Ham 101: What to Know Before Buying a Ham

When I first started cooking ham, all the different kinds of hams, all the terms for hams, they were so confusing! It took awhile to sort out what curing is, and smoking, let alone fresh hams, green hams, country hams and even city hams. (Did you know that the number one ham is a city ham? Ever heard of a city ham before? Me either.) Here’s my explanation, everything you might want to know about ham. Ham 101 is published today along with my favorite way to cook a ham for holidays and parties, it's a Twice-Smoked Ham.

Quick Links

~ Skip Straight to the Info ~

~ What Is a Ham? The Basic Cut ~
~ What Is a Fresh Ham? A Cured Ham? A Smoked Ham? ~
~ Bone-In Ham vs Boneless Ham ~
~ Specialty Hams ~
~ More Questions About Ham ~
~ Finding a Local Ham ~
~ More Ham Resources ~
~ Cooking Fresh Pork? ~

~ my ham recipes ~

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What is Ham? The Basic Cut, the Meat Itself

HAM – At the most basic level, a "ham" refers to a specific cut of pork, not how it’s cured or cooked. A ham comes from the back thigh/rump of a pig so this means there are just two per animal. Imagine where the "hams" are at the top of your own legs, it’s the same.

WHOLE HAM – A whole ham will typically weigh 18 to 20 pounds and includes both the "butt" end and the "shank" end. The "butt end" is the upper part of the ham, more "rump" and thus more fatty. The "shank end" is the lower end, more leg and less fatty. The shank end has just one bone so is easier to slice. When I cooked half a ham recently, a nine-pound bone-in, shank-end ham yielded nearly eight pounds of cooked ham meat. Some hams will still have a thick layer of fat on the exterior (this is what gets scored in diamond shapes for an attractive look once the ham is baked and reaches the table); some producers leave a thin layer of fat, there’s still enough for scoring.

PICNIC HAM – Some times the front shoulders of a hog are smoked and called "picnic hams" but they’re not really ham cuts, there are pork shoulders cured in ham fashion.

HAM STEAKS – Ham steaks are slices of a cured ham, sold pre-sliced for easy cooking.

BREAKFAST HAM – A breakfast ham is a ham steak, just the most tender center section.

HAM HOCK – The hock is the pig’s ankle, the slightly meaty section above the feet (called trotters) and the hams (in the back legs) and the picnic hams (in the front legs). A ham hock is usually sold fully cooked.

What Is a Fresh Ham? A Cured Ham? A Smoked Ham?

FRESH HAM or GREEN HAM – This is an uncured and uncooked ham. I’ve never seen a fresh ham at the grocery store but when you buy a whole hog for the freezer, you’ll get two fresh hams unless you request otherwise. If you purchase a fresh ham, it can be roasted/baked straight off; it can be cured at home and then baked (see Mark Bittman’s recent recipe in the New York Times); it can be smoked at home and then roasted/baked. I once made the mistake of making pulled pork with a fresh ham: oops, not good, it’s too lean a cut.

CURED HAM – A cured ham has been flavored with salt, sugar and other flavorings. It’s these flavors which turn the piece of flesh from the hind quarters of a pig into the tasty food we call ham. (We really do need two words, don’t we?)

Many foods are cured, not just hams, some times for food-preservation and some times for food-flavoring. Some familiar forms of cured food are corned beef, ham, bacon, sausages like salami and pepperoni, pickled herring, sauerkraut, tofu, even olives.

• CURED HAM (WET) – Wet-cured hams are soaked in a brine of salt, sugar and other flavorings. A wet-cure ham may also be smoked. The pork flavor really comes through, without the saltiness of a traditional country ham. It pays to ask about how the ham is cured – some hams are wet-cured with injections of salt-sugar-smoke flavoring, not actually brined and then smoked.


• CITY HAM – A city ham is perhaps the most typical ham in the U.S. A city ham is soaked in or injected with a brine of salt, sugar and flavorings and then lightly smoked or boiled. Look for a city ham in the refrigerated case at the supermarket, likely near the bacon, likely wrapped in plastic. It will be marked "ready to cook", "partially cooked’ or ‘ready to serve’. Look for one that’s labeled ‘ham in natural juices’. I think of a city ham as an every day ham – readily available, relatively inexpensive.


