People tell me that “hard-boiled eggs” that are really hard-cooked eggs.
[Not sure exactly what cooked means, as my Webster’s is maddeningly inclusive on lots of variations]
So anyway is “boiled ham” the same as “baked ham”?
They look and taste the same to me.
Does boiled ham absorb the water or is it enclosed in something, like a boiling bag?
I don’t know the answer, but I wouldn’t certainly like someone to explain to me how cooking something in a wet process (boiling) would be the same as cooking in something in a dry process (baking).
Wouldn’t it be difficult to keep the seasoning in a ham that was boiled?
Ham is Ham is Ham is Ham.
Scuse me while I go boil this here pizza.
I know…
I know, OK?
It just so happens that I’m heating water for tea right now.
They are not the same thing. They may taste similar, but the procedure is quite different.
Boiled:
http://www.worldwideschool.org/library/books/tech/recipes/meats/boiledham/Chap0.html
Baked:
http://home.att.net/~cordelli/bham.html
But they’re all good.
silenus Thanks for recipes. I guess they are different. I did notice, the next time I went to the deli counter, that the “baked ham” has fine print saying “water added”. That’s probably why they come so close in taste.
I think the ‘hard cooked’ egg thing is an attempt to get people away from actually boiling the eggs. Doing eggs in a pot of boiling water will just break the eggs and make them more likely to wind up over cooked. Get the water simmering, and the eggs won’t crash around, and they’ll be easier to time correctly.
First, boiled ham is not to be boiled. Boiling it ruins the ham. It is to be simmered. Second, the recipe linked above is not infallible. I’ve prepared simmered hams significantly larger than the largest they consider suitable for the method. Third, when I make a “boiled” ham, the final step consists of trimming off the fat, glazing it, and baking it.
Thus, boiled ham is baked ham–and I’m not talking about those damned injected travesties, either. I refer to good dry-cured country ham.
To quote my mom*: A baked ham is a “city” ham that you dress and bake in the oven. “City” meaning normal bone-in hunk that you get at a butcher and take home and cook; cured but not dried. A boiled ham is a “country” ham that you simmer for hours then finish in the oven. “Country” meaning a dried ham that hangs in your basement or pantry for months before you use it; cured then dried typically in salt. You have to rehydrate a country ham before you use it otherwise it’s too salty and dry to eat.
*All information from my mom is subject to change without notice. Any problems with this information should be directed to my mom. She has been known to use make stuff up when it suits her. Consider yourself warned.
In my experience, both baked and boiled hams are gammon joints…boiled means simmered, as has been stated, and is best with mashed potato…baked is fine as a Sunday dinner.
Of course, “steamed hams” is Albany slang for hamburgers…