I have no clue why this is so hard to find. Many butcher shops I talk to can’t believe I would even want such a thing, like the idea of not curing but still smoking my own meat is a foreign concept.
Well I found what I want in Denver and pick it up Tuesday. So I’ll marinade it for 48 hours in bourbon, fresh ginger and brown sugar and then throw it in my smoker about noon on Christmas Day with oak and maple or apple chunks. That will be our Christmas ham.
Sounds like those shops should put scare quotes around butcher!
But … did they still spiral-slice it for you? 
You are aware that will taste nothing like ham, right?
Why? 90% or more of the taste is from the curing and that’s what I’m getting, a cured, uncooked, unsmoked ham.
OH. Between calling it “raw” and the snippet above, I thought what you purchased was neither smoked NOR cured.
That’s why I call it raw ham. Uncured would be raw pork roast and what’s so special about that?
That’s probably why you were having so much trouble finding one… generally speaking the ‘ham’ is the back leg of a pig, so a “raw ham” would literally just be the back leg, not cured or cooked or anything.
An uncooked cured ham would be a cured, but uncooked/unsmoked ham. These are probably pretty rare; while I’ve seen raw hams before, I can’t remember seeing an uncooked, but cured ham before.
Most people opt to either cure and smoke it themselves entirely (what I do), or outsource it completely and get it precured and presmoked (grocery store/Honey Baked Ham style).
My mom would always order our Christmas ham from a place in Arkansas and have it shipped to her.
I’m pretty sure it was Petit Jean Meats.
She once (many years ago) called the company and spoke to the owner because they trimmed too much fat off the ham they shipped her and made it hard to keep it moist when she prepared. The owner (or CEO?) agreed with her, but that if there was too much fat on there people felt they were getting ripped off. He then selected one and shipped it to her just the way she liked it.
I roasted one years ago and was surprised how much the meat tasted like ham. Not salty or smokey but the flavor of the cut is for lack of a better description…ham-ish.
I expected a mild loin flavor.
Is this the same thing as a “fresh” ham? Our farmshare sometimes includes slices of “fresh ham,” which is uncooked, but tastes at least lightly smoked.
That’s what most people mean by a raw, or “green” ham. What so special about them is that they are absolutely fantastic.
I missed this post. So it’s like salt pork but a whole leg. :smack:
My bad. Bourbon, ginger & brown sugar + smoke sounds great to me
I haven’t had ham in a long time and just wanted you to know that your post inspired me to pick one up today. Most of my own cooking is confined to the barbecue, roasts, and some specialty dishes and I myself wouldn’t try anything like smoking my own ham, but you sound like you know what you’re doing and I’m sure it will be wonderful. I was just doing some shopping and I thought of your post when I noticed that the store had a vast pile of honey-baked spiral-cut hams, and they were on sale. I’m sure you will scoff at this ready-made type of stuff, but it’ll probably be pretty good – most of this store’s own products are. I just noticed that it comes with a separate packet of glaze which will give it that authentic touch. I was also delighted to find vac-packed smoked duck breast which can be sliced into wonderful hors d’oeuvres and is sometimes hard to find.
Same here. To me, the ham is just the rear leg cut of pork. When I say “raw ham,” I just mean the cut (which is available at the packing houses here and some butchers and sold simply as “ham” or “fresh ham”.). But I guess (judging by this thread) that people do refer to cured, uncooked ham as “raw ham,” too. Otside of things like prosciutto or serrano and the like, I’m not entirely sure I’ve seen a cured but unsmoked ham being sold. I may be wrong, though–it’s not something I’ve looked for.
I know I’ve seen (and bought) fresh hams, and the usual cured, smoked/cooked hams, but I haven’t seen a cured but unsmoked or cooked ham before.
Probably because the curing is pretty much trivial. So much so that a recipe is published in the AARP website.
http://recipes.aarp.org/recipes/american-style-brown-sugar-glazed-holiday-ham
(and FTR, this is the exact same one as in “Charcuterie” by Ruhlman and Polcyn, which is a serious cured meat cookbook/reference book).
So how’d the ham turn out, Saint Cad?