• CURED HAM (DRY) – The dry method of curing ham uses salt, not liquid, for adding flavor to a ham. The salt pulls out moisture and concentrates the meat flavor. It’s often a delicacy, sold at specialty shops and butchers – think Italian prosciutto, Spanish Serrano ham and German Black Forest ham.


• COUNTRY HAM – A country ham is dry-cured with salt, some times smoked, and then aged. A traditional country ham salty, so salty that it’s either eaten in thin-thin slices on biscuits, say, or soaked and rinsed for 12 to 24 hours before baking. But country hams can also be cured with less salt and thus require none of the soaking and rinsing. Country hams are a traditional food in the American South and the curing process dates back to the days before preservation. (More about the tradition of country hams.)


• VIRGINIA HAM – A Virginia ham is a country ham.


• SMOKED HAM – Smoking is another form of curing. Before a ham is smoked, it is first salt-cured or brined to control the development of bacteria during smoking. It then spends many hours, days even, in a smokehouse to allow the essence of hickory or maple smoke to slowly infuse the meat. The meat doesn't "burn up" because the smoking temperature low, below 100F, that's why this slow process is called "cold-smoking".


• AGING – Many good hams are cured and smoked, then allowed to age for weeks, months, even years. As the hams "age", the flavors concentrate and develop.

Which Is Better, a Bone-In Ham or a Boneless Ham?

BONELESS HAM – A boneless ham is easier to slice. But too often, boneless hams aren’t really whole hams, they’re pieces of ham jelled together and canned – not good, not appetizing. That said, some very good hams from small producers have had their bones removed and are specially packaged for easy serving and slicing – in other words, good eats.

BONE-IN HAM – Just like chicken, a bone-in ham has more flavor because the bone itself imparts flavor into the meat. Plus, you definitely want the bone for later, to make soup or ham stock for our family favorite, Ham & Beans!

Specialty Hams & Other Kinds of Hams

JAMÓN IBÉRICO – An Iberian ham is a special ham from Spain or Portugal, particular breeds, particular conditions, particular feed, particular curing – all those particularities add up to super expensive! We tried a few pricey slivers at a Spanish restaurant in rural Colorado once, amazing ham! An American family business in Iowa now cures Iberian hams, see La Quercia.

AIR-DRIED HAM – When I hiked in Switzerland in 2000, I learned to love the air-dried meats, especially the air-dried ham. This meat is actually raw and can’t be sold in the U.S. But oh! it's wonderful!

BLACK FOREST HAM – Germany's traditional Black Forest ham is coated in beef blood (yes, you read that right) before smoking, that's what creates the thin black coating.

HONEY-BAKED HAM – There’s the Honey-Baked Ham the brand, sold at high prices in stores across the U.S. Someday I’ll tell you the story of the time I ordered a Honey-Baked Ham for a weekend gathering hosted by my parents – and ended up with two hams, delivered a day apart, both with 100-mile taxi rides. It’s a hoot. The bottom line here is that I got great service ordering a Honey-Baked Ham. I’ve also stood in line for hours, waiting to pick up a Honey-Baked spiral ham. There’s a location near my house now, before Christmas and Easter, traffic backs up so much that the store has to hire traffic directors.

SMITHFIELD HAM – The original Smithfield country hams had a distinctive flavor from pigs finished on peanuts. Whether peanuts are still used to flavor the meat in Smithfield hams is unclear. The website makes no mention of peanuts. An order taker for phone orders didn’t know and referred me to the consumer affairs office. The consumer affairs office passed me around a couple of times, then someone named Bonnie said that their hogs are fed an "all-grain" diet. When I pressed, she said they are fed a special grain diet that includes soy, corn and peanuts. I’m guessing peanuts are no longer in the equation but would be happy to learn otherwise.

SPIRAL-CUT HAM – Spiral slicing is all the rage in hams, it’s definitely an impressive way to serve ham to a lot of people, thin-sliced in spirals.

DELI HAM – Deli ham is a generic term for ham specially formed into loaves for thin, even slicing. The ham will have been cured and often smoked.

CANNED HAM – This is boneless ham meat scraps crammed into a can. Lovely. #Not.

