Hi my name is Garrett Scott and I like ham. I like country ham, I like city ham, and I love eating ham! This evening I will be informing you about some of the differences between wet cured city hams and dry cured country hams.

This first difference is that city hams are usually made using a wet cure and the traditional country ham is usually dry cured. That’s the easiest way for me to remember the difference! I can eat city ham without water because it is full of moisture, but if I eat country ham, I’m going to need something to drink because it is drier.

Although city ham is now much more common throughout the country, did you know that dry curing started over several hundred years ago? It was a much safer method of food preservation before the days of refrigeration. It doesn’t matter if you like the wet, city ham, or the dry cured country ham, both types of ham use the hind leg of a pig. This is referred to as a green ham. It’s not really green when you begin, that just means that it is fresh, or close to its natural state. A green ham is a ham in its most basic form. It’s been trimmed and cleaned, but it has not been cooked, smoked, or cured.

First off , A dry-cured country ham is the traditional way of curing a ham. This method has been around for many hundreds of years and even dates back to before the 1500’s! It consists of a dry cure without the use of water. the cure is often made of salt and spices to preserve the ham. The salt and spices are rubbed into the large center portion of the green ham, and then the hock and the skin of the ham. After putting all the mixture on the ham, the ham is often wrapped in butcher paper and placed in a meat sock so that it can be hung to air dry.

It’s important that the drying ham is able to drip and rid itself of the natural moisture that is present in green hams. Be sure when you wrap the meat sock around the ham that you but make sure the seam of the socks is at the hock, otherwise your ham will be upside down and may not cure properly. After salting and wrapping, the next step is to hang the ham in a secure location. You may use a dedicated ham barn, garage, corn crib, or even a basement. The average shelf life of a cured country is about 1 year. The labeling of the dry cured country ham will have the salt and spices or ingredients of the ham.

Overall, the ham must contain at least 4 percent salt to be labeled a country ham. Only USDA Hams can be sold to the public. Country ham labels will also include the finished weight of the cured ham, which will be much less than the beginning weight since the salt and spices dried the ham out, as well as the price per pound of the cured country ham.

Second, A wet cured country ham is referred to as a city ham or a wet ham. A wet ham is made by soaking the green ham in a water-salt mixture. You can also inject the ham with spices to create a bold flavor. The injection is referred to as brine. After you put your brine on you city ham you can put the ham in a plastic bag. Then place the ham and the bag then you in the refrigerator for about 3 weeks.

After the ham has cured in the refrigerator for 3 weeks, the ham is ready to be cooked. You may want to cook the ham in the oven or even smoke the ham for extra flavor. After it is cooked, the shelf life of the ham is about 1 year. When you select your city ham at the grocery be sure to pay close attention to the labeling. The label of the city ham will have the price per pound, how the ham was cooked and usually what flavor the ham is. My favorite is the honey ham in my local deli.

MEADE COUNTY 4-H YOUTH COUNTRY HAM AUCTION - Online Bidding Only Ends Wed., Oct. 12th @ 5:00 PM EDT