It Is Not A Deal Unless You Know What To Do With It

I was in Kroger a couple of weeks ago when I saw it.  It was huge.  It was beautiful.  It was cheap.  It was something I have never done before.  Because I love a good challenge, I picked it up.  A Burgers’ blue label, brown sugar cured country ham.  The label proclaimed it’s weight to be a hefty 18.65 pounds.  At right around a dollar a pound, I knew I had scored a deal.  I brought it home and put it in the freezer.  Then buyer’s remorse set in.  I did not know how to cook it.  I don’t particularly care for country ham.  When I eat it, I feel like I may as well be chewing on a salt block.  But, my wonderful husband loves it so, I decided that I could cook it and have a ton in the freezer for him and his biscuits.  

I called around to a few people and did some searching via Swagbucks and came up with a plan.   The directions on the Burger’s website said to thaw it overnight on the counter.  I put it on the countertop next to the roaster over and went to bed.  The next morning I unwrapped it.  In the packaging I found a slightly smelly, dark colored, slightly moldy ham.  And a full color brochure!  With instructions!  

So, as you can see, it was pretty icky looking.  I put it in the sink.  The directions said to scrub it with a stiff brush.  My mama said to ‘wash the tar out of it.’  So I gave it a long bath and washed it and washed it.  When I thought it was clean, I scrubbed it again.

I put it in the roaster.  I was cooking it in the roaster oven that sits on the counter top.  The instructions said to fill the roaster with water until it was two inches from the top and roast it uncovered.  I decided those instructions did not apply to me because I was not using the oven on the stove.  So, at this point I was unsure of what to do.  I called the 800 number on the brochure.  A very nice lady answered the phone and gave some very good instructions on how to proceed.  She was very patient in answering all of my questions.  I put a couple of inches of water and a cup of molasses in the roaster with the ham, set the temp to 250 degrees, put the lid on it, and planned to ignore it for the next nine hours or so.  Of course I could not resist peeking at it every so often.  But for the most part I was able to leave it alone.  When it started to look like this seven hours later:

I took it’s temperature.  165 degrees.  Done.  I cut it all off the bone and gave it a taste.  I was prepared for that salty, ‘off’ taste that country hams tend to have.  To my surprise, it did not have it!  It was really, really good!  I served it for supper.  Everyone loved it.  I put the rest into freezer bags and put them into the freezer.  I am glad that I took the chance and got it.  I am mostly glad that this did not turn out to be one of those horror stories that get passed around the table at thanksgiving.  My husband has some for his biscuits but he will have to share!