Sheldon > wrote in news:636e1636-d405-4a01-81fd-
:

> "Nancy Young" wrote:
>> Sheldon wrote:
>> > "Nancy Young" wrote:
>> >> I didn't write this letter to Cook's Country:
>>
>> >> Many years ago, when I was throwing my first dinner party,
>> >> I wanted to serve ham. I had forgotten the brand of ham
>> >> my mother usually bought, and I didn't really have a clue
>> >> how to make her candied ham, but I decided to improvise.
>> >> I took the large ham out of the can, scraped off the jelly,
>> >> spread mustard and brown sugar on the top, and then
>> >> covered the top with pineapple rings. After baking it for a
>> >> few hours, I took the ham out to serve to my hungry guests.
>> >> It looked a little strange because all the toppings had fallen
>> >> off the ham and into the pan. My husband soon found out
>> >> why when he went to carve the ham. The ham was still
>> >> encased in plastic!
>> > Ahem, what brand... and why pray tell would there be gelatin
*outside*
>> > the plastic??? �If by "Cook's Country" you mean "Cook's" brand
> ham
>> > they don't have a canned ham.http://cooksham.com/pages/products/
>>
>> Cook's Country is a magazine put out by the Cook's Illustrated
>> company, AKA America's Test Kitchen.
>>
>> > I've prepared a lot of canned ham, I mean a LOT, and many different
>> > brands, and over many years... and I never saw a canned ham in
plastic
>> > wrap...
>>
>> (laugh) �Understand, it happened to me, years ago. �Very
>> discouraging. �Yes, some hams come out of the can with a
>> shrink wrapped plastic bag on it. �Invisible if you don't know
>> it's there.
>>
>> Back then that's how I thought of ham, it came in a can with a
>> key.
>
> I wish you could remember which brand. Way back then, when canned ham
> opened with that key, plastic shrink wrap hadn't been invented yet.
> It wasn't until the '60s that foods became available with plastic
> packaging, previously folks brought their own glass jars when they
> shopped because delis and such only had paper containers, and they
> charged extra for the crumby paper container, was actually a Dixie cup
> thingie, within a few hours they began to seep through, there were no
> plastic containers... butcher shops still hadn't begun selling
> prepackaged meat in styrofoam trays with cling wrap, adn all beverages
> were in glass bottles or steel cans. It wasn't until the late '50s
> that plastic film wrap began to appear in home kitchens and really
> didn't become popular until the '60s... previously folks mostly used
> waxed paper, aluminum foil was available much earlier but was too
> expensive yet for common usage... during the '50s-'60s folks washed
> and reused aluminum foil. I've been racking my brain but I can't
> come up with any canned ham where the ham was/is inside the can and
> inside a plastic shrink wrap... I've never seen that. And I still
> can't fathom why the gelatine would be between the can and the
> plastic, serves no purpose, makes no sense whatsoever... are you sure
> you're not having a flash back to a child birth nightmare... I can
> just see Nancy where her water broke, all that gelatin came gushing
> out and she gave birth to a beautiful pink eight pound canned ham in a
> plastic sack... those cans must hurt, now I know why they designed
> them with that egg shape. heheh Probably named him Armour Star Young!
> LOL
>
> http://www.armour-eckrich.com/hamrecipes.asp
>
>
>

You are forgetting paper products coated with wax on 1 side. The idea was
that the wax prevented any seep through. Roasts etc were placed on the
butcher paper in the display counter window and when purchased wrapped in
the wax coated brown paper for you to take home. These days there the
waxed butcher paper and also the plastic coated brown paper which is for
freezer use.

At my butchers today I can ask for my meat to be wrapped in either. It is
an old meat locker plant...from the days when home freezers weren't
readily availible and familys rented freezer space from the meat lockers.
You could also buy whole or sections of beef or pig from these places and
have them cut and wrap it for storage in your rented space. The place I
frequent used to make bitchin deer sausage in the late 50's and early
60's.

I have seen and eaten (in the late 60's or early 70's) canned ham wrapped
in waxed paper that was semi-transparent. These hams came in the cans with
keys. Purchased somewhere in North Dakota in a Piggly Wiggly (possibly
spelt wrong) on a camping trip to mount rushmore.

Other products were sold this way ... canned bacon was canned wrapped in
waxed paper, comes to mind.

As to plastic wrapped hams...I haven't bought a canned ham for a looong
time and have never seen any, that I remember.

--

The beet goes on -Alan