The ham is done!!!

Thanks to all you good people, I just tasted the first ham I've ever baked, and all I can say is

Oh, MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's perfect. So moist, falling away from the bone, juicy, gorgeously browned. It's just perfect.

I scored it, rubbed it with the brown sugar/mustard combination, put it on a rack in a roasting pan, and covered the whole thing with heavy-duty foil. Popped it into a 325 oven, and let it bake at about 30 minutes per pound. (No meat thermometer.)

I had read that putting it on the rack kept it from sitting in its own salty juices. There's lots of "juice" in that pan, but I'll get to that later. Much later.

Let it sit for about 20 minutes. When I took the foil off, a big gush of steam escaped, and the aroma was otherworldly. Yummy.

I couldn't resist - cut a small chunk away - and oh, oh, oh, oh, was it good!!!

This hunk of meat is going to be very popular around here, but, I daresay, not for long.

Thank you to everyone who helped me surmount this slightly intimidating project. I'll be fixing ham a lot more frequently from now on, and I foresee a wonderful split pea soup - no pressure cooker, though, in deference to the memory of my dead cat.

Thank you and Merry Christmas to all.

I'm glad it came out so well. That taste is one reason I can't make it often because I would eat so much I'd kill myself! LOL Hope you all thoroughly enjoy your dinner.

I just slathered mine with mustard, brown sugar, fresh pineapple chunks, and cloves. It just went in the oven. It's a smoked ham so it's basically already cooked so it will be ready by dinner time.

Gonna put in a few whole sweet potatoes to bake and steam some asparagus. Oh, almost forgot the cranberries for ham sandwiches the next few days! Roll dough is also rising in the bowl and we made the tiramisu together. It's sitting in the fridge chilling.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you, Hippywife! May 2009 be filled with wonderful surprises for you and your dear hubby!



:hi:

Are you still pretty socked in with the snow? I hope you have a wonderful day, too. :hug:

The great news is... Some sun and blue skies peeked out of of the greyness for the first time in about 10 days so that was one of the most wonderful gifts of the day, even it's only for an hour or so. It's WONDERFUL to see some sun and blue skies! I have a smile in my heart and am more relaxed than I've been since this weather started.

I spent the mid-day clearing 3"-4" ice off my deck so my dog would have a "cleaner" place to go out and I wouldn't have to look at such a mess! Hooray! The deck about 99% cleared of ice! The remainder is frozen around a snakes-nest of a long hose, so it's just gonna have to melt on its own. It was something of a challenge since I don't have a snow shovel (yet!) or any other shovel other than my little pooper-scooper!!!! Not to mention a test of my stobborness and determination to get rid of it! Fortunately it's a bit warmer today so snow and ice are finally melting down a little.



:hug: :hug: :hug:

and a smile, and you have some warm, fluffy company complete with lots of unconditional love. Hope you can really dig out soon. I don't know how you managed that deck with just the pooper scooper! What an arduous chore.

Edited to add that I wish you all the very best in the coming year, too, sweetie.

:hug: :hug: :hug:

I have a 5 bone Prime Rib in the oven, it's got about an hour left...

:9

it'd be a tough choice to make, that's for sure! Wow, a 5-boner! I'll bet it's going to be fabulous! I want some of that rare center cut meat... that outer fat-laden strip that oh-so-tender.

Happy holidays to you, AzDem! I hope you're having a wonderful day today, and that 2009 brings you loads of blessings.

:hi:

:hug:

and the PRib came out AWESOME.

They make a great holiday dinner when you don't have a lot of time or energy to cook. Rub it with some seasoning and stick it in the oven

:hi:

your prime rib sounds fabulous, too. I've never done one but I do love them.

Enjoy your day and your wonderful meal, sweetie. :hug:

just freeze em first, let em sit on the counter 45 minutes to an hour, rub em with salt and pepper then into a HOT (450 degree) oven for 15 minutes, then turn the heat down to 300 for a few hours.

Pull em out when the internal temp is around 130, tent and let rest for 20-30 minutes, debone, slice and YUMMMYYYY

:hi:

Happy Holidays to you and your dear Hippy and all the feathered 'girls'

BTW is Fiona still around?

edit to add, here's a good link for Prime Rib, except I like the freeze first method

http://www.primesteakhouses.com/how-to-cook-prime-rib.html

And yes, Fiona is still with us. We have, however, lost two chickens this week. Maybe to coyotes. Gonna have to keep them in their pen instead of letting them range around, I guess. They ain't gonna be none too happy 'bout that. Everyone is now laying so that's good, tho.

Congratulations to you! Your ham sounds like a sure winner.

And in a day or two, you can use that bone and some of those juices to make up a big pot of split pea soup, or bean soup, or lentil soup, or some other great ham-based dish.

Glad you had a very Merry Christmas!

My ham turned out to be only smoked but not cured so it was more like a roast. The ol' hippy liked that just fine, and I liked it but had my mouth set on something else entirely.

Oh, well. Still a really good dinner. I used half of my bread dough to make some nice airy and soft wheat sandwich buns and a loaf of sandwich bread.

Ah, yes, sandwiches are already in the mix here. Those soft little dinner rolls are perfect for ham and cheese sandwiches with thin slices of garlic dill pickle in the middle.

