I doubt that many of you would correctly guess what sinful delight appears in the photograph above…
We had a Southern style ham for one of our Easter meals. It was salty, dense and absolutely delicious. I am not too fond of the sometimes cloyingly sweet, pineapple-ly soaked or treated (pineapple is the one fruit I am allergic to) hams that often appear on Filipino holiday buffets, but I do like the saltier, denser country hams common in the U.S. South. We do have some hams that are less sweet like a Majestic ham or similar full leg, bone-in ham, but they always seem a bit less “well-fed” than the humongous Southern hams from the U.S. At any rate, the unidentified stuff on the plate in the first photo above was some of the mustard/brown sugar glaze of the ham that slipped off and caramelized/burned on the bottom of the roasting pan. One of our guests requested that we SCRAPE it up and serve it with the ham, so she could cut little pieces of this sinful, fatty, sugary goodness and eat it along with every slice of ham! A sort of anti-diabetic condiment of choice. And she IS a diabetic! :) If my mom were around, she would probably do the same thing! Both would just pop a “pill” after the meal to prevent untoward incidents during dessert or shortly thereafter. Yikes.
If more of the glaze had stayed on the ham, it might have been a bit more burnished than this, but it tasted terrific nonetheless. This 15+ pound ham could easily feed 40 people generously. And at say $60-75 (without shipping to Manila), this is an incredibly economical way to feed a crowd. I figure by weight it is nearly HALF the price of local hams.
We also served a simple tomato and mozzarella salad with slices of several kinds of stomatoes, baby mozzarella, lots of good olive oil and shredded fresh basil sprinkled on top of it all just before serving.
We also made some baked sweet potatoes with butter and brown sugar. Not a low calorie meal at all. :) And the best part? Leftovers… ham sandwiches, vegetables with ham, chef’s salads, omelettes, fried rice, soups, etc.!
33 Responses
Exactly what I love about ham- great to eat as is. Even better as left overs :-)
whew!!!! ham is really great! eat as it is or make sandwiches as leftovers….also great in salads…..yummy MM!
I’m hangry!!! hungry and angry really, i don’t have a decent food source near me!
Lovely! Definitely scrape all that sugary-fatty goodnees! Waste not, want not :)
so sinful yet so delicious indeed!
now THAT is what i call ham. =)
as bad as it is, i love the fatty, sugary part!!
I think it was in reference to a holiday ham that I first heard mother admonishing us kids to eat all the good things while we are young because all the good things will be bad for you when you grow old.
Lovely ham and tomato / mozzarella salad! May I know where you bought the ham? Looks great!
corrine, my sister ordered it in the U.S., shipped it UPS to our hotel in New Hampshire two weeks ago, and we carted it back in our luggage…
What a delightful feast!!!
Hello again marketman….You know what separate your blog from countless others is because the pictures are so alive ..the camaraderie between the lurkers and commenters are so special..that somehow this makes me feel like home although I am miles across the ocean…Thank you for being so unselfish in your tireless endeavor to bring us a taste of home.
apicio, that’s so true! the virginia ham is the one that i like so much….
lol@ “hangry” — I totally feel the same way rightnow!
yes, the virginia hams from the south are the best. my children do not consider it Christmas or Easter without that ham on the table. i freeze the bones, and the stringier remains to enjoy the rest of the year – the bones to flavor abichuelas, the meat chopped up, goes into omelets, paella, any dish that could use the flavorful saltiness of the ham. MM, you always hit the right notes!!
I guessed right! Sort of, hehe. My guess was that is was stuff that got stuck to the bottom of the pan. I like both the salty ham and the sweet ham. It all depends on my mood and/or how I’m going to eat. For my Xmas sandwich, I prefer the sweet one coz it’s with queso de bola and a fried egg. For savory dishes, I prefer the salty.
Apicio’s comment reminds me of my brother in law, he believes in the exact opposite: stay healthy now so you can eat anything you want later on and enjoy your retirement years. Talk about high EQ! But it’s a big gamble of course.
i love ham! and you know what, i would have done the same with the mustard/ sugar glaze!
