Hog heaven

Along with chocolate rabbits and colorful eggs, ham holds a place in many Easter celebrations.

Back in the days before refrigeration, farmers traditionally slaughtered hogs in the fall and cured the meat to preserve it (we'll get more into curing in just a moment). So it wasn't until around Easter that the hams were fully cured and ready for the table.

A true ham is the leg of pork that comes from the hind of the hog. This is the best choice for slicing and serving.

To confuse matters, the front leg, called the pork shoulder picnic, often is cured and called ham, as well. These hams tend to have more internal fat, making them better suited for dishes such as soups and stews.

Now to get back to curing.

Most true hams are cured in salt or salt water and sometimes sugar. After curing, the hams that we're most likely to find at a suburban grocery store have been smoked and fully cooked.

City slickers

Fully cooked or ready-to-eat hams can be eaten with no further preparation. These are known in pork circles as city hams. They are available with or without the bone, or partially boned, which still have a small part of the thigh bone, but not the big joints.

While the bone adds flavor during the cooking process, it can make carving more difficult (for a carving how-to video, head to www.jonesdairyfarm.com).

Regardless of the bone, fully cooked hams can be purchased in a variety of sizes.

Meat expert Bruce Aidells, author of "The Complete Meat Cookbook," says a whole, 10- to 20-pound bone-in ham is the most flavorful and least wasteful cut. It can serve 15 to 20 people with leftovers, and the bone can be used as you would a ham hock, for seasoning soups (split pea, anyone?) and bean dishes.

For smaller groups, Aidells recommends buying a smaller section of the ham. The butt end, which is the upper part of the leg, tends to have more meat than the smaller shank end, which is lower on the leg.

Partially cooked or ready-to-cook hams are made using traditional smoking and curing techniques and have been heated to at least 137 degrees during some part of the processing.

Aidells says that because these hams are minimally processed, they usually have superior flavor and texture.

Finer markets might stock ready-to-cook hams during the holidays and they can always be purchased online and by mail order from specialty producers.

Fresh hams haven't been cured or cooked. They must be cooked to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. These are sometimes found alongside other pork roasts, but you might need to special order them.

Mark Scarbrough and Bruce Weinstein, authors of "The Ultimate Cookbook," praise fresh hams for their fat and lean meat, which they say creates an excellent, moist texture and superior flavor.

Spiral-cut hams, which usually are fully cooked and available with or without the bone, have become increasingly popular, in part for their ease of serving. But that might be where the advantages end.

Aidells says these hams tend to dry out. They also often are coated with a sweet commercial glaze made with processed sweeteners. Aidells says even the simplest glaze of brown sugar and mustard would taste better.

Country cousin

A few small U.S. producers still make country hams, which are salt-cured, then cold-smoked over smoldering fires. These producers are in the so-called ham belt, a swath of America that reaches from Virginia and North Carolina across Kentucky and Tennessee over to Missouri. Weather conditions to the north get too cold to allow for dry-curing, conditions to the south too warm and humid.

"Why country ham? What happens as the meat cures (is that) you have a concentrated, richer, more robust flavor than you find in moist-cure hams," says Steven Burger, a third-generation country producer and president of Burger Smokehouse in California, Mo.

The flavors of country ham vary from state to state, region to region, depending on the pig's diet (kind of like a wine's terroir). In Virginia, for example, Smithfield hams are produced from peanut-fed pigs.

The longer a country ham ages, the more water it loses and the more concentrated the flavors become. The flavor also depends on whether the ham is smoked, plus the type of wood used for smoking and the amount of smoke generated.

That curing process leaves the ham salty, so before you serve a country ham it should be scrubbed of mold (think blue cheese) and soaked in cool water to extract some of the saltiness. Experts recommend soaking between four hours and 48 hours (replenishing the water every few hours), depending on how salty you want the final product.

Once you've scrubbed and soaked the ham, it can be served raw or glazed and cooked like its city counterpart.

"I like it raw, at room temperature where you can really taste the flavors and appreciate its richness," says Chicago-raised Ari Weinzweig, who now heads up Zingerman's Deli in Ann Arbor, Mich. He said he'd like to see home cooks and chefs offer ham boards like they do cheese boards.

