Corned Ham- Via Vivian Howard and Bill Smith

In the vein of really planning ahead this blog is for your next New Year’s Day celebration. Sometimes I have to write about things that won’t make anyone mad. No promises, but recipes tend to be less controversial material. I promise I will go back to making someone mad tomorrow.

A few weeks before Christmas I went to a fundraiser for the Food Bank that Bill Smith of Crooks Corner was having with Vivian Howard the star of the PBS series A Chef’s Life. They were showing a preview of the holiday special where Bill Smith taught Vivian how to make a Corned Ham. What? You’ve never heard of Corned Ham? Well neither had I. Actually they served us this corned ham before they told us what it was and there was quite a debate about if it was turkey or ham. This is no honey baked ham, or very salty country ham, don’t let the amount of salt in the recipe make you think so.

It is a 12-13 day process and I suggest you go right to the source by goggling Corned Ham recipe. Bill Smith seems to be the Internet authority on it so it is not hard to find. Vivian’s version is on PBS.org.

I got my fresh ham with the skin on from Cliff’s meat market in Carrboro. The over 20 pound hunk of meat cost only something like $45. That’s like $2.29 a pound. It was a good weight lifting exercise just to work with it. Good thing since it is not exactly diet friendly, but the finished product is so flavorful that you only need a little.

I followed the instructions and stabbed big holes in the Ham around the bone and stuffed it with salt and then rubbed an obscene amount of salt on the outside. I wrapped it up in the largest Tupperware container I had and left it in my garage fridge for eleven days. Then I had to wash all the salt off of it and I put it in a cooler filled with water and ice overnight to soak the rest of the salt out of it.

The cooking took over six hours and I think I overcooked it a little. Next time I will check the internal temp with a thermometer earlier in the baking. It probably did not hurt it though because the meat was still delicious. Poor Shay Shay was beside herself dancing all around me as I carved the ridiculous amount of meat off the bone. I eventually got tired and wrapped up the very meaty ham bone and put it in the freezer to be used for a future black bean soup festival.

This ham is the perfect New Year’s Day meat for those who are superstitious and think that ham and black-eyed peas need to be eaten on the first day of the year if it is going to be a good year. I am not one of those people. As far as I am concerned it is what I am not eating that determines if it is going to be a good year.

What I do think is that this corned ham makes a great addition to many dishes, from egg types, like omelets and quiche to creative sandwiches with hearty cheddar and fig jam. I of course have used it in my arugula salad with pears and blue cheese and the littlest amount of ham goes a long way in the flavor department. If you are dying to try some give me a ring. Russ begged me not to give it all away, but there is no way we can eat this much ham.