Cooking Wet Cured Hams

• Introduction
• Buying Wet Cure Hams - with terms and definitions.
• Storing
• Times & Temperatures
• Baking Hams - step by step
  • A Regular Ham - uncooked or partially cooked.
  • A Spiral Sliced Ham
  • A Canned Ham
  • A Canned Ham in the Can
  • Byproducts - and their uses.
• Glazing - with popular recipes
• Safety Tips
• Links

Introduction

Originally, all hams were Dry Cured. This process produces a leg that is hard, salty, dry and expensive, but can be stored at a cool room temperature. It needs one or two days of soaking before you can cook it.

The Wet Cure was developed as a great convenience to both the manufacturer and the consumer, but Wet Cured Hams must be kept properly refrigerated at all times. The curing solution of salt and sodium nitrite is either injected into the meat or massaged in by tumbling the hams in a vat of brine. The brine may include various flavoring ingredients including smoke flavor. After curing they may be smoked for a time. Quality varies widely with manufacturer.

Wet curing pieces as large as hams is rarely done at home. Without the injection or tumbling machinery it takes a very long time, a lot of care, and may still be dangerous.

Buying Wet Cure Hams

Wet cure hams all look pretty much the same in the market, but there are different kinds, so read the label carefully to avoid surprises. Also, pay attention to the "Sell By" or "Use By" dates - these hams have a fairly short shelf life.

Wet cure hams are extremely variable in cure and quality by manufacturer. Just because you succeeded or failed with one type from one manufacturer doesn't mean your results will be the same with another. Once you find a brand and model that works for you it's best to stick with it for consistent results.

Cuts

• Whole:

    The whole back leg, minus the hock (thin end) and feet. These are usually uncooked.

• Half:

    This may be "Shank Half" (the pointy end) or "Butt Half" (the round end). The butt end has more meat, but the shank end is considered to have better flavor and costs less.

• Portion:

    If the meat packer removes a slice or two between the shank and butt ends and sells it separately the ends must be labeled "Butt Portion" and "Shank Portion" to indicate there is some part missing.

• Ham Steak:

    Also called "Center Cut Ham" is slices removed between the butt end and the shank end.

Bones

• Bone-in:

    Most whole hams will be bone-in. This makes slicing a bit more difficult, but, the more bone the better the flavor and texture will be. After the ham is eaten, the bonea can be used to enrich soup stock.

• Semi-boneless:

    These have just the main leg bone still in.

• Boneless:

    This form has less fat and is easier to carve, but the flavor and texture may be inferior to bone-in. Canned hams are always boneless and some boneless hams are actually reformed from chunks and pieces - usually intended for slicing for sandwiches and deli use.

Water

Cured hams may contain more water than they did before curing. The USDA uses a Protein Fat Free (PFF) minimum percentage to regulate labeling. The price per pound should be less for hams with more water.

• 20.5% = "Ham" (dry cure hams only)
• 18.5% = "Ham With Natural Juices" (premium wet cure hams);
• 17.0% = "Ham, Water Added" (most wet cure hams and ham slices)
• Less than 17.0% = "Ham and Water Product" (deli ham for thin slicing and shaving) These are often reformed from chunks and pieces.

Cooked or not:

• Uncooked:

    Relatively rare. These hams have never been brought up to a temperature greater than 137°F/58.3°C at any time during processing.

• Partially cooked:

    Most of the hams in this market are in this state and labeled "cook before eating". These have been brought up to about 140°F/60°C. but not higher than 148°F. 138°F is sufficient to kill the trichina parasite. Final cooking must reach a minimum internal temperature of 160°F/71°C just as for an uncooked ham.

• Fully cooked:

    Also called "Ready to Eat", Spiral cut hams, ham slices and portion hams often fall into this category. They are safe to eat cold as purchased if within the "use by" date and have been properly handled. If they are reheated, they must be brought to an internal temperature of 140°F/60°C.

Additional Type Definitions

• Black Forest Ham - Brine Cured:

    A wet cure imitation of Black Forest Ham. Real Black Forest Hams are dry cured and cannot be cooked by instructions on this page

• Canned Hams:

    These are boneless, wet cured, fully cooked and are often reformed from chunks and pieces. They are not particularly flavorful and the texture is not as good as other hams but they are a convenience item and very easy to slice. There are two types of canned hams:
  • Shelf Stable:   generally 3 pounds or less. These are fully sterilized hams that can be stored at room temperature up to 2 years.
  • Refrigerated:   must be stored in the refrigerator and will keep there for 6 to 9 months depending on your refrigerator temperature. A popular size is 5 pounds. These should not be removed from the can and frozen because cured products degrade fairly quickly when frozen so the useful storage life won't be extended.
  Canned hams should be baked in the oven until the center is at least 140°F/60°C (generally at 325°F/160°C for about 20 minutes per pound). They can then be glazed as with a normal ham if desired (see Glazing).

• Honey Cured Ham:

    A wet cured ham cured in a sweetened brine where at least 1/2 of the sweetener is honey.

