Can anyone suggest the best type and "brand" of ham to buy please. Bone in, rolled etc
harrislucinda,
Nov 28, 6:06am
x1
champagne ham is nice
karlymouse,
Nov 28, 6:13am
Shoulder ham from Leckies butchers in Dunedin.
timturtle,
Nov 28, 7:49am
From a butchers All supermarket ones are full of other stuff some have very little pork in them they have a lot of potato starch water etc please read the label
lythande1,
Nov 28, 6:17pm
Potato starch. right. Shows people have no idea how ham is made actually. I give you that "formed" ham is pretty gross, but even that has no potato anything in it. The formed ham you buy from the supermarket is made from pork that's been separated from the bone, washed, then injected with a saline solution which preserves the meat, and adds to the overall weight.
Potassium nitrate (a chemical compound found in gunpowder), sodium nitrate and sodium nitrite are also added to maintain the pink colour and keep it edible.
The meat is then churned in a giant drum to produce a meaty soup, and flavourings can be added.
The ham is put into plastic bags and cooked, which glues all the individual pieces together.
Ham on the bone? It's exactly that, and ham is made with brine, all hams on the bone.
valentino,
Nov 28, 11:26pm
Yeah, it amazes me that people buy Ham on the Bone with less bone in it than the original Ham on the Bone. Any pieces of meat on the bone has great or far better flavour as the bone is the key factor.
The original ham on the bone was when in the good old days, my parents would be able to secure a whole leg of uncooked ham on the bone in a wrapped fine cloth bag/sack is then cooked in a fire lit copper. A Copper was a huge Concrete like outer circular tub with a Copper inner that is filled with water and has an open fire under it (has a circular chimney out the back and up through the roof of home) to heat all with a lid that covers the top. They would have this fire going then place the ham into the copper and add enough water to cover the ham plus a few inches and simmer it most of the morning or the afternoon. Oh, the copper is usually in the Laundry area/room.
The strange about all of this is that the ham itself always disappeared ! LOL. Gosh, those were the days.
Cheers and nice to share this.
buzzy110,
Nov 29, 12:08am
Next time I'm in the supermarket I'll have a read of the ingredients in pressed ham. Last time I read I stopped when I got to starch and glucose. Maybe I misread because the list was boringly long.
porka1,
Dec 2, 6:09am
Still gets done that way by butchers just a lot bigger insulated boiling tubs. Legs are placed in the in the the boiler brought to the boil and then turned off .They are well insulated to retain the heat for a long period.
kindajojo,
Dec 2, 6:33am
We had an early xmas . wednesday . bpught a ham from countdown bone in, cooked, strlipped off the skin scored the fat, surprising no that much fat covered in good quality orange marmalade and brown sugar baked. Delicious . all gone by Friday . lol hot baked ham, ham sandwiches, ham and salad , ham with pineapple and the ones who just hacked off a slice and ate as is. Normally freeze the bone for pea and ham soup later in the year. but aomeone got it and nibbled it clean Even the dog was unamused at the meatless bone but enjoyed the crunch.
kindajojo,
Dec 2, 6:39am
I remeber my grandad doing that, the legs were enormous . or maybe i was just small. but a ham fed the family from xmas to after new year. We had the cotton Ham Bag We ate ham everyday so rarely had it through the rest of the year. DOnt recall having shaved ham at the supermarket way back then . or it was sliced rolled ham for ham steaks with the pineapple slice . that was waterry and expensive. The ham was one of the ' things' for christmas, we didnt have a turkey too expensive, just roast chicken, then scorched almonds and the bag of mixed nuts in the shells .
buzzy110,
Dec 2, 10:12pm
So I checked the ingredients list for Beehive and Hellers pressed ham. Combined they contained the following ingredients:
Pork, modified starch, dextrose, sugar, thickener (agar in beehive), yeast extract, preservative, water, mineral salts 450, 451 & 452.
