I scored a big ol' "half shank" ham (12lbs) fer $1 lb. Sure, it's an
"already cooked" and "water added" slug, but the price wuz right. I
jes wanna use it fer ham n' beans, sides, stir-fry, etc. I'm parting
the sucker up into 3rds and will probably freeze two sections and
roast the bone section, then freeze roasted meat for later. Or should
I roast all three sections, now, then freeze? I wuz gonna pressue
cook the other two sections, but my roasting pan is big enough for
all.

First thing I did was cut off was about 2lbs of fat. Can I render
this down for lard? What? Jes put in big pot and let sizzle till I
get cracklin's and lard?

Never dealt with such a big lump o' ham. All suggestions
welcome.

nb

On Sunday, December 22, 2013 12:16:59 PM UTC-6, notbob wrote:
>
> I scored a big ol' "half shank" ham (12lbs) fer $1 lb. Sure, it's an
> "already cooked" and "water added" slug, but the price wuz right. I
> jes wanna use it fer ham n' beans, sides, stir-fry, etc. I'm parting
> the sucker up into 3rds and will probably freeze two sections and
> roast the bone section, then freeze roasted meat for later. Or should
> I roast all three sections, now, then freeze? I wuz gonna pressue
> cook the other two sections, but my roasting pan is big enough for
> all.
>
>
> First thing I did was cut off was about 2lbs of fat. Can I render
> this down for lard? What? Jes put in big pot and let sizzle till I
> get cracklin's and lard?
>
>
> Never dealt with such a big lump o' ham. All suggestions
> welcome.
>
> nb

>
>
I would just cook one piece at a time and freeze the other two portions. As for rendering the fat, I'd cut it into cubes and fry it to get the fat out and produce cracklings.

On 12/22/2013 12:16 PM, notbob wrote:
> I scored a big ol' "half shank" ham (12lbs) fer $1 lb. Sure, it's an
> "already cooked" and "water added" slug, but the price wuz right. I
> jes wanna use it fer ham n' beans, sides, stir-fry, etc. I'm parting
> the sucker up into 3rds and will probably freeze two sections and
> roast the bone section, then freeze roasted meat for later. Or should
> I roast all three sections, now, then freeze? I wuz gonna pressue
> cook the other two sections, but my roasting pan is big enough for
> all.
>
> First thing I did was cut off was about 2lbs of fat. Can I render
> this down for lard? What? Jes put in big pot and let sizzle till I
> get cracklin's and lard?
>
> Never dealt with such a big lump o' ham. All suggestions
> welcome.
>
> nb


I would roast it whole, cut side down. Then break it apart.

You can render the fat, but it's more like bacon grease than lard. The
bones will make a really good stock for flavoring beans.

Bob

notbob wrote in rec.food.cooking:

> I scored a big ol' "half shank" ham (12lbs) fer $1 lb. Sure, it's an
> "already cooked" and "water added" slug, but the price wuz right. I
> jes wanna use it fer ham n' beans, sides, stir-fry, etc. I'm parting
> the sucker up into 3rds and will probably freeze two sections and
> roast the bone section, then freeze roasted meat for later. Or should
> I roast all three sections, now, then freeze? I wuz gonna pressue
> cook the other two sections, but my roasting pan is big enough for
> all.
>
> First thing I did was cut off was about 2lbs of fat. Can I render
> this down for lard? What? Jes put in big pot and let sizzle till I
> get cracklin's and lard?
>
> Never dealt with such a big lump o' ham. All suggestions
> welcome.
>
> nb

Smile, a decent find! Granted the meat on that type isnt the best but
it will work well in a crock pot of beans. Apt to do soups pretty well
and buried in cheesy cassaroles will work.

Ok, on the fat. You have a perfect use if you have a grinder and want
to make ground beef from cheap 'london broil', (not a real cut but they
call it that. It's that almost zero marbeling meat cut that is tough
as nails unless cooked just right). It's so lean, you need to add fat
as you grind it to get a good ground beef. Grin, it's so lean it
doesn't make an optimal jerkey.

Weigh the meat then add 10% of that fat. This needs to be the fat
without the skin. Save the skin parts and make cracklings of that and
use like you would add bacon bits to things (keep excess in the fridge
and top cassaroles with it where it will bake crispy again or add to
real cornbread). I generally will add about 1/8 cup of this fat to 2
cups cut meat by eyeball then grind it.

The result is a very good flavored ground beef for not much more than
2$ a lb. It runs 5.99lb here for store preground.

I freeze the excess fat cap material for later ground beef batches as I
tend to have more fatcap at once than I can use but later when not
ready to get a pork part with it, I run out when making ground beef
unless i saved the excess.

The fat you get back when you render the skin, is exactly what is used
for the best true cornbreads of the south. In fact, the real recipes
render that then remove the cracklings for other uses (cooks treat!)
then the cornbread is poured into the cast iron pan with it's 1/4 or so
cup of fat and baked in the cast iron pan.

Yum! Thats southern version though, almost no relation to the softer
sweeter northern versions like Jiffy mix. Grin, no, I don't hate
those. It's just that it's not at all the same thing. If you tried a
Northern recipe for this like a jiffy mix, it would be a greasy
disaster.

I suggest (though it's too late) the meat at 12 lbs be split to 2 lb
portions roughly. The reason is this type is very useful at that level
when mixed with other things (bean pot, soups etc) but at 4 lb or so
splits, you may find spoilage is an issue before you use it all once
defrosted.

It's actually a very workable meat in a crockpot or cassarole. Will
work decently in scrambled eggs too with potatoes, mushrooms and bell
peppers. 2 TB roughly minced will enhance a pot of green beans.

Partly frozen and ground at the biggest setting, it makes a decent
minced meat for a ham salad (add your choice of condiments, I like
mayo, brown mustard and a hint of horseradish plus crunchy bits of
daikon and celery).

Smile, I've used everything from the sublime to a canned DAK ham in my
cookery. Generally the less expensive cuts are still good stuff, just
require knowing what to do with them.

Grin, if wondering on the canned ham, I was in Japan when a Tbone was
4.99lb here stateside and 19.99lb there. We even had '60% lean' ground
beef at the commisarry. I saw a standing rib roast at 34$lb in 2002.
No, that is not a joke.

Carol

--

On 2013-12-23, cshenk > wrote:
>
> Smile, a decent find! Granted the meat on that type isnt the best but
> it will work well in a crock pot of beans. Apt to do soups pretty well
> and buried in cheesy cassaroles will work.

Thanks for the very informative post.

I cut the beast into thirds and roasted it. Not as much water as I
anticipated. Bagged it all up into pot-o'-beans and casserole portions and froze
all. The fat rendering didn't turn out so well. I left too much meat
on and between the skin and the smoking brine, had my fat rendering
pan carmelizing/fonding up far to much to render clear lard. I tossed
the entire batch. I'll be more careful next time.

Today, I further experiment with my now renown (locally) mac n'
cheese. Natch, it includes fine onions and ham.

I think the béchamel sauce I use has much to do with it. So will be
concentrating on that. Here are a couple interesting U2B vids I ran
across on making a good béchamel:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3RnN2itZj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7oqeiXPzjE

I'm thinking I could sub ham bits for the veal in Escoffier's sauce.
This guy's blog and vids are very good.

https://stellaculinary.com/

nb

Those usually turn out real edible on the smoker. Cook at around 250 with a lot of smoke..eat when it hits 160 internal. They pass for twice smoked hams among the bbq crowd. Person can do the same thing in the oven..just set it up on a rack so it its not poaching itself in water and fat.