Is your family by chance using a “country ham”? Those are much saltier than regular old ham. They’re almost like salt pork - you can only eat little shreds of it with a biscuit or something.
Indeed. This site offers some tips on removing some salt - including soaking overnight and then scrubbing under fresh water with a bristle brush.
As another poster pointed out, this level of salting was used to preserve the meat before refrigeration was available: “Kentucky country hams, uncut and uncooked, may be kept whole without refrigeration for three years maximum if kept dry and properly protected from insects and rodents.” (Link)
It’s often referred to as picnic ham, although it is smoked rather than salt-cured.
That’s what I was going to ask, too. Country hams need to be soaked to get rid of the incredible saltiness, so if someone isn’t doing that, I think they’d be pretty much inedible.
I am curing a pork shoulder, or Boston Butt, right now. It takes about ten days. I’m making buckboard bacon. Google it. It’s delicious.
I’ve cured turkeys as well. Cured, smoked meats are awesome.
Isn’t this kind of like the opposite of brining? Soaking to pull salt out?
That’s the beauty of osmosis. It can work both ways. You use salty brine to force salt into the pork and fresh water to pull the salt back out.
Ham is a salty food. It’s not like porridge, or toast, or a pear.
It’s still a bit salty afterwards, but not so salty as to give you stomach ache, which is what happened the first time I made Irish bacon-and-cabbage.
I cured a turkey once. In Indochina.
Yes, I’m a Vietnam vet.
We take our country ham seriously in Kentucky. As you can see, in addition to Newsome’s, from Terry Kennedy’s link above, Broadbent is a ham to be reckoned with. And I can assure you, while people do eat it on biscuits, it is eaten in great ham-steak sizes as well by the ham lovers of the South.
A good accompaniment to country ham is raisin sauce for cutting the salty taste.
Since this has become a general discussion of cured meats, let’s move it over to Cafe Society.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
We’ve also salt-cured and charcoal-smoked turkeys. I really don’t like turkey any other way after that.
I guess I should have wrapped that original quote in “Kids in the Hall” tags…
How about salt cod? I made fish cakes with it once. Even after numerous soakings it was megasalty.
I’m somewhat surprised I’m the only one who got it. That sketch was the first thing I thought of when I saw the thread title.
“I work hard all day, I expect a normal ham meal, not, not–Voodoo pork!”
“Get me smelts and a Coke.”
I’m proud to say that it’s the first thing I thought of too!
"You can’t stuff a ham, silly! It doesn’t have a hole to stuff! You stuff a turkey, not a ham! Well, I suppose you could stuff a whole pig. But I wouldn’t want to cook a whole pig! I wouldn’t know how!
Barbara would know. I’ll call her…"
We frequently cure and smoke turkeys in my family, too. Mmmmm… I have to go to the in-laws’ for Christmas :(.
I am butchering a pig after the 1st and have been scared of doing my own curing (last one we just had fresh ham).
Is it hard to do? The websites I’ve looked at are full of warnings, and an unfortunate Thanksgiving incident documented elsewhere on this site have made me afraid to do my own. Plus, prices at the processor for curing are high.
I am beginning to think I need to go for it though, because really…butcher a pig and no bacon!? I don’t think I can go through that again. 