Ham ham ham ham

November 28, 2008 1:23 PM

What happened to my ham?

I cooked a 9.7 pound ham yesterday, following this recipe. The ham came out very, very dry. It was white and not pink. It didn't slice like ham, it was more like pulled pork. I am quite sure this ham was not pre-cooked.

It was tasty enough, and people ate plenty of it, but I just wonder why it wasn't very ham-like.

posted by samph to Food & Drink (5 answers total)

Sounds overcooked. You oven temperature may be off.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 1:28 PM on November 28, 2008

Best answer: Did you actually use a ham? Are you sure you didn't have a "fresh ham"--ie, uncured pork leg?
posted by neroli at 1:29 PM on November 28, 2008 [1 favorite]

The same thing happened to a friend of ours-- it was most likely a "fresh ham", as neroli mentioned.
posted by gregvr at 1:45 PM on November 28, 2008

Yeah, sounds like you started with an uncured, fresh leg o' pork.

The pink hamminess of ham isn't from cooking: It's from curing and salting. The USDA has a fact sheet that lays all this out.

In general, recipes from cooks.com range from hit-and-miss to absolutely absurd. This particular one needed to be more specific; the recipe assumed that you would be starting with a cured ham, but the recipe should have told you that.
posted by purpleclover at 2:11 PM on November 28, 2008

Response by poster: Good call people. That was surely it. Lesson learned. Thanks.
posted by samph at 12:14 AM on November 29, 2008