• Honeybaked Ham:

    This is a trademark of the Honeybaked Ham Company, but we list it because it's so well known. This is a fully cooked, bone-in, spirally sliced ham with a crisp honey glaze on the outside.

• Hostess Ham:

    A boneless fully cooked canned ham that is cylindrical rather than flat oval making it easy to slice uniformly. often reformed from chunks and pieces. Four pounds is a common weight. Cook as for any canned ham.

• Jambon de Paris:

    A wet cured, boneless fully cooked ham, often used sliced in sandwiches and the like. It is cured and cooked wrapped in the skin to keep it moist.

• Picnic Ham:

    This is a wet cure ham made from the front leg of the pig and is much smaller than a regular ham. Uncured it would be called a "picnic shoulder".

• Sugar Cured Ham:

    A wet or dry cured ham using a sweetened cure where the sweetener is at least 1/2 sugar.

• Sweet Cured Ham:

  [Sweet-Pickled Ham]   A wet cured ham cured in a sweetened brine. Varies with manufacturer.

• Spirally Sliced Ham:

    This is a fully cooked bone-in ham that, after cooking, has been sliced in a spiral around the leg bone. It is cooked at a lower temperature than most hams - see instructions below.

Storing Wet Cure Hams

Freezing:

Times & Temperatures

Uncooked and Partially Cooked hams must be taken to a temperature of 160°F/70°C at the center of the thickest part (make sure your thermometer does not touch bone or fat or your reading may be wrong). Reheated fully cooked hams need to go to 140°F/60°C to be safe.

The normal oven temperature is 325°F/160°C for all except spirally sliced hams which are cooked at 275°F/135°C. Any ham can be cooked at a temperature below 325°F (down to 250°F/121°C) and that will provide better taste and juiciness, but will take a lot longer to cook.

To get hams just right, a good meat thermometer is extremely helpful. The kind with a probe that stays in the meat with a cable going out to a temperature display is the best kind - you don't have to open the oven door to measure the temperature.

This table of times and temperatures will meet USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) safety standards, but in practice you want to pull the ham when the center of the thickest part is 5°F/3°C below the target temperature as heat will continue to migrate to the center. IF you'll be doing a final glaze, you want to pull 10°F/6°C below the target temperature as it'll be going back into the oven.

Baking Hams - Step by Step

There are about as many step sequences for how you bake a ham as there are recipes for baking a ham. The steps given here are pretty safe for good results but shouldn't be considered the only way.

A Regular Uncooked -or- Partially -or- Fully Cooked Ham

(not spirally sliced)

To make a pretty ham like in the magazine pictures you have to cut away the rind (skin) and shave the fat down to about 1/4 to 1/8 inch and diamond cut it before baking (don't cut into the meat). The fat will be unmanageable later. The most traditional presentation is to diamond cut the fat, stud with cloves and coat with a glaze (see Glazing).

If you don't care from pretty but only about flavor you can strip the rind and excess fat when the ham is nearly done. Then you can glaze or not as you please.

1. Find a shallow roasting pan and a rack for it that will keep the ham at least 3/4 inch off the pan.
2. Bring your ham out of the refrigerator and place it on the rack in the roasting pan. IF you have a whole ham, set it fat side down. IF you have a half ham, set it cut side down. Now let it sit for about 2 hours to lose the chill.
3. Preheat your oven to 325°F/160°C.
4. Pour about 4 cups of water into the roasting pan and slide it into the oven.
5. Every 20 minutes or so baste the ham with a fruit juice compatible with your glaze (if using a final paste glaze) or baste it with the glaze if using a thin glaze. If you aren't going to glaze, apple cider or apple juice works well. Baste with fresh juice each time, the pan juices are too salty to use. Make sure the liquid in the pan never dries out (the basting may renew it sufficiently or add water).
6. Bake per the chart above and test the temperature at the center when it is nearly done. For a fully cooked ham pull at 135°F/57°C and for a uncooked or partially cooked ham pull at 155°F/68°C.
   IF you're using a final glaze pull about 5°F/3°C sooner even than that.
7. IF you've used a thin glaze or are not glazing at all, you're done - skip on to the final resting step.
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8. IF final glazing, turn your oven up to 400°F/200°C.
9. IF you haven't stripped the skin at the start, cut it away now and strip excess fat. Leave about 1/8 inch of fat on and diamond score it best as you can (without cutting into the meat).
10. You can stick a whole clove into the center of each diamond, or half the diamonds, or into the intersections of the cuts or not at all as you please (some who want clove flavor prefer grinding some up and mixing into the glaze). Coat the surface thoroughly with your glaze. Some recipes call for pinning slices of orange, pineapple or whatever have you to the ham with toothpicks at this point.
11. Slide the ham back into the oven and bake for another 20 to 30 minutes at the 400°F/200°C glazing temperature until the glaze is shiny and crisp.
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12. Remove ham from oven and set out on the counter, tent with foil and let stand at least 20 minutes before attempting to slice. Center temperature will continue to rise at least another 5°F and juices will migrate to a more even distribution (and you won't scald yourself as you might trying to slice a ham right out of the oven).

