Ham [General]

2010 Jun 3
When I was young my mother used to prepare a leg of ham. My memory tells me it was not "processed" like the ham I find in the grocery today.

Anyone know what the difference was and where I might find good quality ham?

2010 Jun 3
Hmmm, depends what you mean. Cured ham? Baked ham?

Nicastros on Merivale sells a whole back shank cured ham at an amazingly cheap price but you have to be able to store it at the right temp and humidity, from what they told me.

If you mean baked ham - just buy a picnic shoulder or similar ham roast and learn to bake it yourself - pretty easy stuff.

2010 Jun 3
My definition of ham would be rear leg, salt cured, could be wet or dry. I've only made dry cured hams but from what I understand wet cured is even easier: Make a brine, brine the leg for about 3ish weeks (until its firm to the touch), smoke it if you wish, then roast away however you like.

Modern supermarket pork is pretty lean, so it loses some of that "porky" flavour that all pork apparently used to have, farm raised pork definitely has that old-fashioned strong pork flavour. That might be what you are remembering. Plus any commercially cured product has a whole host of preservatives, if you are making your own you can pick and choose as you please...

This dry ham is now more than 2 years old, I've sliced about half of it. Turned out delicious but the flavour is pretty strong...


2010 Jun 3
It could have been a fresh, uncured ham. You can get it if you buy pork directly from a farmer.

2010 Jun 3
The one pictured is what they were selling at Nicastros - whole thing for about 30 bucks as I recall - couldn't believe it!

2010 Jun 3
It was baked ham.

2010 Jun 3
The best cured, smoked ham I've had in a number of years - ham that tastes like the hams we ate as kids in the dark ages - comes from Greg's Quality Meats in Winchester - my m-i-l routinely buys it and I am always grateful she serves it. Ham from a grocery store just doesn't cut it.
I've also bought and baked cured ham from Albert's Meat Shop just outside Kemptville - that was a delicious ham; a friend said it was the best ham he's ever had.
If you cook a fresh leg of ham it will taste much like a fresh pork loin or shoulder roast does - not like the ham of MY youth.

2010 Jun 3
Baked ham is pretty easy then, and pretty hard to mess up. Bake it covered. Often people will poke cloves into it all over. Just buy a ham roast and give it a try!