The Hubby has a smoker–one of those big ugly black cylindrical barrel-looking grills. He is a master at pulled pork and beer can chicken. He has smoked turkeys for Thanksgiving, and they have been divine. This past year for Turkey Day, we decided to try our hand at making ham, and it was amazing! You have never seen meat devoured so quickly! 10 pounds was gone in a matter of minutes. So naturally, when Easter rolled around this year, and we found out we’d be having family in town, we got excited to recreate that delectable dish.
Last weekend, I set the Hubby on a quest for fresh ham–that is, raw uncured pork leg. He called our go-to grocery store, where we got the meat last November. The very nice man in the meat department told him, “I am sorry, sir. We only carry fresh ham for holidays.” Ummm… have you heard of Easter??? So he made another call. At the buy-in-bulk store, the very nice man in the meat department referred him to the deli. So he made another call. And another. And another. The best answer we got was that it could be ordered for us, and that it would be here in three to four days. (And that it would cost three to four times what we paid for it in November.) Not gonna work. Fresh pork has to be cured in order to turn it into ham. We cured the 10 pounder for 5 days. (more…)
Raising the Root 