Green ham - a fresh (not salted, cured or smoked) hind leg of a pig with skin still intact.
My butcher had a special sale of these and at $.39 a pound, I was willing to gamble on one. I’m just not entirely sure what to do with it. I’m assuming I can treat it much like a pork shoulder roast in that it responds well to a slow braise.
Start by deeply scoring the skin to allow the subcutaneous fat to render out and giving it a good rub down with salt and crushed garlic. Roast, tightly covered, in a 250F oven with onions and apples for five hours or so. Remove the roast from the oven and try to remove the skin from the meat. By this time it should be able to be pulled off fairly easily. Test the meat for tenderness and if needed, return the roast to the oven for another hour or three.
Does this make sense? Do you have any better ideas on what to do with chunk o’ critter?
[del]find some green eggs[/del]
[del] send it to me[/del]
Your our plan sounds good, but it’s without curing it is a fatty pork roast basically. I would add a good amount of brown sugar to the rub and then make a glaze with a fruit with some acid bite like Cranberry or choke cherry juice, or even apple cider vinegar.
I’m a little reluctant to add too many additional flavors at this point. This is a giant chunk of porcine pleasure for me to eat all by my lonesome. Consequently, after cooking to tenderness, I’m going to portion and freeze most of it.
I can understand the thought, and though even though I said “fatty” if it’s not a heritage breed, there just isn’t that much flavor left in the average pig these days, which Is why I think enhancing the roast as a roast. If it’s an exercise in sandwich meat that you are after, then you are are right on course, and for 39 cents a pound it is a hell of a deal, don’t get me wrong. But save that roasted bone for soup or gravy-ification:)
I would cook it like you propose. When it’s completely cooked let it cool. Pull and slice as wanted. You can add flavors when you thaw. BBQ sauce and other flavors. Should be good.
OK, plans have apparently changed. My sister has commandeered the pig leg. Apparently she has a 10 pound bag of masa harina, a big bag of dried corn husks and a hunger for tamales. I donate the meat, she provides he rest, does the assembly and gives me half the goodness. I’ll take that deal.
Your original plan was a good one, but you would need more than five hours unless it’s a very small fresh ham. I roasted a relatively small one(8 lbs.) recently at 225F and it took about nine hours.
The tamales are a great idea, though - especially since you’re not doing the work!