Something better than hams...

[binarypaladin]

I love pork, I really do. Pork ribs are lovely. Pulled pork and carnitas are wonderful. I'll even take a good pork chop over a good steak depending on my mood. Bacon is one of the greatest things to exist.

I generally get my pork Berkshire hog at a time, so it's the whole thing. (And the ribs are vastly superior to anything else I've ever had.) I love it all. All except the hams.

Let me state that I don't love ham in the first place. It's nice on occasion in some ways, but... when getting a whole pig there are ham steaks, whole hams, and ham hocks. The only part I really like, oddly enough, are the hocks. The pressure cook with greens in a way that is most lovely. It's just too much ham. I end up giving a couple away as gifts because I just don't like it that much.

The upside of ordering a whole hog is that I can make specific requests about the butchering and this time around I want to do something about the hams. So, a long story gets me to these two questions:

1. Is there any reason you can't cook an uncured ham like pork shoulder? (I'm a sous-vide nerd so that's another option.)

2. If not, what's the best use case for an uncured ham?

3. Is ham cured out of some kind of necessity or purely tradition?

[HorseDoctor]

1. Yes, you can cook it like a shoulder. It is relatively lean compared to shoulder and therefore it will likely come out drier (and IMO, with less flavor). There have been a number of posts lately about roasting fresh (uncured) ham.

2. Lots of options. You could grind the whole thing into many different and delicious types of sausage if you wanted to. There's lots of delicious fat on a Berkshire that you can add to the lean leg meat for that. You could do anything with it you would do with a lean piece of loin. i.e. butterfly it and stuff with sausage (porchetta style). Sous vide steaks with a quick sear maybe?

There are many types of cured ham also you may want to explore those options: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig..._b_848826.html

3. Ham is usually cured, in one way or another(see above) because that's the way most people like a big lean piece of pork treated. It's your hog suit yourself. Enjoy!

[Dadof3Illinois]

I’m with you about the hams. Just not a huge fan myself either. When we have our hogs butchered I’ll have one ham left incured and sliced in 1” thick slices and packaged 2 per pack. This way we only cook what we need for one meal.
The other ham we have mixed with the other odds and ends and made into pork burgers. My kids would rather have those instead of beef burgers.

[ssandy_561]

Pork burgers are incredible. Grill till done, cheddar and bacon on top. Serve with your favorite BBQ sauce instead of Ketchup.

[binarypaladin]

More ground pork is never bad. My three-year-old son likes ground pork more than any other meat so far as I can tell. This could be a good excuse to get a grinder!

Thanks for the tips. I'll have a look at the article. (Maybe I could even cure my own in a way I like better.)

If sous-vide has taught me anything though, even something lean like a beef rump roast can be turned into something absolutely lovely with time.

[Jerod Broussard]

Mix ham and butt and make some great pork sausage. It works with deer and pork butt.

[EdF]

And you don't necessarily have to stuff it into a tube - plenty of other uses, like bolognese sauce, turkey stuffing, meatloaf and meatballs, filling for tacos, tortillas etc, ...

[binarypaladin]

I know this is old but...

I want to add that one of the things I ultimately did was cure my own hams and then cook them sous-vide which resulted in medium-rare ham. Cold and thin-sliced, it was something else. Only real issue is that if I'm gonna do a lot more curing, I need another fridge.