With the recent focus on locally grown foods, country ham producers could be in for a boom as consumers look for domestic artisan products to replace imported gourmet fare.

"I guess I focus more on getting people to eat more good food and more traditional cured hams (in this case)," Weinzweig said. "So it would be less about getting people to switch from one ham to another, and more about getting them to build a few slices of either or both into their regular eating routines."

Ham it up

• When selecting a ham, figure on buying ¼ to 1/3 pound per person if boneless, 1/3 to ½ pound per person if partially boned, and ¾ to 1 pound per person for bone-in hams.

• If you hope to get your holiday shopping done early, you can store a cooked ham, unopened, in the original packaging for seven to 10 days. For longer storage, you can freeze the ham, in the original packaging, for up to three months.

• Country hams can be stored in the original wrapping or a brown paper bag in a cool, dry place for up to one year. Once the ham is cut, wrap the pieces and refrigerate for use within the week, or freeze.

• Fully cooked hams can be eaten cold. If you plan to bake it, heat the oven to 325 degrees and cook to an internal temperature of 140 degrees. Leftovers, or hams not in their original packaging, should be heated to 160 degrees.

• A fully cooked whole ham will take 15 to 18 minutes per pound to come to temperature. A fully cooked half ham will need to cook for about 18 to 24 minutes per pound.

• Partially cooked hams must be heated at 325 degrees to an internal temperature of 160 degrees. A 15- to 20-pound ham needs 18 to 20 minutes per pound. A 5- to 7-pound ham needs 20 to 25 minutes per pound.

• Country ham can be served raw, just like Italian prosciutto. Or, cook it at 325 degrees until the internal temperature reaches 140 degrees.

Hunting country ham

Most grocery stores and butcher shops stock moist-cured hams, but you've got to look harder to find country ham.

We found it at Garden Fresh Market in Arlington Heights and were told all the area stores will have it on hand for the Easter holiday. Go to www.gardenfreshmarket.com for store locations.

There are also a host of producers with online catalogs. The National Country Ham Association (yes, there is such a group) provides links to more than a dozen producer Web sites at www.countryham.org.

Virginia (Smithfield) Baked Ham

1 Virginia country ham (about 13-15 pounds)

1 tablespoon bread crumbs

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

1 teaspoon ground cloves

Scrub the ham to remove the coating of seasonings and cover with water. Soak for 24 hours, changing the water often. Place the ham, skin side down, in a large roasting pan with enough fresh water to cover by a few inches. Simmer at 255 degrees, 20-25 minutes per pound. When cooked, skin the ham and trim off the excess fat.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, bread crumbs, and cloves.

To finish the ham: Heat the oven to 375 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, bread crumbs, and cloves. Press this mixture into the ham.

In a shallow baking pan, place the ham and bake for 15 minutes, or until the sugar melts. Remove the ham from the oven and drizzle honey, sherry, or sweet-pickle vinegar over it. Return to the oven for 15 minutes. Serve garnished with brandied peaches or any spiced fruit.

Serves 30 to 40.

The Country Ham Store, www.country-hamstore.com

Country Ham

1 country (dry cured) ham (about 13 pounds)

1 liter Dr. Pepper

1 cup sweet pickle juice, optional

Unwrap ham and scrub off any surface mold (if you hung in a sack for 6 months you'd have mold too). Carefully remove hock with hand saw. (If this idea makes you eye your first aid kit, ask your butcher to do it. But make sure you keep the hock, it's the best friend collard greens ever had.)

Place ham in cooler and cover with clean water. Stash the cooler in the bushes. If it's summer, throw in some ice. If it's freezing out, keep the cooler inside. Change the water twice a day for two days turning the ham each time.

Heat oven to 400 degrees.

Place ham in a large disposable turkey-roasting pan and add enough Dr. Pepper to come about halfway up the side of the ham. Add pickle juice if you've got it and tent completely with heavy-duty foil. Cook for 30 minutes then reduce heat to 325 degrees, and cook another 1½ hours.

Turn the ham over, insert an oven safe thermometer (probe-style is best) and cook another 1½ hours, or until the deepest part of the ham hits 140 degrees (about 15-20 minutes per pound total).

