Why would you buy the younger ham?

I remember the commercial Little Jimmy Dickens did for Clifty Farms. He said something like, “Folks, we’re blessed to be living in these times, because we have the best country ham t’ever was.” I guess if you had Clifty Farms ham and biscuits made with Martha White Flour, which Tennessee Ernie Ford said was “pea-pickin’ good,” you were living the high life.

4. Colonel Newsom’s. This is a Kentucky company. They don’t use nitrates. I see no mention of sugar on their site. They smoke their hams. The minimum aging period is one year. Colonel Newsom’s is at the top of the country ham status heap.

The price for a 16-17-pound ham is $152.83, and with shipping, it’s $189.92. You can see why I would like to find a cheaper option of similar quality.

I don’t see an option for an older ham.

5. Meacham Hams. They are located in Sturgis, Kentucky. Their hams are aged one year. They don’t tell what they put in the cure, so they probably use nitrates. They use sugar, and they smoke their hams.

A 15-17-pound ham costs $17, and with shipping, it’s $108.06. That is a real bargain for a year-old ham.

They don’t sell older hams.

6. Penn Country Hams. Situated in Kentucky, they do not list their cure ingredients, so assume nitrates. They do not mention smoking. They sell hams in two tiers: 4-6 months and 8-10 months.

For me, a 4-6-month 16-17-pound ham will cost $85.99 plus $18.24 in shipping, or $104.23. That’s very good. An 8-10-month ham will cost $99.99 plus shipping, or $118.23. I don’t know why anyone would order the cheaper ham, except to finish aging it at home.

Curing a ham is not rocket science or even ham science. You put salt on it and wait. Add nitrates if you want. Add sugar if you want. Sugar and smoking are optional.

A lot of people are afraid of nitrates, but the truth is that there is nothing sneaky or dangerous about using them. Using salt alone doesn’t make a ham better in any way, as far as I can tell.

The point I am trying to make is that any ham that covers the basics should be wonderful if aged long enough, so it is reasonable to think it’s worth risking buying a young ham and leaving it on your shelf for a few months.

Based on what I see, Meacham presents a compelling case. They will put a year-old ham by my front door for $108.06. I could buy one in January and start eating it in July. It would be 18 months old, and it should be heavenly. I could start a rotation, ordering a new ham as soon as I unwrapped the last one.

I would like to try a sample of their ham, but it would cost $56 for a small package, so I don’t think I’ll do it. But knowing me, I might.

I suppose it’s inconsistent to talk about saving money while spending a lot of it on samples. At this house, we will probably go through two hams per year, tops, so buying samples puts a big dent in any potential savings.

Consider the sampling process my gift to humanity, then. My little sacrifice. Because I care about you. Truly.

If I have properly-aged country ham available all the time, we will be able to have real country breakfasts at will, better than the ones Cracker Barrel makes. Scrambled eggs, country ham, biscuits, cream gravy, fried apples, and red eye gravy, which is just ham drippings and water.

Results will be posted when I have collected my data.

The Data

Two boxes arrived today, so I fried up a couple of ham slices, and my wife and I compared them. The companies: Newsom’s and Broadbent’s. Broadbent’s is cheaper, so I was rooting for it.

The Newsom’s ham was whole, so I had to slice it myself. I butchered it in the literal and figurative senses. Slicing a hard, slippery ham is not easy. While I was cutting, I remembered something: my grandmother didn’t slice hams well, either.

The ham was covered with a gross black substance which must have been mold. This is normal. I had to put it in the sink and scrub it with a sponge, but I never really got it clean. I guess I got about 85% of it off.

Because I sliced it myself, I was able to get nice, thick slices. I shoot for around 5/16″. The Broadbent’s slices I ordered came in a vacuum bag, and they were more like 3/16″ thick.

The Newsom’s slices had kind of a bland smell. They smelled like country ham, and that was about it. The Broadbent’s slices had a complex aroma. They smelled fermented; almost as though there was alcohol in them. Very pleasant. This gave me high hopes.

I fried one center slice of each. I put a little water in a skillet, boiled the ham briefly to remove some of the salt, and then fried them until they were lightly browned in places.

Broadbent’s: very salty, even for country ham. This is not a problem, but I would have to remove some of the salt when cooking this ham in the future, so it’s something to be aware of.

The fermented flavor hit right away, and it was very nice. I wish I could think of something to compare it to. Maybe a barnyard smell. The texture of the ham was tough, which is not unusual for country ham.

Newsom’s: less salty, but typical of country ham. I didn’t get a big hit of fermented flavor. The texture was tender, as if aging had started to make the meat break down. Like the center of an aged rib eye. It was much more pleasant to chew.

In the end, the Newsom’s ham had the flavor I associate with a good country ham. It was a lot like the hams my grandmother cured. Acidic at the end, with plenty of umami. Since I was looking for a flavor I was used to, and not something new, I preferred the flavor of the Newsom’s ham.

My wife liked the Newsom’s a little better as well, and she also noticed the fermented aroma and flavor of the Broadbent’s.

I can’t say I noticed much in the way of smoke flavor in either ham.

We thought both hams were very good. Sadly, we both preferred the more-expensive one by a narrow margin.

Two more packages will be here soon, so Newsom’s will have to take on Benton’s and Meacham Hams.