What makes ham red

When ham goes through the wet curing process they are brined, then fully cooked either in an oven or a smoker. To speed up the wet curing process, some manufacturers inject the ham with the wet curing solution. The mixture usually includes water, salt, brown sugar, flavorings and chemicals like sodium nitrate, sodium phosphate and more.

This method speeds up the wet curing process, more evenly distributes the salt throughout the meat and increases the final weight of the ham by even more.

Typically, wet-cured ham then gets cooked either during the processing or after a short aging period. Smoking is especially common since it adds to the preservation and the flavor of the ham. Hams that are cured are ready to eat. When you buy sliced ham at the deli counter, you may eat it cold, straight from the package. However, a ham you intend to serve as a dinner entree should be heated through, though it is pre-cooked. Also known as fresh ham, uncured ham is the same cut of pork as cured ham, but the meat has not been treated with the same chemical brine, smoke or other flavorings used on cured ham.

Because uncured ham does not contain the nitrates many of us have come to expect, an uncured ham may have a slightly different, more natural coloring than what you are used to seeing in the grocery store. Despite its name, uncured ham has actually been cured — it has just undergone a different, more natural curing process than regular cured ham. Strictly speaking, curing is simply a method of preserving meat by using the raw ingredients of salt, acid and sugar.

These ingredients work to remove excess water from the ham, preventing the meat from spoiling. Other natural produce like beets and celery are also frequently used to create a tasty curing solution that does not contain any artificial chemicals or flavorings. Along with being free of synthetic ingredients and being better for your well-being, the natural curing process can produce more flavorful meat.

Although most uncured ham has been thoroughly cooked, you will still want to put your uncured ham in the oven until it reaches a safe temperature. When cooking your uncured ham, keep these guidelines in mind:. Of course, the steps you take to prepare the ham will also influence how moist and flavorful the ham is, but it all starts with choosing a great quality ham. Check out the following section to learn more about how different types of ham are cooked and how it affects their taste.

Hams that are wet-cured are referred to as city hams. In addition to being wet-cured, they are usually smoked. City hams are pre-cooked, meaning all you need to do to prepare the ham at home is gradually heat it through in an oven set to a low temperature. You can also slice off a piece of the ham and eat it cold or fry it on a skillet. Country hams are dry-cured and may also be smoked.

Country hams are not as common as city hams in the U. Country hams can be eaten just as they are since they are preserved. They have a very salty taste and a drier texture compared to city hams. In other words, they more closely resemble preserved meats rather than the juicy ham you may picture for a holiday meal. You can heat these hams to serve them like you would a city ham, but you first need to soak them for at least four hours and up to 24 hours to add moisture and remove some of the salt.

You can then boil the ham to heat it, add your favorite glaze and finish it off in a hot oven. You can buy whole hams as well, but these cuts of meat can weigh 20 pounds or more. Since partial hams are cut from a whole ham, you end up with two main halves of the whole to consider. One half is known as the shank end. Shank end hams are what you likely picture when you think of a Christmas or Easter ham. The butt end is lean and is easier to carve since it only has one bone.

Whether you choose a whole ham, a shank end or a butt end, most people bake their ham in the oven or a roaster. The size of the ham will be the biggest determining factor in how long you should cook it. With hams that come fully cooked, you only want to heat it through without overcooking it.

Partially cooked hams will need to spend longer in the oven. Some cooks choose to score the outside of the ham in a diamond pattern and glaze it to make it more attractive and more flavorful. For a traditional look, try garnishing your ham with whole cloves or pineapple rings and maraschino cherries for your next ham dinner. A bone-in ham tends to be moist and have a nice, rich flavor that comes from the bone, but carving it can be a bit challenging since you have to work around the bone.

Once you finish carving a bone-in ham, the bone can be used to flavor soup beans, collard greens and other Southern classics. A boneless ham is made to be easier to carve. Rather than working around a bone, you can make clean passes through the ham to create uniform slices. This is generally true of many boneless hams you find at the supermarket, but it should not be the case with quality boneless hams. Another option to consider is a bone-removed ham. Cooking times for bone-in, boneless and bone-removed hams are similar since the goal is simply to warm the ham.