Picking up on Apicio’s comments, this is probably as good a time as any to pause and think of our food choices with global warming and changing of the times….. without sounding moralistic. Here are some articles on the inconvenient truths of our eating patterns:
https://www.alternet.org/environment/136648/red_meat_or_chicken_why_it%27s_wise_to_stay_away_from_both/?page=entire
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/vegetarian-is-the-new-pri_b_39014.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathy-freston/one-bite-at-a-time-a-begi_b_42211.html
my mom used to cook Chinese ham (as many as three whole) in a big talyasi. and there would be this sticky, sweet-salty residue left after the hams were cooked. we used to drizzle the sauce (which looked somwhat like your picture)over the ham, so i guessed right. my question is, where did you buy the cheese?
my question is, where did you buy the cheese?
wrote two comments but the reply was comments already duplicated or something like that. why?
comments finally appeared!
Is it just me or do some of the local hams that are sold for xmas smell like cat food? Are they really hams or just spam like meat by products molded in an aspic and sold in ham boxes?
I miss the hams in the US, with the honey mustard sauces; since I had to miss my aunt’s last thanksgiving party, I haven’t had a really good ham in months!
Mila, some of the local hams aren’t legs at all, but smushed together other parts of pork and molded into the shape… but having said that, some deli hams in the states are also highly processed and nothing like slicing a real leg of ham… kakusina, they have the mini-mozzarellas at S&R (but they are erratic so buy them when you see them). Connie C, thanks for links, chrisb, what if one gets hit by a truck in the prime of their life, all fit and robust, but food deprived? :) I say eat now and hope you die of some other ailment… albenia, the readers’ comments add a LOT to the site.
you can’t eat pineapple? that’s sad. :)
pineapple is my favorite fruit/flavor.
Haha yup, exactly. It’s like getting credits for depriving yourself of gustatory pleasures in the hope of cashing in later on. If you get hit by a bus, it’s all for naught!
The experience in curing ham is something that I will always cherish. To start with I simply used a good quality pork back leg if you can find organic or native pork ham leg that just been slaughter please use that one. Remove the skin and make sure you have retain some of the fat covering the meat. Then rub the pork ham leg generously with mixture of kosher salt, sugar, whole black pepper, and fresh thyme leaves. Also inject or rub the marinate near to the bone to ensure that no bacteria will survive. Wrap it in a big plastic bag and put in a refrigerator to cure for about 4 weeks. Check from time to time and drain any liquids, actually a lot of them, during the curing process. If I have access to a cool weather about 60 F I will probably try to hang it to dry alas I’m in Singapore so no to that. After 4 weeks I wash the ham thoroughly then boil it on a mixture of pineapple juice, bay leaves, whole black pepper and water. After boiling the ham goes into the oven with the cloves inserted into the fat and sprinkle with sugar. The resulting ham is really good and I will definitely do this again.
I was inspired by this write up on curing meat.
https://www.themorningnews.org/archives/how_to/the_art_of_the_cure.php
One thing to note be very careful and make sure that extreme cleanliness is observe through out the whole curing process. If any sign of bacteria growth is observed throw it AWAY!!!
Otherwise if you find it too tasking and you have the money please do buy jamon iberico or prosciutto ham instead.
i guess i should have a few crackers and cheese after all, even though it’s past midnight..you guys are right, i might get hit by a bus tomorrow…
Pre-Christmas preparations already? I am not emotionally ready for my 3rd Christmas ham experiment yet. ha!ha!ha!
.. i remember a really good Smithfield ham and some delicious mustard (just ran into the kitchen to see if we still had the bottle, it’s gone and I can’t remember the name, sadly) that I brought home for Easter last year!
this one thing i would love to learn more about – hams. just thinking about them gives me a little house on the prairie moment :)
Hi MM. This is off topic.
If you are away, busy ( and you probably are) or taking a break from the extremely hot summer, here is something to call your attention. Missing your posts already.
Have you heard of black garlic, the new super oxidant? Just read a new post by Diane on White on Rice (https://whiteonricecouple.com/blog/) and thought it interesting; and here’s a link on how to get it.
https://www.saucenspice.com/blackgarlic36g.aspx
And BTW,on April 22, Earth Day 2009, may I suggest you post an all vegan menu if one decides to forego meat just for a day? Maybe you can entice your readers to follow. Thanks.