Let rest 30 minutes then slice paper-thin. Serve with biscuits or soft yeast rolls.

Serves 30 to 40.

Cooks note: Even after soaking, country ham is quite salty, so thin slicing is mandatory. If you're a bacon fan, however, cut a thicker (¼-inch) slice and fry it up for breakfast.

Alton Brown, host of "Good Eats" on Food Network

Tomato and Onion Glaze

1 tablespoon butter or margarine

2 tablespoons finely chopped onion

1 can (8 ounces) tomato sauce

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

In a small saucepan over medium heat, melt the butter or margarine. Add the chopped onion and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in tomato sauce, brown sugar and Worcestershire sauce, then bring to a boil.

Reduce heat and simmer until glaze thickens, about 5 minutes. Use the sauce to glaze a ham, basting as desired.

Makes about 1 cup

Cook's note: If you double the recipe, you can use it as gravy.

"The Good Housekeeping Cookbook" (2007 Hearst Books)

Roasted Fresh Ham With Simmered Sauerkraut

2 tablespoons dried sage

1 teaspoon kosher salt

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 fresh butt-end ham (6-7 pounds)

3 cloves garlic, cut into slivers

1½ cups chicken broth

6 tablespoons butter, melted

2 teaspoons dry mustard

1 tablespoon lemon juice

4 small yellow onions, quartered

Arrange an oven rack in the lower third of the oven. Heat oven to 450 degrees.

In a small bowl, combine the sage, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Using your hands, rub the sage mixture onto the outside of the ham.

Using the tip of a knife, puncture the roast all over to produce dozens of little holes about ¾-inch deep. Insert the slivered garlic into the holes.

Using a knife to score the ham, making ¼-inch deep slashes about 2-inches apart.

Place the ham in a large roasting pan, fat-side up. Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce heat to 325 degrees.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl make a basting liquid by combining the chicken broth, melted butter, dry mustard and lemon juice.

After the ham has been in the oven for an hour, add the onions to the pan, then baste the ham using some of the chicken broth mixture. Continue cooking, basting every 30 minutes, until the ham reaches an internal temperature of 155 degrees (plan about 25 minutes per pound).

Remove the ham from the oven and transfer to a cutting board. Cover the ham loosely with foil and let rest for 20 minutes. Discard the onions and de-fat the pan drippings and use to make a gravy. Slice the ham and serve with simmered sauerkraut.

Serves eight to 10.

Cook's note: To make a beautiful rich gravy for this roast, combine 2 tablespoons fat from the drippings with 2 tablespoons flour and cook over low heat, stirring constantly, for 2 to 3 minutes. Whisk in the rest of the de-fatted drippings and bring to a gently boil until the gravy thickens. If you want extra gravy you can add some chicken broth to pad the mixture.

Jim Romanoff, Associated Press

Simmered Sauerkraut

3 pounds sauerkraut, drained

3½ cups chicken broth

1 medium yellow onion, chopped

1 teaspoon juniper berries

½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

In a medium saucepan with a lid, combine the sauerkraut, chicken broth, onion, juniper berries and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce to low. Cover and simmer 2 to 3 hours. Serve with roasted fresh ham.

Serves 12.

Cook's note: Juniper berries give the dish a distinctive flavor, but if you can't find them just omit them.

Jim Romanoff, Associated Press

Ginger Ale Glaze

1 boneless ham, 3-4 pounds

1 cup white wine

2½ tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 tablespoons molasses

Pinch cayenne pepper

2 cups ginger ale

2 tablespoons honey

Heat oven to 300 degrees. Place the ham in a roasting pan.

In a medium saucepan, combine the wine, mustard, molasses and cayenne pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the ginger ale. Pour the glaze over the ham. Bake for 1½ hours.

Increase oven temperature to 325 degrees. Bake for another hour, basting the ham every 15 minutes.

Brush the ham with honey. Bake, basting every 15 minutes, until the ham is well glazed, about another 30 minutes. Slice and serve.

Serves eight to 10.

"The Deen Bros. Cookbook" by Jamie Deen and Bobby Deen

(2007 Meredith Books)