On hams you buy at the grocery store, the label should include a guide for how long to heat the ham. A discussion of ham should also give some attention to ham hocks , also called shanks or sometimes pork knuckles. Though ham hocks are not actually part of a ham, they are taken from the portion of the leg just below where the ham stops, at the end of the shank.

Ham hocks contain a lot of collagen, which breaks down as it cooks to turn the meat tender and delicious. Ham hocks make an excellent base for flavoring soups and broths. You can also fix them as an entree through methods like braising, roasting or slow cooking. You can purchase ham hocks raw, cured or cured and smoked. As with cured or cured and smoked hams, these pre-cooked ham hocks are ready to go and only needed to be heated, but raw ham hocks should be cooked through to an internal temperature of degrees Fahrenheit.

Unlike a standard pork loin, Canadian bacon is wet-cured and smoked, which adds to its ham-like taste and appearance. Like most hams, Canadian bacon typically comes pre-cooked and ready to eat. Since Canadian bacon is traditionally enjoyed with breakfast, a great method for preparing it is to cut slices and fry them in a skillet on the stove.

Beyond the basic distinctions we looked at above, there are many different types of hams hailing from places all over the world and with specific textures and flavor profiles that make them unique. For the most flavorful experience possible, try one of the expertly prepared ham products from S. We offer smoked boneless ham, bone-in shankless ham, Canadian bacon and more, so you can find the perfect type of ham for your next gathering.

We source our products locally, and we ship them across the nation, so no matter where you are, you can enjoy a taste of Lancaster County. When you order a ham from S. Clyde Weaver, you can be sure your family or dinner guests will be going for that second slice of tender, flavorful ham. Browse through our selection of smoked hams and bacon and place an order today. What is a tavern ham? There are many types of ham and just as many stories that accompany them.

I hope this will foster more interest in the subject!!!! Thank you!! We readily have Virginia Country Ham available whole, sliced and in pieces at our East Petersburg location. Feel free to give us a call at for more information. Good morning, Please let me know if Virginia country ham is available in the local area?

I am very interested. The butcher that you spoke to was spot on! Enjoy your ham now and then either get another one for Christmas Eve or do something else. I tried it once out of ignorance and was very, very sorry.

Allana, I just bought a 18lb "Cook's" ham how are they? I have to have it ready by 6pm this evening and was going to cook it for 6hours. Any suggestions? Alanna, Thanks for the response. Fortunately for me, my neighborhood grocey store shrink wrapped my ham.

Brenda - Shrink wrapping will not extend your ham's shelf life. What a fabulous tutorial! I learned so much and now know which ham I'll look for this Christmas. Thank you so much for sharing! Alanna, I have never cooked a ham before but a request was made for one this Christmas. So I bought a ham. Then found a recipe that said "1 Boneless Quarter of Ham" and you mentioned "When I cooked half a ham recently". Could you please explain the difference between whole ham, quarter ham, and half ham?

This sounds like a stupid question and I was just going to cut the ham into 4 pieces to get quarters. All the carving sites I found are for serving up a ham.

You had the most information so can you help? Thanks, Bruce. First, because hogs are big, hams are big, we occasionally get a big one that weighs 20 or more pounds. Those are good party hams!

But not everyone wants that much meat and even if you do, make sure it fits your oven before getting too committed, yes, experience talking so meat processors cut hams into halves and quarters. If you have a bigger ham, you can still follow your recipe, adjusting for size of course and most importantly for time. Cook to internal temperature, not time. That said, my favorite way to cook a ham inside is from AmyGlaze.

In fact, I have the glaze in my fridge right now, ready for cooking on Christmas Eve! Good luck with your ham and Merry Christmas! I was given a honey baked ham that was frozen. I have no idea how long this person had this ham Would you eat it or should I toss it out. What did you decide to do? Alanna The shrink wrapped ham was outstanding. Don't know why you said that it would not preserve the ham.

