Country ham
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Country ham is a variety of cured ham from the United States, associated with the Southern United States. It is typically very salty in taste.
Country hams are salt- and nitrate-cured for about a month and may be hardwood (usually hickory and red oak) smoked, then aged for several months to a year. Smoking is not legally mandated for making country ham. Some types of country ham (such as the "salt-and-pepper ham" of North Carolina) are not smoked. The smoking process turns the meat a much redder color than other hams. They are usually sold in stores unrefrigerated as whole bone-in hams packaged in rough cotton bags, with identifying markings printed on the bags. Country ham is also sold in ready-to-cook pre-soaked, pre-sliced packages, usually vacuum-packed plastic sheets.
Whole country hams must be scrubbed and soaked for many hours prior to consumption in order to remove the salt cure and mold, otherwise they will be much too salty to eat. Even when soaked properly, they are still quite salty. There are several methods of cooking a country ham. They include slicing and pan-frying, baking whole, and simmering for several hours (in several changes of water), followed by baking whole.
Country ham is often served in restaurants as an entree as a whole slice, often with the femur cross-section left in. It is also commonly served sliced and then cut into pieces to be used in sandwiches made of buttermilk (or similar) biscuits, sometimes with butter or red-eye gravy. The bone is obviously not left in for this preparation.
Red-eye gravy is closely associated with country ham, and is made by adding water or coffee to country ham pan drippings and cooking it down for a short time.
Country ham can be compared to prosciutto, but prosciutto is not smoked, and is generally moister than a country ham. It is also usually sliced much thinner instead of the thicker traditional country ham "steaks". Even country ham sliced to be used in a biscuit sandwich is cut thicker than prosciutto traditionally is.
Some cookbooks on Chinese cooking produced in the West suggest that country ham can substitute for Chinese ham products such as Jinhua ham, being similar in flavor.
[edit] Smithfield Ham
Smithfield ham is a specific form of the country ham, a product which originated in the Town of Smithfield in Isle of Wight County in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. A 1926 Statute of Virginia (passed by the Virginia General Assembly) regulates the usage of the term "Smithfield Ham" by stating:
Genuine Smithfield hams [are those] cut from the carcasses of peanut-fed hogs, raised in the peanut-belt of the Commonwealth of Virginia or the State of North Carolina, and which are cured, treated, smoked, and processed in the town of Smithfield, in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The peanut feed stipulation was removed in 1966. [1]
