Tiny Hams
We got our piggies back from the butcher. They were, as Frank mentioned, woefully small. I was eager to have pork for Christmas so I suppose we rushed things a bit. In hindsight, I think I would have taken one in this month and waited 2 more to bring in the remaining 2 piggies. Live and learn, I suppose. I’ve already put in a request for piglets in April or May so we can keep them around longer and still have pork by Christmas next year.
I told the lady at the abbatoir that I wanted the hams fresh, meaning, not cured or smoked as I want to experiment with curing and hot smoking myself. In my ignorance, I assumed everyone knew what is meant by the term “fresh ham“. I was wrong. This is why the butcher called at 6:30 a.m. to come pick up the meat. It was fresh, meaning raw and unfrozen! Good thing these were small pigs as I’m not certain my meat freezer could have handled freezing 6 whole hams, 30 lbs of ground pork, and 5 sides of bacon at one time!
Pork chops were on the menu for that evening until I realized that Morgan’s was freezing the remaining meat for me and it wouldn’t be ready for pick up until the following day. Bummer. What to do for dinner now? Ah, roast a fresh ham! After unloading the meat, I pulled out my dog-earred copy of The Grassfed Gourmet and got to work. Here’s a shot of the ham with the herb rub ready to go in the oven.
Sadly, I don’t have a finished picture of the fresh ham. The family was ravenous and, well, you can imagine what happened when it came out of the oven. There were plenty of leftovers for a Shepherd’s Pie of sorts a few nights later. And I’ve still got 2 or 3 cups of cubed pork and the bone in the freezer. Not bad for a measly 7 lb ham!
Our next ham experiment involved oakwood harvested on our farm and an old Coleman Smoker Grill my very generous Uncle Dick gave me this past summer on a visit to Syracuse. This was a hot smoke that cooks the meat, not a traditional cold smoke that would preserve it. Frank started around noon and it was done by about 7 p.m. for supper.
I did put an orange honey glaze on this during the last hour or so but it didn’t add much flavor. The ham was delicious. Leftovers were great for sandwiches and the bone was used for a batch of baked beans.
The next time we smoke a ham, I’m going to brine it first for a few days. But all in all, I’d say the response from hungry family members was good as can be seen below.
December 28th, 2008 at 4:16 pm
If you wanted to cure your own hams, why would you want them frozen? You’d just have to thaw them out again in order to apply the salt or the sugar, and hang them.
Did you really get slabs of bacon from your abbatoir? They would always give us fresh side, and we had to cure it into bacon ourselves.
I think the best part of the porker is the front shoulder, which we always called the picnic, but most meat people call the butts. During the 1700s, they were shipped in the size of barrels called butts. They are a fatter piece of meat than the hind leg, which makes them far more flavorful. That’s the reason why people cure the hind leg – to add flavor to a too-lean piece of meat.
So did you have your picnics ground up, or frozen, to be picked up the next day?
Google for “Mario Batali’s Pork Shoulder alla Porchetta” to find a really interesting recipe.
My current version of a great picnic: I roast a picnic as one big hunk for an hour at 350, in the morning, then turn it down to 250 and let it go until supper. About an hour before supper, I pull the roasting pan, lift out the picnic gently, and pour the “soup” into a saucepan, and return the picnic to the roasting pan, and stick it back into the oven, with an aluminum foil “tent” that doesn’t touch the picnic. I add the seasonings that Mario likes into the “soup” and cook it for ten minutes, then apply it to the picnic every ten minutes for the next hour. The tent keeps it from burning.
Mostly, we eat the picnic as pulled pig, on cheesesteak rolls, adding lots of the “soup” to make it a really wet sandwich. If you don’t have cheesesteak rolls available where you are, you can use italian bread, or french bread.
I love your kid’s pic. What a cutie! Having a passel of kids like that around must be the most wonderful Christmas present….
December 30th, 2008 at 3:10 pm
I wanted them frozen so I could do one or two at a time and experiment with different cures and smokes.
We did get slabs of bacon but they were small. I’d like to try brining them to add flavor.
Interesting history on the Butt Roasts! I always wondered why they were called that! And I’ll remember what you said about using them for roasts. I had most of them ground for sausage this time around.
I like the pulled pork idea. I’ve got a recipe for it that includes a hot smoking. I never buy bread and so will have to fudge cheesesteak rolls with whole wheat.
The kids are adorable. It’s a good thing. My eldest decorated the house with evergreens for us this year. And they do so adore their Pop Pop and Aunt LinLin too.