Therefore it is entirely possible that potato starch is used for the modified starch. But even if it wasn't, it still contains starch. Oddly enough a quick glance at the list on the champagne ham slices showed an identical ingredients list.
The list was not as long as I remember.
mcdaff,
Dec 4, 8:00pm
I guess it depends how many people you have to feed as the bone in ones are usually pretty big. We like Pestell's Manuka smoked bone in ham, don't know how much of the North Island stocks Pestells (comes from Rai Valley between Nelson and Blenheim) but Pak n Save in Porirua stocks It. They do a rolled one as well.
twindizzy,
Dec 4, 9:54pm
I am after a nice ham also, not the slimey wet type but the sort of grainy (almost corned beef like) type that tears apart if that makes sense?
-would that be champagne?
illusion_,
Dec 5, 2:09am
"champagne" ham is a method of cutting (the main bone out) before curing, NOT a type of ham as such. done simply for ease of carving
twindizzy,
Dec 5, 3:03am
Thanks . I think
asue,
Dec 5, 3:19am
So . . . . . lots of info here, the best ham to buy is ? ? ?
valentino,
Dec 5, 3:25am
Uncooked. has no additives but is very rare these days.
Otherwise, go to a reputable honest family Butcher.
Next best is finding a place that really specialise in doing them and not as in Supermarket type quantities, LOL.
After that, pot luck!
Cheers
roberta2,
Dec 5, 8:52am
x1
Brand - Farmland, buy these hams a Farmlands Stores. Beautiful
timturtle,
Dec 5, 9:10am
Have you read the ingredient list ?
sue62,
Dec 6, 12:00am
Thanks very much. I will look at this brand
wasgonna,
Dec 6, 12:25am
This is from a news item some time ago . . . interesting info.
The label "imported and local ingredients" means the ham itself is from overseas, but it was packed here.
Even the Mad Butcher tells us all his hams are NZ – and pork - but that's not true at all. None of the Mad Butcher's hams are Kiwi, they're all imported from the US.
We asked other ham suppliers where their hams are from and how the pigs were farmed. Here's what they had to say.
Premier Meats, which responded for Medallion, says most ham is Canadian but processed locally. Although they're shed-farmed, the company says it's working to get higher levels of animal welfare offshore.
Gould's says its ham came from New Zealand or Canada. The pigs are intensively farmed, and Goulds doesn't support country of origin labelling.
Colonial Ham said its pork came from Canada and the pigs were shed farmed. They do support country of origin labelling.
Hellers said its pork was 100 percent New Zealand and it was free farmed.
Freshzone said its ham was from Canada, US and New Zealand.
Harmony, Freedom Farms and Black Rock are 100 percent New Zealand ham. Harmony is free-range.
Leonards didn't get back to us despite a formal, email approach.
mouse265,
Dec 6, 9:58pm
us butchers do not put potato starch in hams and the nitrite and nitrate has been banned for many years so someone is well behind the times maybe even about 40 years out of date
buzzy110,
Dec 7, 1:49am
Does that mean I should disregard the printed ingredients list on current packaging?
rainrain1,
Dec 7, 5:10am
Yes, go to a good butcher, best to ring up and order it though
porka1,
Dec 7, 5:44am
"Premier Meats, which responded for Medallion, says most ham is Canadian but processed locally. Although they're shed-farmed, the company says it's working to get higher levels of animal welfare offshore. " Good luck with that.Higher levels of animal welfare still means that it is indoor farmed as it should be. "Hellers said its pork was 100 percent New Zealand and it was free farmed". That only means that the breeding sows are outside and piglets born in outdoor huts with higher resulting mortality.Thge 4 week old weaners are then transferred to barns the same as the the majority of pigs grown for meat. "Harmony, Freedom Farms and Black Rock are 100 percent New Zealand ham. Harmony is free-range. " Sceptical about this claim as very minute number of pigs are grown outdoors. More likely to be free farmed. Was told today by a butcher some ham processors can successfully pump pork legs with 120 % added brine weight with stabilisers to retain the brine.
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