A Spiral Sliced Ham

These hams are fully cooked and bone-in (or there would be nothing to cut the spiral around). They are also likely to be pre-glazed.

1. Preheat the oven to 275°F/135°C.
2. Lay out a wide sheet of heavy duty aluminum foil, shiny side up and long enough to make sure the ham is completely wrapped.
3. Set the ham cut side down on the aluminum foil.
4. Fold up the foil to make a basket and pour in 1/2 cup of water.
5. Finish wrapping the foil up over the ham and pat it down tight.
6. Bake for 10 to 14 minutes per pound (or per package instructions) until the center temperature reaches 140°F/60°C.
7. Let cool until safe to handle and serve.

A Canned Ham

You can glaze a canned ham just like a regular ham (see Glazing) when it's nearly done.

1. Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C.
2. Remove the ham from the can and place on a rack in a shallow roasting pan.
3. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes per pound until the center reaches 140°F/60°C.
4. Let rest for about 15 minutes before slicing.

A Canned Ham in the Can

This may be in a ham shaped can or may be a "Hostess Ham" in a cylindrical can.

1. Using a "church key" (an old fashioned beer can piercer) pierce the top of the can at intervals of 2 inches.
2. Bake at 325°F/160°C for 1/2 hour, then drain the can through the holes.
3. Back fill the can through the holes with your chosen potion (generally Coca-Cola, BBQ sauce, sweet & sour sauce, or fruit juice). Bake at 325°F/160°C for 20 minutes per pound.
4. Open the can with a can opener and remove the ham. If a cylindrical ham doesn't want to come out, open both ends and push it out.
5. Let rest for 15 minutes, slice and serve

Byproducts

• Fat

  stripped from the ham can be used in place of bacon fat (and will probably be more flavorful). Be mindful whether you stripped it before or after baking (if before it will have to be cooked, but that's probably going to happen anyway in your recipe).

• Bones

  - cover your bones and trimmings with cold water and bring to a simmer for a few hours for soup stock. Goes well mixed with pork stock if you have any of that on hand.

• Skin

  - is edible as a tasty snack. If stripped before baking fry it lightly with some ham fat. If stripped after baking you'll probably have to steam it a bit to soften unless you like chewing tough things.

• Drippings

  - don't even use them for basting the ham - too much salt - you want to leach salt out, not add it. Not only will pan liquids be loaded with salt they'll probably be sickeningly sweet from the basting and glazing.

Glazing

Glazing adds extra flavor and a crisp texture to the outer edge of ham slices. You can use a thin glaze and apply it all through the baking period or use a thick final glaze and baste with fruit juice during baking. Most glazing recipes call for brown sugar. I use Jaggery because I like the flavor and I usually have it on hand.

If you'll be using a thin glaze and basting with it through the entire baking process you must remove the skin, shave the fat to about 1/8" to 1/4" thick and score the fat into a diamond pattern before you start baking. You can also do this for the final glaze method if you want a pretty ham. It can be messy stripping skin and fat when the ham is almost done.

If you want to do a final glaze but your glaze seems too thin to adhere properly, you can mix in some bread crumbs. This is particularly done with country hams.

Along with the glaze step, many recipes call for studding the ham with cloves or pinning (with toothpicks) fruit slices or ginger slices to the outside of the ham. Others consider clove sticking too fussy but want the clove flavor so they just grind some up and mix into the glaze.

Safety Tips

Cured hams aren't as bacteria prone as raw meats, turkeys and the like, but proper precautions are still necessary.

• Do not use the same surfaces or utensils used for uncooked ham for cooked ham or any other food until they have been thoroughly cleaned. I clean with a disinfecting cleanser which releases some bacteria destroying bleach as you work with it.
• Make sure hams that must be refrigerated stay below 40°F/4.4°C at all times.
• Dry cure (country) hams do not need to be refrigerated until they are cut. Once cut they are vulnerable to mold and must be refrigerated and consumed within a few days.
• You want to keep your cooking time as short as possible and your temperatures as low as possible to preserve flavor and juiciness, but "as low as possible" for uncooked or partially cooked hams is 160°F and 140°F for fully cooked hams. Below those temperatures is considered unsafe.
• Store uncooked hams tightly wrapped and completely sealed so they can't drip any juices onto other food.
• Refrigerate leftover ham as soon as possible, and if it is a lot, divide it so it chills quickly.
• Ham shouldn't be frozen because that affects the texture and flavor. If you must freeze, keep in mind that the quality of cured meats degrades rapidly when frozen so the keep time is not as long as you might hope, just 1 to 2 months. It'll still be safe for a while longer but quality will deteriorate quickly. In comparison, a fresh uncured ham will keep well frozen for 6 months or more.
• When you have purchased a ham, check if it has a "Use By" date, and use it by that date. If it has only a "Sell By" date, use it within 3 days after that date. If it's undated, use within 3 to 5 days (a whole ham can go 7 days or so but a half ham is 3 to 5 because it's been cut).

Links

• H2 - Ham (lots of details) - U.S. Department of Agriculture