A Big Ham

Hubby loves spiral ham.  He has wanted me to pick one up for a while now but I’ve been holding out because they’re so huge and there are only two of us. Plus, they’re twenty bucks and up and you’re paying for a bone!  

This weekend I threw one into the buggy but it got me thinking: what’s so different about a spiral ham? And why do I have to pour 8 ounces of water from the packaging?  Oh yeah, in addition to the bone, you’re also paying for water.  And after I looked into it I’m not so sure I’m down with the ham on the spiral.

Spiral ham is basically just a bone-in ham (upper leg) that’s been infused with a salty brine and allowed to sit until the meat gets tenderized. So not only is there a lot of water, there’s a ton of extra salt. So what’s regular ham?  It’s the same cut but with the bone removed, no brine is introduced but a shmushing together takes place. Sometimes ground ham-like particles are also put in to fill in the empty spots. That explains the uneven terrain of a slice of ham.

Do most people know this? We were both completely ignorant of the ham processing process.  The more I know about my food, the less appealing it becomes. All of this ham education has made me want to eat chicken. Please don’t tell me more about chicken than I already know.