General Havoc wrote:I have never understood the appeal of ham, and that's not just the Jew in me talking. It always tastes way too sweet for me, and layering sugar, fruit juice, and coca cola over it, to say nothing of actual fruit, can only make it moreso. What's the appeal here?
I was about to tell you ... and then it hit me.... I couldn't tell you, because it's something I don't know how to describe.
Let's get down to the basics: Ham is not a 'natural' food, it is processed. It starts as the hing leg of a butchered pig, then it is either salted (dry-cured ham), smoked (hung in over a low-temperature fire), or brined. All three methods leave a slightly different flavor palate, with the smoked often the strongest, then the salted, and finally the brined.
If you had the run-of-the-mill grocery store ham slices, these were brined and often only soaked a few days. This short dip in the brine, as well as the addition of sugar or other flavorings makes this ham soft and mild. Salted ham is the one that sailed the ocean -- dried out to where even mold wouldn't grow on it. It is most often shaved into small slices for serving, and may be very dry to eat. The Smoked Ham is often considered the best of the best (in the Southern US), because the ham picks up the flavors from the trees used in the smokehouse.
