We’re coming up on Easter, which foodwise seems to be the ham-and-eggs holiday. Palm Sunday falls this weekend, the following Sunday is Easter. (Passover, SO not the ham holiday, starts on the 19th). The great thing about a ham for the holidays, when family comes to break bread — and sometimes china and crystal, depending on the family dynamic – if you have a ham in the fridge, you can feed the 5,000, and then when everyone goes back to their respective corners, transform any leftovers into something scrumptious and different for every meal thereafter until you get down to the bone and make soup. Ham omelets or baked eggs with ham and chives for breakfast or brunch, ham salad with sweet pickle on crackers for hors d’oeuvres, croquet monsieur, that spectacular French addition to the pantheon of grilled cheese sandwiches, ham and asparagus quiche, ham and potato casserole, or ham and crab on pasta, velvet soup with ham and crab. And that’s only the beginning. Allrecipes.com claims to offer 540 ‘trusted’ ham recipes, which I presume means they’ve actually been tested by real people — not all cookbook recipes are.
Ham, the hind leg of a pig, may be fresh, cured or cured-and-smoked. Cured ham is usually either pink or deep rose-wine color. Dry-cured country ham and prosciutto are usually the color of mahogany, while pinky-beige fresh ham is not cured and needs to be thoroughly cooked according to the instructions for all other pork (internal thermometer temp 160-165F). Most hams in the grocery store are cured; they may reassuringly include the terms fully cooked or cured, which means it’s basically a heat-and-serve proposition.
As a result, a cured, baked ham is an easy choice for the kind of extended family dining many of us do around the holidays. You can stick it on a buffet table with a carving knife and some biscuits and condiments and then wander off to enjoy your nearest and dearest instead of slaving away over the stove while everyone else has scintillating conversation – or verbally dissects Aunt Maude or Uncle Pike, whichever. If you want to get fancy, you can glaze the ham before it goes into the oven with a range of things: mustard and apricot jam, honey and curry powder, maple syrup and orange juice. Almost any combination of sweet and tart will work. Allrecipes even has one for bone-in-ham cooked in beer that the commenters rave about. Alton Brown’s recipe for ‘city ham’ calls for gingersnaps and brown sugar. (‘City’ ham, according to Brown, is basically any brined ham that’s packed in a plastic bag, held in a refrigerated case and marked “ready to cook”, “partially cooked” or “ready to serve.” ‘Better’ city hams are also labeled “ham in natural juices.”)
Ham is rich in both taste and texture, so a little goes a long way. One cup of cured whole ham is 206 calories, according to caloriecount.com. The only thing is that cured ham has lots of sodium — over 2100 mg in a one-cup serving. Which is also why I don’t like spiral-cut hams. While they’re convenient and perhaps safer if you’ve got little ones hovering around the carving knife at the buffet table, they also foreclose too many options for serving size and use.
With a solid ham that you slice yourself – or is carved by some accommodating male who’s still of the rather charming view that being able to slice ham paper-thin is a mark of good breeding — you can serve up biscuit or plate-size slices, then in a couple of days, cut cubes for casserole, then pare the last bits off the bone for use in baked eggs or quiche along with sautéed peppers and onions or asparagus with fresh tarragon and Swiss cheese. Once you’re down to bone with bits of meat still clinging, you can put it into the stockpot with a big carrot, a stalk or two of celery, an onion with two cloves stuck in it and a little fresh thyme and chives if you’ve got ‘em and plenty of water. Simmer for at least an hour, then cool in the fridge with the ham bone and veggies still in the stock. You can then skim off any solidified fat and remove the bone and limp veggies. Split pea soup made with this broth is something the kids will remember long after you’re gone. You can also freeze quarts of the stock and pull it out at a moment’s notice, dump it into a pot and melt it while throwing in a can of beans or some lentils, a few chopped or diced vegetables, and a couple of herbs, and inside 25 minutes, you’ve got a meal.
Ham Bone Split Pea Soup
6 cups ham stock
1 medium onion, diced
1- 15 oz bag split peas
1 large carrot, chopped
two cloves of garlic, mashed or minced
freshly ground pepper
You probably won’t need salt. Simmer for 35-45 minutes until peas are melted and smooth. Stir periodically; you may need to add a little water if it gets too thick. Delicious and satisfying on a rainy evening with garlic toast and a bottle of red wine.
For local pork:
Cedar Run Farm
https://www.cedarruncattle.com/
Recipe links:
https://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Bone-In-Ham-Cooked-in-Beer/Detail.aspx
https://stage.allrecipes.com/Recipe/Tasso-Ham/Detail.aspx
https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/tyler-florence/death-defying-stuffed-shrimp-with-tasso-ham-and-crab-recipe/index.html
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/angel-hair-pasta-with-crab-and-country-ham
https://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/velvet-corn-soup-with-crab-and-ham
https://www.food.com/recipe/smoked-corn-ham-and-crab-chowder-261514
Ham storage chart
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/ham/index.asp#10
Timetable for cooking ham
https://www.fsis.usda.gov/factsheets/ham/index.asp#9
Ham curing video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BdRhpxv82cQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKsOLoBmSPA&feature=related
Johnson says
” O, there’s no place like ham for the holidays…
“For the holidays you can’t beat ham sweet ham!”