I am so stuffed, I feel like the Hindenberg. Someone said to me, "Don't smoke." Good advice.

So, what's the difference between cured and un-cured? This whole ham thing is new to me, so I'm learning as I go along. How was it different, and what had you expected?

Glad we all ate well, though.

:toast:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ham

A cured ham would be like a honey-baked ham or spiral sliced ham in texture.

Sammiches around here will be ham with cranberries. Would have been better with a cured ham but will still taste good.

Enjoy your leftovers. :hi:

is actually a cut of meat, not a method of processing. It is a rump roast. They are usually cured because they don't have enough fat marbling for the size of the cut to remain moist through the cooking process otherwise. Front shoulders (including boston butt which is the back end of the front shoulder) are usually used for pork roast or pulled pork as they have more fat and can take cooking to the 190-200 degrees needed for the pork to pull nicely.

If anyone wants a fun project, home curing is pretty rewarding (I've done pork and turkey) if you live in a cold climate or have enough refrigerator space.

the ham that hippywife did turned out more like a pork roast? That was what I was thinking. Is that correct?

Thank you for explaining this.

Pork truly rules.

That's exactly the way it turned out except I prepped it like a cured ham with the mustard, brown sugar, pineapple and cloves. It almost but not quite tastes like a cured ham prepped that way, but has the texture of a roast. Still really very good, but you know how it is when your taste buds are set for one thing and they get another.

Mouth set for ham, getting roast pork instead. But, once you recovered from the shock, I would think it would be mighty tasty.

I just heated up the leftover ham, slicing some nice thick pieces that remained, throwing them into the microwave with a bit of beer, sort of to steam them. They came out as juicy as yesterday.

Your experience has taught me to make sure I get cured hams from now on.

But, still, I wager your leftovers are just as first-rate as mine................

using the beer to hydrate instead of just water. I have learned that hydrating pork with water works ok but makes it smell kind of like an old dish rag. I use cheap cooking sherry for pulled pork and Sierra ham base with a few drops of liquid hickory smoke for ham, no bad smell. I would think beer would work great too.

It's my liquid for chili, and that's a real winner. Today, I just happened to have one in my grip when the ham needed a bit of steaming. I would think that a white wine might work just as well, but I know what you mean about pork/old dish rag smell. I've had that happen. That cheap cooking sherry scares me, though, sort of like the cheap Chinese cooking wine. I go with the real stuff, if it's around.

If not, there's always beer.

:toast:

is basically salty water with alcohol content. It leaves absolutely no flavor. I pay $17 for 4 gallons. I usually keep some beer for cheese soup, I'll remember that if I am ever out of sherry. I have to be a little careful as I serve the after church crowd my smoked pulled pork about every Sunday. I may take some heat if they smell beer..;)

you said it was smoked. Was it cooked or cold smoked raw? I smoked a cut offered by a food supplier which is intended for a carving station, they were out of shoulders and I was in a pinch. It was a whole skin on ham with the foot still attached. It may have turned out better if I had not tried to cook it to 190 degrees so I could pull it, it was pretty dry. Did you end up slicing yours?

Have you ever tried home curing?

I'll have to ask my farmer. When I got it it wasn't a whole ham. It looked like a really thick, giant bone-in ham slice. I cut a small piece off of it before I prepped it for baking. Looked and tasted like a regular cured ham, that's why I was so surprised. I didn't slice it, just cut it off in chunks. Some of it came off in strings like a roast.

Hope yours still turned out okay to serve. Did you catch it before it hit the station and do something to try to make it not so dry? Like, I don't know what...

I have never tried home curing. And that's just what I don't need...one more culinary challenge. LOL I have a really good meat source through the coop who I totally trust. I am going to get one of his briskets next month and try to corn it myself thanks to sazemisery bringing up that subject! LOL

and wet curing ham are very similar processes, in fact corned beef is a type of curing. Hope you post your results.

You probably missed it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=236&topic_id=49633

the 'pink salt' is the key to the curing process. Salt curing requires high nitrate salt. In the absence of pink salt, tender quick salt would work too I believe.

of the pink salt and I'm going to give her about a pound of chestnuts in return. We don't live really close but not too terribly far from each other.

So glad it worked out!

:bounce:

about the ham. It is indeed a smoked, cured ham. I figure it's just that it's my first fresh from the farm ham that hasn't been injected with a bunch of water is what the difference must be. :shrug:

We had some of it again tonight with Stinky and Sparkly's garlic and rosemary potatoes. Still tastes yummy.

You got the real deal, and we're too indoctrinated by crap that you didn't recognize it. That's funny.

We had Cuban sandwiches today, and, I must say, that ham is holding up. I stripped the meat off the bone and froze the bone, since soupmaking isn't on my calendar just yet. Tomorrow, the last of the ham gets used up in my fabulous black bean recipe, which also freezes really well.

After the New Year, restraint. This holiday season has been an exercise in glorious excess.

Restraint. I mean it.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Who am I kidding?

all of the time. It is amazing how different things can taste and how change rocks our childhood expectations of food.

Your Cuban sandwiches sound wonderful. :9

The Cuban sandwich I'm most familiar with:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfkZ_QnvB_0