That’s the Only Part of You That Will Feast

Today is Sunday, so I won’t be here long.

We don’t cook anything that requires effort on Sundays. This morning I fried up a piece of country ham and two eggs, and because we don’t cook anything that requires effort on Sunday, I added a frozen Fresh Market croissant the store gave us for nothing. We never buy loaves of store bread. My wife makes bread for us. We ran out, and she can’t fix more until tomorrow.

I used Meacham ham which I ordered for my ham search. Along with Meacham, I’m testing Benton’s, Broadbent’s, Penn, and Newsom’s. I already eliminated Broadbent’s. I made red eye gravy with the drippings.

Meacham ham has a unique side flavor, and it smells a little funny before cooking. That threw off my analysis at first.

The smell goes away during cooking, the flavor is strong and tasty, the salt level is just right, the ham isn’t too dry and there is a reasonable amount of fat. It’s very nice.

The other companies are up against the wall now. Newsom’s is nearly perfect, but it costs about twice as much as Meacham, it’s not aged as long, and they won’t slice and bag it. The more I try Meacham, the more I think it’s just as good. Penn and Benton’s might be great. Benton’s can’t match Meacham on price, though. Penn is pretty close.

Penn is sending me a half-ham, sliced and bagged, for $64. It’s only a few pounds, so it doesn’t weigh half as much as a whole ham, but they keep the bones and probably some stuff I would remove and discard. I don’t know if it’s honest to call it a half ham or not, but there is a lot of waste in a whole ham, so maybe it is.

The good thing about butchering a whole ham is that you get a hock and a bone for beans or soup, so losing that is a significant hit.

I ate this in front of my baby son. I guess that was mean, but he can’t have country ham. He will be raised on it, though.

That’s all I got. Enjoy your Sunday.