More Questions About Ham

CAN HAM BE FROZEN? To my taste, ham does not freeze well. It "can" be frozen but after thawing, seems just too wet and soggy, as if the meat has dissolved a bit. When I do freeze ham, I use it in small quantities in soup, etc, versus slicing for sandwiches or adding to salads.

Good News! Much to my surprise, frozen ham makes excellent Ham Salad!

IS a CURED HAM ALREADY COOKED? Usually but not always. Check the package or ask the butcher.

IS A SMOKED HAM ALREADY COOKED? Yes.

HOW LONG DOES A SMOKED HAM LAST? When I first bought a smoked ham, I had the idea that because it was smoked and already cooked, it would last a few weeks in the refrigerator. WRONG.

It was already smoked for flavoring and cooked at the same time but it was not preserved. A smoked ham should be treated like any fresh meat, it should be cooked within a day or two of purchase; after cooking, the leftovers should be eaten within a few days.

Finding a Local Ham

SUPERMARKET HAMS vs HAMS from SMALL LOCAL PRODUCERS & SMOKEHOUSES If there’s ever a time to shop around for good meat, it’s for ham, especially because ham is often the star of the holiday table at Easter, Christmas and big buffet parties.

That said, a supermarket may well carry a locally cured ham and many local ham producers only sell wholesale to grocers. So start by asking a butcher, especially an old-style knowledgeable butcher in a small grocery, rather than the plastic wrappers employed by large supermarkets.

ST LOUIS HAM LOVERS For the best ham in St. Louis, look for a Miller ham, see Miller Ham for a list of local retail stores. I buy Miller hams at Freddie's Market in Webster Groves, at the corner of Big Bend and Rock Hill. During peak ham periods, be sure to order in advance. Be prepared for sticker shock, for once on the LOW end.

MISSOURI HAM LOVERS Two local producers of ham in Missouri are Burger's Smokehouse in California (that would be California, Missouri, people) and Baumgartner's Boone County Ham in Rocheport, Missouri.

FINDING A LOCAL HAM The more I research ham, the more I get the idea that there may well be dozens, even hundreds, of quality small ham producers like that manage to stay well under the consumer radar, despite their skill and passion for developing fine hams over many decades. But it might take some poking around to find one nearby. Local Harvest is a start, the Country Ham Association another. You might also check the local message boards on ChowHound, or even post your own question. Good luck, it's worth the search!

RECOMMEND A LOCAL HAM PRODUCER If you know of a good producer of local hams in your own area, or have another idea about finding one, please do add your information in the comments so that others may benefit.

More Ham Resources

Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing by Michael Ruhlman. This is a fascinating cookbook for anyone who wants to explore curing your own meats. I find it daunting but hey, you never know.

Pig Perfect: Encounters with Remarkable Swine and Some Great Ways to Cook Them by Peter Kaminsky. I once had the privilege of spending a day with Peter. Afterward I wrote an essay called The Heartbeat of Iowa. Peter's also the reason my husband and I cooked a whole buffalo three times in three years. I wrote about the first time when sharing my recipe for Homemade Hot Chocolate Mix, good for a crowd or a small batch for home. But cooking whole bison? That's another story for another day. :-)

Cooking Fresh Pork?

Have you ever cooked a pork roast or pork chops and the center stays pink? That's bad, right? Or is it?

The answer is, it depends. Check out Should Cooked Pork Be Pink?.

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Favorite Ham Recipes from My Kitchen

more
~ ham recipes ~

• THE RECIPE Twice-Smoked Ham How & why to smoke a smoked ham a second time.
• DON'T FORGET Spicy Raisin Sauce for Ham My grandmother's recipe, always-always served with the Easter ham, the Christmas ham, the Sunday ham.

• THE RECIPE Spicy Raisin Sauce for Ham My grandmother's recipe, always-always served with the Easter ham, the Christmas ham, the Sunday ham.
• ANOTHER TAKE Homemade Finnish Mustard How to make mustard at home, Finnish-style.

• THE RECIPE Ham & Beans How to make Ham & Beans with a leftover ham bone.
• ANOTHER TAKE Scandinavian Split-Pea Soup Traditional on Tuesdays, without fail.

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