With the air removed it was OK. Yum, I love ham. You can freeze it, but befire you dro slice it ir cut into small chunks. After defrosting place the meat on a layer of paper towels with more tiwels on top. Occasionally, press the ham so it's not so wet. Then it'll taste fine again. I am attempting to make a ham for the first time. I did not grow up with this style of ham in my cuisine, nor in my culture. But I love it and my husband who is Southern loves it, too.

I really want to do a good job but I don't know what cut to buy. I found a good crockpot recipe with a lot of positive reviews. I went to Wally World and tried to find a bone-in country ham like the recipe called for. Couldn't find it. I ended up buying a smoked pork shoulder picnic out of desperation just because it was within the poundage that I needed. What cut do I need and what is a good alternative? Based on your chart, a shank or butt end would be a good one, am I right?

Clare W. Thanks for the super informative article!! My wife and I just moved to Lithuania, and they don't sell ham like we do in the states, so that makes finding a ham for Christmas a little difficult. Now we know what cut of meat to look for, and things to ask the butcher. You mention ways hams are sometimes preserved, e.

This has led up to only being able to deal with a 'real' old-time type of 'country' butcher. You have provided valuable information for the us consumers and I suggest you might want to incorporate this information here. Thanks for all you've provided. Is there a difference between a whole ham and a country ham? Im okay to say they are the same?? I can not understand this ham thing! Looking for a nice ham to cook and then make a nice ham gravy for my potatoes. I've found pre cooked ham provided too little liquid for my ham gravy..

But you are so right, ham is SO very confusing -- and worth figuring out. A whole ham and a country ham are different things. What might be the issue is the cooking method. If you just throw a ham in the oven and expect lots of juice, you might get juice but then the meat will be dry, because all the liquid is being sucked out of the meat. For your purposes, when gravy is important, I would suggest a whole or half ham preferably smoked and bone-in and baking it in a roasting pan with a couple of inches of liquid, water would work but so would apple cider, say.

Add some onion, chopped carrot, maybe an apple and maybe some fresh herbs rosemary, thyme, etc. I sure hope this helps! Yuonne Korycan Professional.

What part of the pig is bacon? Bacon is a type of salt-cured pork. Bacon is prepared from several different cuts of meat, typically from thepork belly or from back cuts, which have less fat than thebelly. Anaida Tenllado Explainer. Is Gammon a red meat? Gammon is the name given to the meat fromthe hind legs of a pig that has been cured in the same way asbacon. The main difference between gammon and ham is that gammon will be sold raw and needs to be cooked; ham is soldcooked or dry-cured and ready for eating.

Xiangyu Criada Explainer. Why is ham bad for you? Health Benefits of Ham. Clyde Korte Explainer. Is ham made from pig? Ham is pork that has been preservedthrough salting, smoking, or wet curing. It was traditionally made only from the hind leg of swine, and referred to thatspecific cut of pork. Fahim Schiffbauer Pundit. Can dogs eat ham? Ham isn't dangerous for dogs , but itdoesn't offer optimum nutritional value for them, either. It's highin fat and sodium, which can be harmful to dogs inlarge quantities, but a few bites of ham as a rare treatshouldn't harm your dog.

Keep in mind that some dogs are sensitive to fatty foods. Cenaida Theron Pundit. Does Turkey ham contain pork? Turkey ham is a ready-to-eat, processed meat madefrom cooked or cured turkey meat, water and otheringredients such as binders. Turkey ham products contain no ham or pork products. Maysae Tarenta Pundit. What happens if you eat bad meat? Foodborne illness, more commonly referred to as foodpoisoning, is the result of eating contaminated, spoiled, ortoxic food. The most common symptoms of food poisoning includenausea, vomiting, and diarrhea.

Although it's quite uncomfortable,food poisoning isn't unusual. Grover Lecca Pundit. What is Spam made of? Spam's basic ingredients are pork with ham meatadded, salt, water, modified potato starch as a binder , sugar,and sodium nitrite as a preservative.